To me, all of these undermine the Conservative project as a legitimate intellectual discourse.
- How new local news sources are not what they appear to be; Epoch Times; my rule of thumb about reliable news sources;
- How the Heritage Foundation is spreading deceptive videos;
- How YouTubers are easy to dupe;
- How right-wing social media stars are unwitting mouthpieces of Russian propaganda;
- How Trump uses the Gish Gallop;
- How Republicans are fine with election intimidation, in Florida.
If there are no rational arguments for your side of a political issue, what do you do? And if you did have rational arguments, why would you do these things? (Let me guess: because the people don’t realize what danger they’re in, and must be roused into action by a little exaggeration… by the people who Know Better.)
The first item two days ago in this post would be our first example.
Then this:
NY Times, 4 Sep 2024: Iran Emerges as a Top Disinformation Threat in U.S. Presidential Race, subtitled “With a flurry of hacks and fake websites, Iran has intensified its efforts to discredit American democracy and possibly tip the race against former President Donald Trump.”
The key point is this, the opening paragraphs:
A website called Savannah Time describes itself as “your trusted source for conservative news and perspectives in the vibrant city of Savannah.” Another site, NioThinker, wants to be “your go-to destination for insightful, progressive news.” The online outlet Westland Sun appears to cater to Muslims in suburban Detroit.
None are what they appear to be. Instead, they are part of what American officials and tech company analysts say is an intensifying campaign by Iran to sway this year’s American presidential election.
The same must be true for any novel news source in any neighborhood. (My supermarket sells copies of Epoch Times alongside San Francisco Chronicle and USA Today. Who is behind Epoch Times? I checked it out a while back. It’s nationwide, actually.)
My rule of thumb would be: consider provenance. Do you know who are behind these sources? Don’t be gullible, or easily played. In general, unless you have reason to think otherwise, trust news sources that existed before the internet, or even cable TV. And if you have reason to think otherwise, then be very careful.
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Another about deliberate lies.
NY Times, 7 Sep 2024: Heritage Foundation Spreads Deceptive Videos About Noncitizen Voters, subtitled “The right-wing think tank has been pushing misinformation about voting into social media feeds. The Georgia secretary of state’s office called one video ‘a stunt.'”
Caption to the photo: “Once a staid think tank, the Heritage Foundation has recently made its mark seeding falsehoods about the integrity of the 2024 election across social media and conservative news outlets.”
Again, why do they need to do this, if the facts of the matter are on their side?
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Because too many people are too easily duped. Especially if you tell them stories they want to believe.
The Atlantic, Charlie Warzel, 6 Sep 2024: YouTubers Are Almost Too Easy to Dupe, subtitled “No wonder Russia finds its useful idiots among the extremely online.”
The piece begins:
Perhaps the most accurate cliché is that if a deal appears too good to be true, then it probably is.
To wit: If a “private investor” of unknown origin approaches you through an intermediary, offering you $400,000 a month to make “four weekly videos” for a politically partisan website and YouTube page, you may want to attempt to follow the money to make certain you’re not being paid by a foreign government as a propagandist. And if you do attempt a bit of due diligence and ask after the identity of your private investor, you might want to double-check that he or she is a real person. For example, if your intermediary sends you a hastily Photoshopped résumé featuring a stock photo of a well-coiffed man looking wistfully out the window of a private jet, it is possible that the “accomplished finance professional” who is “deeply engaged in business and philanthropy, leveraging skills and resources to drive positive impact” may, in fact, be a fake man with a fake name.
Remember PT Barnum: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
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OK, so maybe these folk have been duped into lying.
CNN, Hadas Gold, 7 Sep 2024: How some of the biggest right-wing social media stars became unwitting mouthpieces of Russian propaganda
This is about an outfit called Tenet Media, and right-wing “talent” like “Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Lauren Southern, Tayler Hansen, Matt Christiansen and Dave Rubin.”
I won’t quote the piece. It’s been acknowledged for some time (despite accusations that this situation shows that liberals believe in conspiracy theories too) that there was no “collusion” between the Trump team and the Russians — if only because Trump’s team wasn’t ever smart enough to pull it off — but that doesn’t mean conservatives outlets haven’t been played by the Russians. Maybe because they’re not smart enough to realize they’ve been played. (They’re too easily lured by stories they want to believe are true.)
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This one is partly about lying, and partly a dishonest rhetorical tactic invented by someone with an anti-science axe to grind. (We’ve mentioned this one before.)
LA Times, Lorraine Ali, 5 Sep 2024: Column: How Trump uses the ‘Gish Gallop’ to flood debates with lies and nonsense
GG, as I’ve come to call it, is a shell game/debate tactic that takes its name from Duane Gish, a prominent figure in the creationist movement who deployed dubious arguments, selective factoids and rapid-fire lies to overwhelm his opponents in public discussions about the theory of evolution.
The disinformation technique, dubbed the Gish Gallop in 1994 by the National Center for Science Education’s founding director, Eugenie Scott, is essentially the art of burying one’s opponent in falsehoods, outlandish rhetoric and red herrings, making it nearly impossible for them to cut through the subterfuge and correct the lies within the timed confines of a debate.
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And Trump complains about election “interference,” by simply being held accountable for the crimes he’s been accused of. How about election intimidation? Republicans are apparently fine with that.
The New Republic, Edith Olmsted, 6 Sep 2024: Florida Goes Full Police State Over Abortion Ballot Initiative
Florida is reportedly sending police officers to the homes of people who signed a petition supporting an abortion rights ballot initiative.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration has begun investigating thousands of verified signatures that helped to put a state constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion on the ballot in November. The amendment would overturn Florida’s current six-week abortion ban.
Under Republicans, America is getting more and more Orwellian.
