The article title is a bit of a misnomer. Television has been with us for about a century now, and although it was not digital until more recently, TV likewise

The article title is a bit of a misnomer. Television has been with us for about a century now, and although it was not digital until more recently, TV likewise fits the definition of “a medicine or other substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body.” Misinformation has always been a part of television, whether knowingly or not. Most people will fall down when shot: not because a bullet actually knocks you over, but because you’ve learned that that’s what happens from watching TV shows and movies. Even without that, the parallels are clear, especially if we take “drug” to mean a recreational or illicit drug. Terence McKenna (who had lots of wild ideas that must be individually evaluated; you can’t trust him) said decades ago that if there was a pill you could take that encouraged you to sit on your couch for 4+ hours a day and “blot out the real world,” they’d have made it illegal ages ago. I am not dismissing the dramatic rise of misinformation over the past decade or so. To me, it looks a lot more like the spiking of heroin with fentanyl than the heroin itself. The addiction was already present; it’s just gotten a lot more dangerous to consume.