Where Facts Were No Match for Fear

[reACTIONary]

Where Facts Were No Match for Fear, NYT No Paywall

Civic boosters in central Montana hoped for some federal money to promote tourism. A disinformation campaign got in the way.

Ms. Grulkowski set about blowing up that effort with everything she had.

She collected addresses from a list of voters and spent $1,300 sending a packet denouncing the proposed heritage area to 1,498 farmers and ranchers. She told them the designation would forbid landowners to build sheds, drill wells or use fertilizers and pesticides. It would alter water rights, give tourists access to private property, create a new taxation district and prohibit new septic systems and burials on private land, she said.

None of this was true.

[dalton99a]

1. But Facebook said 3,000 illegal votes were cast in her county

But when pressed, Ms. Grulkowski, too, was unable to identify a single instance of a property owner’s being adversely affected by a heritage area. “It’s not that there are a lot of specific instances,” she said. “There’s a lot of very wide open things that could happen.”

That somewhat amorphous fear was more the point.

Outside of a poultry coop, as her chickens and ducks squawked, Ms. Grulkowski ticked through the falsehoods she had read online and accepted as truths in the past year: The Covid vaccine is more dangerous than the coronavirus. Global child-trafficking rings control the political system. Black Lives Matter was responsible for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The United Nations is plotting to control world population and seize private land. Mr. Trump was the rightful winner of last year’s election. Even in Cascade County, where Mr. Trump won 59 percent of the vote, Ms. Grulkowski argued that 3,000 illegal votes were cast.

“We didn’t believe in any of that stuff until last July,” Ms. Grulkowski said. “Then we stumbled on something on the internet, and we watched it, and it took us two days to get over that. And it had to do with the child trafficking that leads to everything. It just didn’t seem right, and that was just over the top. And then we started seeing things that are lining up with that everywhere.”

[reACTIONary]

2. On "the internet", not....

... on "the Facebook". Obviously "the internet" does not "say" anything, and neither does "the Facebook".

Sorry for being a bit touchy about this, but there has been a lot of illiberal Facebook bashing lately. And even NYT basihng, the source for this article.

[dalton99a]

3. Most online disinformation comes through links on Facebook

And Facebook is the platform she uses for her advocacy campaign

https://www.facebook.com/montanansopposingbscnha/

[reACTIONary]

4. I'd like some sort of source for that assertion...

... If most online disinformation comes through links on Facebook, I'm prepared to believe it, but I wouldn't want unsubstantiated disinformation being spread on DU.

[lees1975]

5. Well, don't worry about me ever spending a dime anywhere in Montana

I love visiting heritage areas, but I'll stay away from Montana now.