Very interesting read. I thoroughly enjoyed your breakdown of the situation and was intrigued at the insights to Swedish society. I would say that the term "misinformation," as used here and elsewhere, is lacking in definition. Considering that most people in America would say they distrust the official government account of most things it's hard to classify one set of information as "misinformation" simply because we are not really sure if what the government is telling us is the actual truth. And they're lack of willingness to even let the other information be heard is analogous to telling the American people "don't mind the man behind the curtain" which inevitably leads to us focusing on him. My memory takes me back to the 2016 election and all the claims of Russian collusion and how our election process was undermined, and now it's the other side saying that the election was undermined and there is a swift shutdown on that rhetoric. How can we say that is misinformation if we don't even look into it? (*Inset mandatory "not a Trump supporter" caveat here* lmao).
I'll return to the subjects of post-truth politics, fake news and conspiracy theories in the future. It's a huge, thorny and important topic. A great story -- especially one that aligns with our pre-established world-view -- will always have a lot of power, whether it's true or not. It's a feature of human psychology that turns out to be a vulnerability when persuasive stories are designed to mislead and amplified by algorithms built to maximize engagement.
Very interesting read. I thoroughly enjoyed your breakdown of the situation and was intrigued at the insights to Swedish society. I would say that the term "misinformation," as used here and elsewhere, is lacking in definition. Considering that most people in America would say they distrust the official government account of most things it's hard to classify one set of information as "misinformation" simply because we are not really sure if what the government is telling us is the actual truth. And they're lack of willingness to even let the other information be heard is analogous to telling the American people "don't mind the man behind the curtain" which inevitably leads to us focusing on him. My memory takes me back to the 2016 election and all the claims of Russian collusion and how our election process was undermined, and now it's the other side saying that the election was undermined and there is a swift shutdown on that rhetoric. How can we say that is misinformation if we don't even look into it? (*Inset mandatory "not a Trump supporter" caveat here* lmao).
I'll return to the subjects of post-truth politics, fake news and conspiracy theories in the future. It's a huge, thorny and important topic. A great story -- especially one that aligns with our pre-established world-view -- will always have a lot of power, whether it's true or not. It's a feature of human psychology that turns out to be a vulnerability when persuasive stories are designed to mislead and amplified by algorithms built to maximize engagement.