Misinfo Disinfo
Following the Science
One of the greatest challenges of the heightened misinformation environment we find ourselves digitally surrounded by is intellect is not a reliable indicator of who gets impacted and who doesn’t. Some of the smartest people I know either a) deliberately don’t follow the news and/or b) get certain news from communities on social media platforms…and therefore insulate from reasoning that isn’t factored into the opinions of those forums.
This is not a new phenomenon in 2026. We all are in this fractured media environment reading indie substacks, YouTubers, reddit posts, feeds from Meta/X(Twitter), podcasts, etc. Gone are the days you could point to a New York Times article or CNN and expect someone to have either read the story or knew of it. Or if you present if to them, they are likely to dismiss it or reject reading it in the first place (a point that comes up consistently in the book I’m read last year, The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer).
That said, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t read stories and reports that help us separate fact from myth. And one of those examples I struggle with the most is the belief in Robert Kennedy Jr. as this individual that is “following the science” and leading this great Make America Healthy Again movement that relies on conspiracy and decades-old falsehoods around infectious diseases, vaccines and autism.
I started thinking about this after hearing a friend say last year that RFK was just following the science with his earliest moves as the head of HHS. I think the hardest part to accept this framing that he’s “following the science” is looking at all the steps that have come to pass since then such as with vaccines: messing with vaccine trials, vaccine approvals, the childhood vaccine schedule or gutting research funding for cancers, so on and so forth. It was obvious to myself and whatever this niche of news/journo-minded folks that the risks of destroying public health were real, and have come to pass.
I guess the place I’m left at is not so much convincing the people around me like I initially thought of where to source their information, but recognizing a more collective push is required, and will find more touch points to believing in public health, liberal democracy, education. The pillars that will get us out of authoritarianism and finding true community with each other that doesn’t mean putting out needs at the expense of someone else’s. This pollster substack post spoke as much on this point to me, and I hope it’s a guide for the future.
Choosing When to Post Your Political Colors
An old friend whose parents immigrated from Iran, never expresses political thoughts, only wants to be seen as a CEO/business/hustle grind lifestyle dude…posted Make Iran Great Again. I thought that was a peculiar phrase to choose.
At first it sounds like oh heavens he’s glad the Ayatollah is dead. And perhaps so, the regime has caused unimaginable pain and led many Iranians to leave the country.
But after a minute….why use Trump’s MAGA slogan, but Iran? Why now, after all the shit that’s been pulled the last year, the performative cruelty on immigrants (Iranians aren’t allowed to travel to the US, btw), weakening of the economy, etc? Can only speculate but boy does it sound like a way of showing your support for Trump, and acknowledging you don’t care about what comes next.
Think you’re going to get regime change? There are already reports surfacing a more hard line regime will likely take power through the Revolutionary Guard.
But understanding that would require giving a shit about history, the world order, anything beyond what you see on a social feed. It would require depth of thought, and this ain’t it.
So, glad it could be content for you that shows your shallow views. That’s about all this says about you.
Going to be thinking about this while hearing cbs is first to report the US bombed Venezuela
AI Likeness
Putting aside the awe of tech being able to make stuff like this, I think what bothers me with these ai celebs is the obvious use of their likeness. Using someone’s likeness or image was a big no no in the media training world, or even the business world, because you are opening yourself up to lawsuits..why are these ok now for platforms to generate? It seems like a big assumption to just consider them gifs or memes
Bookmarking this for better understanding. Misinfo is an economy. Once I think about that, it makes a lot more sense Mapping the online manipulation economy | Science
“If it’s not yet clear, there’s a violent information war going on. And the folks who care about things like foundational ethics, informed consensus, and the public good are losing” Solid words here from Karl Bode. Applies to everything from Kirk to WaPost https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/17/the-washington-post-fires-its-last-black-opinion-columnist-for-directly-quoting-a-bigot/
Right Wing Machinations Pt. 2
There are so many issues you see on the internet and social media especially that have people caring about that they probably shouldn’t, or don’t really at all. How that internet-social plumbing works is how right wing media machine works, which has been humming at an epic pace since Covid, in my opinion.
It is refreshing to see NYT look at “how” and “why” the Sweeney jeans ad took off so suddenly…and. It because of progressive or leftist anything. It starts and is fueled by the right.
If Fox News was one of the great 20th century purveyors of turning outrage into action, social media has perfected that strategy here in the 21st.
Generally a good idea to bookmark a Pew Research study when you see one. Interesting breakdown of teen use of various social platforms [https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/12/12/teens-social-media-and-technology-2024/]
The more you know…they are running government inefficiently for paranoia around fraud. Can we ever get past this online bubble? DOGE went looking for phone fraud at SSA — and found almost none - Nextgov/FCW
What are we doing here, folks? All these years hearing about campus censorship of conservatives, never in that time have we had a a conservative thrown in jail like Khalil because of their beliefs. This is thought police. (https://apnews.com/article/mahmoud-khalil-columbia-university-trump-c60738368171289ae43177660def8d34)
Right Wing Machinations Pt. 1
When people ask me if they should stay on X, or why they should move off of it, I’m leaning towards just sending this infographic looking at Elon’s - and the right’s - outsized influence on the platform. You can read more about that study here.
And I think it goes deeper than that. Part of my general shift away from algorithm-based platforms is how they are relatively easily gamed. This study on the #IStandwithPutin hashtag puts that into perspective how the algo is manipulated for politics, marketing, anything you can think of. It cheats the idea of a genuine “exchange of ideas” by building an appearance of popular consensus, even if it’s not true.
I appreciate the clarity and structure of this editorial.
Laying out what we are dealing with when it comes to dealing with the disinformation sphere that is driving right-wing populism explicitly..NOT conservatism.