Precisely. This practice of attributing loaded labels such as this is intellectually dishonest, yet it happens with gusto in the US today. The end result is t

Precisely. This practice of attributing loaded labels such as this is intellectually dishonest, yet it happens with gusto in the US today. The end result is that there are kneejerk reactions in the media (social, mainstream) to apply this label to information that is at odds with what you want to be the case. Rather than use hard reasoning skills to win an argument, paint the other as being disinformation. Or apply this to people with loaded labels that aren't supported by the evidence. All of this to push back on things people don't want to hear. Inconvenient and often uncomfortable bits of reality. This is a very slippery slope. Sadly we've been on our way down it for a number of years. I personally mark the beginning of this slope as the time when our lovely US mainstream media abandoned all pretense at being objective, and decided narratives of resistance made far more sense than objectively reporting. Though I can likely point further back, to 2001, and the reaction of the media to the ascension of Bush the younger. This is of course, my opinion. Doesn't make it right or wrong. It isn't mis/dis information. I am not a good/bad person for having it.