We must create a culture of counteracting disinformation [View all]

[BoycottTwitter]

I recently was reflecting on some recent experiences I've had on Bluesky. Overall it's an excellent website, I think the most ethical large social media platform with over 41 million users and growing fast (at the time of writing). However in life nothing is 100% perfect and with so many people you're bound to have a few who maybe are there to stir the pot.

What I saw was some people posting the tired lie that "both sides are the same" or claiming they are same on foreign policy or on a particular single issue. I noticed something very peculiar but consistent about these accounts. They all shared the follow traits:

1. Attacked Democrats especially strong Democrats and those with good future potential.
2. Zero focus on Republicans even though the stuff they blame Democrats on is actually the fault of Republicans.
3. Here's the real smoking gun: shockingly all of them also were against Ukraine and repeated Kremlin talking points.

#3 might surprise you but it's part of Russia's firehose of falsehoods. The idea is to make it looks like messages which advance Russia's interests are coming from lots of different people across the political spectrum.

In a conversation I was having with someone they replied to me saying "You must read the MSM". In my mind I was thinking no, I don't call it MSM, I call it news and I focus on reading factual news from reputable sources. But I didn't reply because I clicked on the person's profile and noticed all three traits so I blocked and didn't engage. Also interestingly before I blocked that person I was receiving rapid fire messages from them but then I asked what country they were post in and it completely stopped them from talking for a several hours.

But I think this sentence shows the problem here. I don't know who that was, I suspect they may have been a Russian troll due to having all three traits but it's also possible they were a real person and if they are I kind of understand this. Due to cognitive warfare and conspiratorial thinking some people are led to believe that reputable institutions and organizations cannot be trusted, instead you should trust random comments and little known blogs and websites because they are not part of the system so to say. What they believe is a matter of what feels right to them rather than what's true.

Ultimately disinformation hurts our country and when used against us it hurts us so I've thought about what we can do to counteract it and came up with these ideas:

1. Don't let trolls drain us. Keep moving on and doing what you're doing to make your online experiences as enjoyable as possible. Prioritize your mental health. If you see disinformation tailor your strategy based on the probability of the person being a fake/troll. If the person is likely to be fake just quickly drop your message and leave (ex: say: This is disinformation. Here's a link to a Snopes article debunking it: (link)), don't get too emotionally invested because your time could be used to make a difference talking to real people instead. If you think the person is likely to be real use empathic dialog and maybe the Socratic method to try steering them in the right direction but be prepared and understand we can't convince everyone so think about if you're using your time wisely or if there are other things you could be doing that are better/more impactful.

2. Keep telling the truth, let the truth drown out the lies. I think it's very important to always stand for truth and fearlessly keep telling the truth always. Try making the truth reach people before the lies reach people. And I'm not saying only tell the truth in response to lies, I'm saying also share the truth without repeating the lies or in response to the lies.

3. Educate as many people as possible about disinformation and make sure everyone takes a stance against it. Think before you share something. I posted a guide I found here that I found helpful https://www.democraticunderground.com/11745393. I would even go as far to say we should try contacting school boards and politicians and demand media literacy classes for all students in school.

4. Try having more in person discussions and debates. When you're talking to someone face to face you know they are not a troll in some far away country.

5. Pay attention to how people engage with you. When you share a reputable/well known fact do they look into it or do they respond with ad hominem, insult you or use a whataboutism? Maybe consider setting rules and boundaries before having a discussion with someone. Ultimately I think every conversation must involve mutual respect, if you can't have that it might not be worth talking.