Institutionalized Disinformation

Two words: Institutionalized disinformation.

I've used these two words before, pointing out that this is why Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election. The disinformation was institutionalized. And when that happens, it's an extremely difficult thing to debunk, because people reason (incorrectly) that the huge infrastructure around the lie simply wouldn't exist if it weren't true.

Except, of course it would.

Need proof? A Guardian-Harris poll conducted last May, and again last September, showed just how bad the general public was being misled when it came to the economy. 

49% of respondents said they believe the U.S. economy is in a recession. (It's not.)

Nearly two-thirds (61%) said they believe inflation is increasing, when in fact it has fallen. (It was down to 2.1% right before the election!)

Nearly three-quarters (73%) said they didn’t feel any positive effects of the good economic news being reported.

Most strikingly, 51% of respondents said they believed that unemployment was at an all-time high. In fact, unemployment is at the lowest point it's been in over 54 years! (3.4%)

In other words, people really did believe up is down, black is white, and day is night when it came to the economy.

Were grocery prices still a bit high? Yeah, that part was true. It's what made all the other lies more believable. But prices take awhile to come down. And usually don't overall. Wage increases are required to offset the higher prices. Biden was already starting to make that happen.

Until the fake bill of goods, sold to the American people through a vast, lying, Right-Wing Media Machine, convinced a large number that the sunny skies outside their window was an illusion; that the silver lining in the cloud was actually a dark lining; that everything had actually gone to shit; that Biden was to blame for it all.

That's the power of institutionalized disinformation.

We see examples of institutionalized bullshit everywhere, from vaccine denial to the claim that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged. In religion, we especially see institutionalized disinformation, particularly among Mormons. (And if you happen to be Mormon, I don't care, and I don't apologize. Your beliefs are crap, wake up.)

Institutionalized disinformation is our #1 enemy. And if we ever get a chance to defeat it by rule of law, requiring anything labeling itself "news" to be absolutely objective, that is our #1 priority.

But we might not even get that shot. And if we do, you can bet that any attempt to defeat institutionalized disinformation will be strongly countered by the Right-Wing Media Machine.

Can we slay this dragon if we actually get one chance to strike a blow? I don't know.

All I know is, we'd better all have our minds made up to accomplish this one, all-important thing.

Eric

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