Misinfo Disinfo
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. Welcome to the right wing media machine, which has been humming at an epic pace since Covid, in my opinion.
Perhaps too little too late here, but 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.