We’ve knowingly consented to the use of disinformation to gain power. I’ve been bewildered by this since the 2016 election. Being a technologist by trade I pondered ways to use technology to counter disinformation, but my thinking has changed. I now believe we are vulnerable to disinformation because we are in pain, and the best way to counter it is not with facts and evidence, but by first attempting to understand the pain behind it. As a nation we’ve been wounded and traumatized somehow, and I suspect technology has contributed to this. I hope I can better counter the disinformation we’ve embraced by recognizing the pain of those who carry it and trying to understand it. Maybe there are still ways tech can help us heal, but I think it has to start with compassion for one another, especially those we disagree with. If we can learn to help each other heal, I think we’ll slowly lose our taste for lies and propaganda. I’m still bewildered, but it’s a wilderness I can move in. I hope sharing it helps you keep moving too.
4 responses to “2024 US election reaction”
Thank you for that, Dylan. I’ve been grieving, in shock, that our nation is dominated by persons of values so different from what I had assumed.
This is true but not new. You can go back a long way in history and find disinformation is always prevalent, and there are always many parallel and criss-crossing big stories people believe that are far from the official, mainstream, supposedly majority account. And just because something is or isn’t propaganda does not mean it isn’t true. As with PR and any mass communications or marketing, the best propaganda is all true in the facts, but which facts matter, how they are framed, etc. is where it becomes a crafted thing.
Dylan, My thought is that people really do believe misinformation because they keep drinking from the same poisoned well.
Do you know about meidastouch.com? Every Sunday they do a posting with emails from MAGA folks who changed their minds…it’s interesting to see what prompted their change of perspective. I live in an apartment building with many conservative religious people.
I think that it would take some long conversations to make the smallest dent in their perspective…we look for what we have in common instead of talking about our political convictions.
I’ve always felt hopeless about changing the perspectives and convictions of others also, and I would just avoid engaging with people. My resolution now is to engage without any intention of changing minds. Seek common ground, but also seek to understand the pain behind differing views. My intuition is that this is a better approach to healing rifts than persuasion or avoidance.