Dis-misinformation. propaganda, lies, deceit and related human foibles have been around forever. The concept seems to support the rise of religion as a means of social control. We’ve repeatedly seen tragic outcomes over the years when truly sinister fuckwits get to doing it politically on a mass scale, outside the church’s confines. But things are different these days.
Politics has always been fertile ground for opportunistic liars plying disinformation supporting their elections in various ways. Whether it’s mudslinging against opponents or tugging single-issue voter heart strings, the talking points are always peppered with less than truth and more like total lies in many cases. The trick has always been getting the word out. Whoever commanded the newspapers were last century’s societal Chief Information Control Officers.
There used to be a premium on truth back in the day, when electronic information traveled across telegraph wires, waiting to be transcribed to paper by hand and later read by voice to crowds gathered in a town square. The price paid for truth in today’s Internet-charged infotainment ecosystem is reflected in a serious oversupply of dubious information with a resultant big drop in demand. Today’s truth is probably lucky to be worth about a penny on 1860’s dollar, when and if you can find it in politics.
Free speech becomes a whole different animal combined with ubiquitous data and broadcast communications. It should be obvious to anyone paying attentions who knows the history, that people did not think this whole Internet thing all the way through. Obfuscated and false sources make critical listening, reading and thinking more important than ever. So when the Chumpenführer and gang became the first to learn there were enough idiots with cellphones and TVs who would believe whatever they were told, it was game over in the political info-war. Simply propagandizing those right-wing groups focused on religion, white supremacy and corporate money into a voting base was trivial.
