"We have built an online media industry based on human tendencies, but now are caught in our own trap, a tunnel vision of constant distraction and lack of deep thinking.
Bertrand Russell’s oft quoted remark that “most people would rather die than think” still seems relevant to this day and it feels increasingly isolating to make an effort to slow down and think independently.- Letter writer, Financial Times, Jan. 30
The weekend WSJ editorial ('Speech and Sedition in 2021', p. A13) - as is the wont for most such editorials- again appears to make light of the need to control inciteful speech such as led to the Capitol insurrection of January 6th, e.g.
The editorial took umbrage at a WaPo opinion piece which "explained what the 1798 sedition act got right". Adding: "The law banned a wide range of speech and publication." But let's get some perspective here and note there was no internet then, and the rapid spread of toxic memes was limited by geography and individual energy. Hence, any limitation of speech and publication then would almost always be overreach. So the Journal is comparing apples and oranges. especially when it whines about "an increasing appetite for viewpoint suppression among journalists, intellectuals and Democrats."
But the calls for suppression are not of simple differing vanilla viewpoints, but rather of the vicious and viral spread of toxic memes, conspiracy ideations and beliefs, e.g. "the Dems are pedophiles who cannibalize babies for Satan" and, "Biden and Harris stole the election from Trump using mail ballots with names of dead people." All such vile venom is designed to incite violence, as we beheld with the insurrection, with even more horrific new videos of the assault now released, e.g.
Bodycam footage shows rioters attacking police during ... - CNN
www.cnn.com › videos › politics › 2021/01/29 › body-ca...www.cnn.com › videos › politics › 2021/01/29 › body-ca...
THIS is exactly the sort of insane reaction that cannot be countenanced if this Union is to be sustained, and hence the inciting speech which incepted it has to be held to account. The best way? Well, by adapting parts of the 1798 Sedition Act to current conditions. We also need, given the violence that we saw, passage of a domestic terror law specifically targeted to such individuals as shown in the bodycam video. Hence, contrary to the WSJ editorial it is not simply inveighing against "false political speech" but rather active, rage -provoking rhetoric designed to fuel and foment bloody and violent reaction. See e.g.
77 Days: Trump’s Campaign to Subvert the Election
How a Lie Stoked the Assault on the Capitol
Of course, also playing a role is the susceptibility of certain brains to such dedicated mendacity and mind viruses. Thus, the degeneration of citizens' mental faculties- including loss of critical thinking and inability to discern fake news from facts- also lies at the heart of the current political divide. More than 2 in 5 Americans regularly ingest codswallop and baseless conspiracy claptrap - believing it all without question. Even allowing it to spur them to violent action . This, while the remaining 3 in 5 at least strive to inhabit reality and the realm of facts. It is also no surprise that the former faction are overwhelmingly aligned with Donald Trump, treating him as a mendacious Messiah.
Once upon a time 50 or so years ago, shared truth existed in this country. But since the arrival of balkanized media under Roger Ailes (FOX) and right wing talk radio, there has been an ongoing fracturing of reality and shared truth - the cornerstone of a functioning democracy. Essentially, political comity no longer exists, and civility on its last legs thanks to the split in perceived reality.
Thomas Jefferson more than two centuries ago, in his Notes on Virginia, set the marker on how a newborn democracy is sustained, writing:
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are its only safe depositories. AND TO RENDER THEM SAFE, THEIR MINDS MUST BE IMPROVED." -
What Jefferson meant, in so many words, is that in order for our nation to survive we needed to have citizens whose minds are ceaselessly improved, by education, reading, and intelligent debate - based on reason not hysteria or emotion - and especially critical thinking to know the difference between truth and mendacity - say from demagogues who would destroy our nation.
The current problem is that nearly half the nation that elects representatives to congress does not see the world or politics as the other half. They see it as if reflected back from a fractured and distorted funhouse mirror. The misinformation, propaganda, outright lies piped to that half of the country through assorted exploitative media sources: FOX news, OAN, Newsmax (and the far right fringes of the internet) has become a malignancy on the body politic that has eaten away at the cohesion of our Democratic system. So unless we can find a way to get back to the same shared reality - within which minds are improved, not debased and perverted- the nation stands to be rent asunder and destroyed from within. That is the stark choice we are faced with in the current historical era - following an insurrection and domestic terror outbreak.
Things are never going to change because the anger, violence and vitriol are intertwined in the lives of a segment of citizens inhabiting an ALT-reality. That ALT-reality is fictitious, based as it is on the spread of totally fake news and cockeyed conspiracy ideations- such as spread by groups like QAnon. According to the SPLC and Jewish Holocaust Center the lies about the pandemic ('hoax', 'no worse than flu') as well as the ones about the election being stolen emanate from a closed epistemic source - meaning impervious or unaffected by reason or facts. Thus, one also beholds "a high level of overlap between the audiences of QAnon and pandemic conspiracies...with influencers on social media sharing content from both." These despicable lies and memes often also include anti-Semitic and white nationalist dimensions.
This aspect has all the attributes of the meme -spreaders being infected with a single mind virus. This mind virus has tremendous performance value - meaning it can alter the brain and behavior, as well as propagation value - meaning it is easily spread far and whide using the net - social media. Finally, it has the attribute of infectious value, so just like a biological virus with high R-nought, it is incredibly contagious. Particularly so in the environment of social media - which generally lacks the immunity of critical thinking to stem the spread.
These sort of lies and ideations being propagated are not simple, or innocuous "misinformation", but toxic mental effluent on a par with knowingly ingesting strychnine or arsenic with one's food. In other words, they are at a level of memetic toxicity that simply cannot be tolerated - if we value preserving our democracy. Just as we can't stand by and let food producers sprinkle known toxins into our food supply, we cannot let the sowers of these toxic memes continue to spread their virulent mind poison - especially under any "free speech" or other proposed or misconstrued "right." Thus, Nicole Wallace was correct in her MSNBC quote (see top of post) that just as we stop counterfeit currency we need to stop counterfeit news, especially of the most virulent form.
At the same time, the WSJ editorial was wrong when it proclaims (ibid.) :
"Misinformation is the all purpose excuse given to justify new and aggressive censorship, as if disagreements and falsehoods are a never before seen phenomenon in politics."
Failing to note it is not simple "misinformation" (e.g. 'Covid has a lower death rate than flu') but rather the rage - inciting lies and disinformation - such as Trump fed his minions for 77 days- that we are talking about, which ended in the Capitol insurrection with at least six dead and hundreds injured.
An example of why toleration isn't possible was made clear in a Sunday Denver Post piece yesterday (p. 1A) on how flight attendants have been intimidated and subjected to a mob mentality on planes. In this case the Trump insurrectionist mob was noted to have shouted at attendants as well as threatened them over mask wearing- as well as bullying and even assaulting non-MAGA head passengers. Fortunately, in this case, the Federal Aviation Administration has acted, making it clear "passengers who assault or interfere with airline workers could face prison time and a $35,000 fine."
I would add to that any reprobates so charged - including with assaulting another passenger- need to also be deemed domestic terrorists and put on a 'no fly' list in perpetuity. This would have an analogous function to halting the dissemination of toxic mind viruses by banning similar terrorists from using Twitter or other media to spread their propaganda, lies and sedition.
Thus, we have to think about the very DNA of information and how it's circulated in the internet ecosystem, and the nature of the damage it can inflict if allowed to spread. In addition we have to consider this same "DNA" and its processing before we can consider "bipartisanship" in the halls of congress. There can be NO bipartisanship if Repukes still cling to seditious beliefs, including that Joe Biden did not fairly win the 2020 election.
As I pointed out in an earlier post it is impossible to achieve a common goal or shared purpose with someone who embraces a divergent reality. As I wrote (January 23 post):
"The inherent problem here is that 'alternate realities' do not enable unity by their very nature. If one reality demands obstruction and disdains actual governing for that priority, then my reality - which dictates the opposite- means we cannot agree or even compromise. Thus it also means we cannot unite because to do so means implanting an existential threat into my reality for sober governance."
Thus, toxic memes, fake news, seditious narratives are also existential threats by extension. They can and must be snuffed out to preserve our nation. The nation's survival here trumps party or any cockeyed notions of "individual liberty" - and that includes imposition of needed Covid protocols to stem the pandemic, as well as laws to stem inciteful hate speech. That means sedition laws also being on the books and enforced, including on social media.
Social media use has exploded over the past two decades while traditional media institutions - mainstream news websites- have been diminished. The same social media sites and apps that used to share pictures with friends and family have also become the primary news sources for just under one fifth of U.S. adults, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis. Less well known is that the algorithms underlying sites like Facebook encourage the spread of toxic memes such as concerning the pandemic (Judy Mikovits 'Plandemic' crappola). Or the idiocy and hate-filled QAnon babble of Marjorie Taylor Greene. See e.g.:
The problem? These days, any joker is able to post, share, and go viral with all manner of lies, misinformation or QAnon rubbish ("Dems drinking the blood of babies" etc.). Worse, it's become increasingly easy to cloak misinformation as if coming from a credible news source. This, combined with the loss of institutional quality control, fact-checking, and accountability, has led to a perfect storm for the rapid, unchecked spread of false information and what I call malignant mind viruses - able to incite violence. In this changing media landscape, the burden of evaluating information is shifting from media outlets to the individual.
The problem is that too many on social media lack the critical thinking, knowledge armament or other skill set to recognize insidious memes, mind viruses seeking to colonize their brains or just plain propaganda. At the very least an "immunization" of media literacy could help correct this. Consider first the spread of misinformation, e.g. "Covid 19 mortality is no worse than the flu", "mail ballots are too easy to tamper with", etc.
Media literacy works to prevent the spread of misinformation on two different fronts: the sharer and the reader. That’s why everyone as a potential sharer first has a responsibility to check his/her facts. People trust the information they receive from their friends more than from other sources, so the potential sharer can magnify their impact by using media literacy skills to curate what they plan to share in their network.
Disinformation — the deliberate dissemination and promotion of false information (e.g. 'the election was stolen', the 'pandemic is a hoax', 'Nancy Pelosi is a lizard', 'the Dems eat babies'.)— on the other hand, is much more sinister. Recently, disinformation has been particularly harmful in the areas of election security, pushing anti-science agendas broadly, and specifically pushing anti-vaccination information. For example, Russia has used Twitter trolls to fuel the anti- vaccination debate in the U.S. Combating disinformation of this type requires that media consumers are equipped with the skills, tools, and techniques required to defend against this type of targeted disruption:
Finally, the WSJ editorial is guilty of rabid false equivalence when it babbles:
"The problem of polarization, lies and political violence are real, on both sides."
But....it was only ONE side that engaged in the calamitous insurrection and stormed the Capitol, as well as sought to assassinate our leaders and prevent an election certification from being completed. Hence, it is clear even to an imbecile that the speech that incepted that reaction is not in the same league as say, the speech I am using to write this post.
See Also:
by Alex Henderson | January 30, 2021 - 8:36am | permalink
AND:
by William Rivers Pitt | January 31, 2021 - 6:31am | permalink
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