Rare display of bipartisanship: Both sides embrace disinformation
After my last birthday, I have become increasingly inclined to tell kids, “Get off my lawn!” and sometimes complain about confusing new-fangled technologies.
Joking aside, while I am still enjoying what feels like a relatively young age, I’ve noticed unmistakable changes in the world since my younger days. Some aren’t for the better either, including the rise of hyper-partisanship and proliferation of so-called misinformation and disinformation.
Americans have long chuckled at some of the wackiest conspiracy theories. Evidenced by widespread articles and videos, people question whether aliens landed in Roswell, N.M. Does Bigfoot exist, and is he the reigning hide-and-seek champion? What about the pyramids—did aliens build them? We all have our opinions, but I’ve been to the pyramids. I can say with certainty that the Egyptians definitely built them.
These are years-old conspiracy theories, but for whatever reason, disinformation is on the rise with specific theories finding homes in particular political camps. While by no means do all members believe them, these falsehoods sometimes seem as though they have been given safe harbor by political allies, especially if it serves expedient purposes.
On the political Right, the surge in ridiculous claims has been astounding. A recent one claims the romantic relationship between pro-football star Travis Kelce and pop-star Taylor Swift is somehow related to a covert operation to get President Joe Biden re-elected. How that works is anyone’s guess, but a Monmouth poll found that 32 percent of conservatives believe this.
Then there are the theories floating around that Biden actually passed away and has been replaced by an actor. Rest assured, PolitiFact and USA Today both rated these claims as false. A 2020 theory asserted that former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez—dead since 2013—or his family were somehow involved in stealing the election from former President Donald Trump. Spoiler alert, Trump managed to lose the election without the deceased Venezuelan’s help.
Those on the political Left love to point out these lies and ridicule them, but this is not solely the political Right’s problem. “Overall, social science research suggests that susceptibility to misinformation cuts across the political spectrum, and isn’t necessarily much greater on one side of it than the other,” writes Reason Foundation.
A 2009 poll found that 32 percent of Democrats at least partially blamed “the Jews” for the economic collapse of 2008, which is patently ridiculous and overtly racist. The government helped create that crisis with short-sighted financial policies. 9/11 “trutherism” also found a home within the Left—suggesting that former President George W. Bush somehow knew about the impending terrorist attacks and let them unfold. Moreover, just about any negative press about Trump—true or otherwise—is sure to find fertile ground among the progressives who despise him.
The source of the rapid growth of disinformation isn’t exactly a mystery. First, latent desires for easy answers to complex problems have probably always existed in the human race—especially if those “answers” are damaging to our perceived enemies. Second, the internet empowered people to post and share their thoughts—however insane—with impunity and anonymously. This is both a blessing and a curse. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found, “On Twitter, false news travels faster than true stories.” The same probably holds for other platforms too.
These days, Americans are so partisan that many are increasingly willing to accept, tolerate or at least refuse to verify disinformation within their own ranks. In unfettered political tribalism, you embrace your allies no matter what and take a win-at-all-costs approach, even if that means taking cheap shots with fake news. In many ways, that’s the position we are in now.
This is no easy problem to fix because there likely isn’t an appropriate—or even constitutional—top-down approach the government can adopt to do so. There can be no Ministry of Truth that censors falsities in a liberal democratic republic that enshrines the right to free speech. Rather, the solution lies with us and private enterprise.
While entities like Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, have come under fire for supposedly censoring users, they can help curtail disinformation and absolutely ought to enjoy the freedom to remove bots that promote it. Americans have a role to play too. Upon hearing something that seems questionable, everyone needs to stop, breath and conduct some cursory research from reputable sources to verify whether something is true. We also need to eschew tribalism, police ourselves and hold our allies accountable for spreading falsehoods.
Given all of this, the likelihood of fixing this problem is only as high as our determination and desire to make it a reality. Whether or not fake news becomes a thing of the past in my lifetime is another story.