Disinformation is the deliberate use of lies to manipulate people, whether to extract profit or to advance a political agenda. Its unwitting accomplice, misinformation, is spread by unknowing dupes who repeat lies they believe to be true. In America today, both forms of falsehood are distorting our perception of reality.

In a democracy, the people need a shared set of facts as a basis to debate and make decisions that advance and secure their collective interests. Differences of opinion, and even propaganda, have always existed in the United States, but now, enemies of democracy are using disinformation to attack our sovereign right to truthful information, intellectual integrity, and the exercise of the will of the people. Online disinformation is particularly insidious because of its immediacy, its capacity to deceive, and its ability to reach its target.

69 points

Conservatives never have facts and reason on their side, so they just drop them and stop caring for reality.

Speaking the truth and being right-wing are always mutually exclusive!

permalink
report
reply
-59 points

Not just the right.

permalink
report
parent
reply
37 points

Yeah but mostly.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-1 points

Kinda irrelevant though. The Democratic party is our only real opportunity to defeat the Republican party. If the behavior of establishment Democrats, the ones who control the party, is knee capping our ability to do that it must be addressed.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Not sure why you’re being downvoted. Wasn’t it shown that e.g. Russia is targeting our side just as heavily?

permalink
report
parent
reply
29 points

The left don’t fall for it as easily and they don’t spread it as virulently, and when they do it’s for what? Policies that generally benefit and are agreed on by enormous majorities of real people.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-22 points

Liberals too, yeah.

Rational people don’t go into politics.

permalink
report
parent
reply
18 points

People that believe in liberty have to go into politics if we are to maintain any of our liberty. Get your propaganda out of here.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-69 points

How’s that ceasefire deal coming lol?

permalink
report
parent
reply
37 points

What about whataboutism?

permalink
report
parent
reply
-38 points

Disinformation comes from both sides. Don’t let yourself be propagandized into defending a political party to the death.

permalink
report
parent
reply
44 points

Right wing disinformation is tearing America apart.

permalink
report
reply
-50 points
*

Both sides have pretty bad disinformation going on. Left is just more polished about it, I’m guessing because their demographic is on average much more educated. Right wing stuff you can at least immediately see right through.

Israel coverage from the main stream left has been stunning

permalink
report
parent
reply
25 points

LOL there’s always a both sideser in here. I have this conversation with my brother weekly. He seems to think that the next time will convince me.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

I mean the right is obviously much worse, straight up lies vs careful omission. Not trying to defend that since it kinda goes without saying around here.

For this tho when one of the fastest/widest margin bills to pass congress this past year is blocking foreign tech media because it might influence elections, while our domestic tech companies have already been proven to do that over and over for the past few elections it just shows neither side actually cares about misinformation, just controlling it for themselves

permalink
report
parent
reply
-17 points

Here’s a video explaining why your brother is right https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVy_a9u8CeQ

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

Your comment literally started with “both sides”… Just ZERO self awareness.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
*

Disinformation from establishment Democrats is enabling the Republican party. We can hate Republicans all we like but establishment Democrats are trying to walk this tightrope between fascism and worker empowerment. Every time they lose their balance they shift to the right. We will be unable to defeat the Republican party until we root out the corruption of the Democratic party.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

Name one leftist show on a main stream channel.

permalink
report
parent
reply
36 points

It’s the disinformation alright, but it’s the disinformation from billionaires dividing us so they can get away with all the wealth while we fight for scraps. The call is coming from inside the house.

permalink
report
reply
23 points

This is it. I have been chastised for suggesting that many social problems are red herrings to distract us from the one true problem, that it’s us versus them. Until that problem is solved, nothing else can be.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

it drives me nuts, I’ve got formerly lefty friends who drifted right due to disillusionment with their pet issue. one began their drift via the antivax movement, their personal grudge against the medical system has them now embracing every far right conspiracy out there. so yeah, I believe folks find what they seek, and those who are doing the pulling have figured out the exact temperature of smoke to blow up people’s asses.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

If you can’t turn someone red, just make them a single issue voter.

Voting blue can hurt sometimes as a gun-owning Texan, but I do what I must. I didn’t always have that mentality.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points
*

That fact that people are susceptible to conspiracy theorys like flat earth shows us, the proletariat, cannot rely on reason alone.

permalink
report
parent
reply
20 points

It’s usually feelings over facts. Or I just love when they tell you to Google it. Then you do and prove them wrong and then they tell you that’s the wrong site lol Republicans really made the uneducated loud and annoying.

permalink
report
reply
12 points

My dad was trying to tell me that the COVID vaccine is dangerous, so he googled it, sent me a blog with the Google link in it, then got upset when I found that the source that blogger used said “those who are able to be vaccinated help those who cannot be vaccinated.” This was all because of my and my wife’s request to get the vaccine to meet our 3 month old.

He didn’t like that I did actual research on his partisan blog to prove him wrong.

permalink
report
parent
reply
17 points
*

People have a desire to be correct in their beliefs, and they have found comfort in disinformation instead of having to change or reflect on dated world views.

They aren’t being tricked, they actively seek and embrace the disinformation.

permalink
report
reply

politics

!politics@lemmy.world

Create post

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
  2. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  3. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  4. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
  5. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  6. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That’s all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

Community stats

  • 13K

    Monthly active users

  • 13K

    Posts

  • 387K

    Comments