Disinformation is the ‘threat of a generation,’ but Canada is struggling to deal with it: National security adviser::Advances in AI have pushed disinformation and misinformation campaigns to a new level of effectiveness and covertness, says Jody Thomas.
Hard to know what to do about it when the people who are the most susceptible to misinformation are often the ones who think they’re the least susceptible to misinformation.
And no I don’t just mean right wing chuds. I’ve found there’s a heavy correlation between people who are certain they are immune to propaganda and know the real truth and people who have, in fact, been conned by propaganda and misinformation. Conspiracy theorists, MLM adherents, antivax weirdos, homeopathy people … they’re all “doing their own research” so they can’t be conned.
The hubris is always a dead giveaway. A sort of Dunning-Kruger thing.
For what it’s worth I totally acknowledge that I can be and have been tricked by misinformation and propaganda.
I agree, but add that I think it’s not only hubris and ego, it’s also tying your identity to a certain group (ex: a football team) that makes u protect that group like a wolf in a wolf pack.
I’m not gonna lay it all at their doorstep because they certainly aren’t the primary actor here, but ESPN and the rise of 24/7 sports reporting have a lot to do with the extreme tribalism we’re seeing today. Being tribal within the context of sports is fairly normal and benign because it’s sports, it’s supposed to be an entertaining diversion. But because sports shows are often ratings juggernauts normal news organizations started mimicking their style of programming which adds to the tribalism.
Obviously there’s tons of other more malevolent and influential ingredients, but this never gets mentioned and as someone who spends a lot of time watching sports for about 4 months every year it’s screamingly obvious
There’s serious overlap between the right wing chuds that you mentioned and the antivax, MLM adherents and conspiracy theorists.
Without a doubt. Just saying it’s not 100% on the right.
We’re all susceptible to it however you’d have to be ignorant if you ignore how Conservatives are actively using it to shore up their base and get votes. Just look at the convoy, anti vax vote or christofascists. They’re all about that misinformation.
The left is just as bad as the right, but you are so blinded by the faith in your idiology you just admitted you can’t see it.
Yeah, good luck with that. Social media has been so compartmentalized, not just by community but by platform, that pretty much whatever platform you’re on has turned into one giant echo chamber. The Fediverse is not immune to this and pretty much any instance of size has become essentially a bunch of left-wing echo chambers that all connect to each other and downvote, ban or defederate anything even centrist. This is not to say that right-wing or centrist instances can’t exist in theory, but the current heavily and aggressively leftist state of it leads people who would make such instances to believe the Fediverse is far left by nature. The right does have places like Truth Social and Ruqqus where they do the exact same thing on their end. Frankly it’s still one thing that the “mainstream” places like Facebook, X/Twitter and Reddit do better, moderate effectively to at least put up an appearance of or attempt at neutrality, even if the communities that pop up within them are anything but neutral.
Well said.
The irony is the complete u-turn the left made in the last 30-40 years…
I just wish people could see things from a neutral standpoint, so they can see the insanity in both sides rather than clinging to the “my side is better than your side” extremism that exists these days.
Only then can we make a better world. Both sides are correct with some things and wrong in others, and it feels like very few people are aware of this.
This world isn’t so black and white, and all the nuance seems to have disappeared from people’s ability to conceptualize reality.
I can see the insanity on both sides.
But being able to see both sides doesn’t mean both sides are exactly equal all the time. They’re not.
And the truth is far from either sides ideal