I love this re: MISINFORMATION CRISIS and this is why I roll met eyes when some folks primary action right now is “We TRIED to TELL YOU!” Sure, you posted on platforms that specialize in censorship, misinformation dissemination and reinforcing biases, but that’s obviously… limited. - ThreadSky

alexsteed.bsky.social • 15 days ago

I love this re: MISINFORMATION CRISIS and this is why I roll met eyes when some folks primary action right now is “We TRIED to TELL YOU!” Sure, you posted on platforms that specialize in censorship, misinformation dissemination and reinforcing biases, but that’s obviously… limited.

Reposted from Michael Hobbes

Trump rode to political prominence on birtherism and spent the last month of his campaign claiming that Haitians were eating cats.

The rise of authoritarianism in America *must* be understood as a misinformation crisis.

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onbradstreetfarm.bsky.social•15 days ago

Sure…the primary issue here is racism and white nationalism. The disinformation doesn’t get a leg in without maximizing both systemic issues.

alexsteed.bsky.social•15 days ago

It is not to say that these aren’t factors, especially re: enthusiastic and militant supporters.

onbradstreetfarm.bsky.social•15 days ago

I disagree that we can simply put the rise of fascism down to disinformation because the disinformation always amounts to “you know how you’re suffering? Well it’s because of them!” The disinformation is built upon the back of racism.

alexsteed.bsky.social•15 days ago

I think a reality is we all assume everybody is getting served some narrative more or less like the one we are and are just coming to bad conclusions but the even more disconcerting reality I think is we actually have an extremely unclear picture of what narrative people are receiving.

onbradstreetfarm.bsky.social•15 days ago

Every single thing about our political landscape and country comes down to racism.

alexsteed.bsky.social•15 days ago

In no insignificant part, no doubt, though zooming out it’s about power.

alexsteed.bsky.social•15 days ago

It’s built on the backs of a lot of dynamics that pre-existed, structural and otherwise. But simple racism (while an obvious and evident factor) does not explain Trump’s evident demographic gains.

onbradstreetfarm.bsky.social•15 days ago

It doesn’t? Are you reading the FB comments on news accounts, daily? The uptick in vile is blistering.

alexsteed.bsky.social•15 days ago

Yes, absolutely. No arguments here, and accelerated in large part by a mind-boggling and intentionally obscured, endlessly tentacled multi-billion dollar misinformation machine. Again, I’m not suggesting racism does not exist or is not a factor.

alexsteed.bsky.social•15 days ago

The information ecosystem is like a fucking maze you need something beyond a level of elementary digital literacy to not get ensnared and I get annoyed when people are willfully obtuse about this, because it’s often self-serving and does little re: figuring out how to meaningfully move forward.

alexsteed.bsky.social•15 days ago

Sorry, I had to repost this. How did I accomplish so many typos? Impressive, really.

eveettinger.com•15 days ago

lolsob

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