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Dissent is not the same as lying. In the worst case, people conflate the two to rationalize tolerance for having no repercussions for promoting damaging lies
by Nevermark 4y ago
Dissent is not the same as lying.
In the worst case, people conflate the two to rationalize tolerance for having no repercussions for promoting damaging lies
And there can be wide gray areas where people’s perspectives, literacy of facts, or motives are too different to make a clear judgement between disagreement and reckless or intentional faslehoods.
But they are not the same
- rhino369 4y agoSure, but every government--even the generally good ones--accused dissents of lying even when they aren't. Was the Steele Report disinformation? Depends if ask you Donald Trump or the FBI. Was the Hunter biden laptop disinformation? Depends who you ask. Was "vaccines don't prevent covid" disinformation? Depends on when you ask the CDC. You could avoid a slippery slope by drawing the line at intentionally and knowingly telling a mistruth--that's essentially where US defamation laws draw the line. But that is almost never where the line is drawn. Under that definition of lying, Anti-vaxers aren't lying--they are just wrong. And on the slip side, when the government intentionally lies--masks don't work--its not disinformation--its a messaging technique.