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Elite disinformation is a far greater problem than fake news on Twitter

8 points by jruohonen 3y ago

jruohonen 3y ago
"The truth is not whatever we believe or perceive it to be. But the trouble with post-modernism is that it can become self-fulfilling. When those in positions of power decide the truth can be whatever they wish were the case, the floodgates open. Now it is not clear they can ever be closed, and that spells grave danger for all of us."
- nonrandomstring 3y ago
  > those in positions of power decide the truth can be whatever they wish were the case In my lifetime and political growth I first noticed this in the Bush/Blair era, and to cope with it I made a distinction between power and authority that still serves me well today. Any idiot with a gun can take power. An "authority" must earn its legitimacy. Most people in political life today understand and seek only power. They are indifferent to truth because they know legitimacy is on the back-foot in our time. Legitimate authority was hard won, but too easy to destroy by any mudslinger or shrill. Today the gun is unnecessary. Any idiot with control over a DNS server, and ISP, a corporate or university IT system., or a social media technology can hold truth to ransom. The digital world needs to imagine new forms of legitimacy.
dagelf 3y ago
I wonder how many levels deep the optimum is, or how a news site could be constructed that filtered journalists based on some quiz or something... Probably most of what we read is attributed or presented out of context. But if we read the sources of those, we probably sometimes get closer to some vestige of objectivity. We probably never get to the truth, but maybe at level 3 or 4 we are at least more informed than probably 90% or more of the world. I mean, even the original sources are probably usually misinformed. Maybe that's all that reality is: a labyrinth of misinformation, with an exit ... somewhere... maybe it's even a labyrinth we loved, and chose to play, perhaps not realizing the odds or implications.

8 points by jruohonen 3y ago

"The truth is not whatever we believe or perceive it to be. But the trouble with post-modernism is that it can become self-fulfilling. When those in positions of power decide the truth can be whatever they wish were the case, the floodgates open. Now it is not clear they can ever be closed, and that spells grave danger for all of us."

nonrandomstring 3y ago
> those in positions of power decide the truth can be whatever they wish were the case In my lifetime and political growth I first noticed this in the Bush/Blair era, and to cope with it I made a distinction between power and authority that still serves me well today. Any idiot with a gun can take power. An "authority" must earn its legitimacy. Most people in political life today understand and seek only power. They are indifferent to truth because they know legitimacy is on the back-foot in our time. Legitimate authority was hard won, but too easy to destroy by any mudslinger or shrill. Today the gun is unnecessary. Any idiot with control over a DNS server, and ISP, a corporate or university IT system., or a social media technology can hold truth to ransom. The digital world needs to imagine new forms of legitimacy.

dagelf 3y ago

I wonder how many levels deep the optimum is, or how a news site could be constructed that filtered journalists based on some quiz or something... Probably most of what we read is attributed or presented out of context. But if we read the sources of those, we probably sometimes get closer to some vestige of objectivity. We probably never get to the truth, but maybe at level 3 or 4 we are at least more informed than probably 90% or more of the world. I mean, even the original sources are probably usually misinformed. Maybe that's all that reality is: a labyrinth of misinformation, with an exit ... somewhere... maybe it's even a labyrinth we loved, and chose to play, perhaps not realizing the odds or implications.