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The political split we mostly see are that of partisan reactionaries. Not the disinformation itself is powerful, it is that it is seen as manipulating millions

The political split we mostly see are that of partisan reactionaries. Not the disinformation itself is powerful, it is that it is seen as manipulating millions of people and some groups argue to remove that content. I think this is the fitting anology for the article. The act of censorship gives misinformation its power. Not because people truly believe them. Nobody did take Alex Jones selling man pills seriously. Banning him turned him into a martyr and confirms his theories that he is enemy of the state nr. 1. A self fulfilling prophecy.

tdeck 5y ago
People took Alex Jones seriously enough to harass the parents of children who were killed in school shootings. It's that kind of behavior that got him banned in the first place.
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  There are many instances of internet mobs come down on people. I think explicitly teaching that people should not believe everything they see on the net is still the best mitigation. I know that it is naive to believe that it would solve the problem. For people affected the best advice is to not engage. Only then it quickly becomes boring for the attackers and they will quickly be enraged by something else. Sucks, but I believe this is an inevitable consequence of networking everyone to each other. The old tip to not expose to much information publicly helps here too. Public personas have to handle it like in meat space, if you become too popular or infamous, you have to think about PR management. Sucks too, but I don't think there are too many alternatives. I still think this is mainly on those that actually do send the threats instead of the instigators. Even if you think of his fans as mindless drones, they do have a responsibility for themselves.
dTal 5y ago
The converse observation also holds - if people didn't take him seriously, he wouldn't have been important enough to ban. The fact is that people do take him seriously, and it's a huge problem. You can ignore the problem, but the problem won't ignore you.
prancer_or_vix 5y ago
The political divide is because the institutions of power are winning. It will be and always has been the goal of those with power to deflect attacks directed at them, usually to other groups who are attacking them. For all of his faults, Biden has been extremely good at convincing the lefties that "well, we'd be back to normal now if those damn Republicans would just get vaccinated", effectively turning the normal folks on the left against the normal folks on the right instead of where the anger should be directed: toward the institutions that let millions of folks go homeless, financially and medically insecure, etc. in the face of the pandemic. The Republicans in power are, I think, a little better at playing this game: they whip their base into a furor over the group in power but only in such a way as they (those already with power) still come out on top. The people are angry at the right group, but for the wrong reasons (and really just to further the agenda of the _worst_ people).

tdeck 5y ago

People took Alex Jones seriously enough to harass the parents of children who were killed in school shootings. It's that kind of behavior that got him banned in the first place.

raxxorrax 5y ago
There are many instances of internet mobs come down on people. I think explicitly teaching that people should not believe everything they see on the net is still the best mitigation. I know that it is naive to believe that it would solve the problem. For people affected the best advice is to not engage. Only then it quickly becomes boring for the attackers and they will quickly be enraged by something else. Sucks, but I believe this is an inevitable consequence of networking everyone to each other. The old tip to not expose to much information publicly helps here too. Public personas have to handle it like in meat space, if you become too popular or infamous, you have to think about PR management. Sucks too, but I don't think there are too many alternatives. I still think this is mainly on those that actually do send the threats instead of the instigators. Even if you think of his fans as mindless drones, they do have a responsibility for themselves.

dTal 5y ago

The converse observation also holds - if people didn't take him seriously, he wouldn't have been important enough to ban. The fact is that people do take him seriously, and it's a huge problem. You can ignore the problem, but the problem won't ignore you.

prancer_or_vix 5y ago

The political divide is because the institutions of power are winning. It will be and always has been the goal of those with power to deflect attacks directed at them, usually to other groups who are attacking them. For all of his faults, Biden has been extremely good at convincing the lefties that "well, we'd be back to normal now if those damn Republicans would just get vaccinated", effectively turning the normal folks on the left against the normal folks on the right instead of where the anger should be directed: toward the institutions that let millions of folks go homeless, financially and medically insecure, etc. in the face of the pandemic. The Republicans in power are, I think, a little better at playing this game: they whip their base into a furor over the group in power but only in such a way as they (those already with power) still come out on top. The people are angry at the right group, but for the wrong reasons (and really just to further the agenda of the _worst_ people).