In this module we introduce the idea of disinformation as it is currently used on the web. While many people think the point of disinformation is to get you to believe something, the point of modern disinformation is to sow confusion. Ultimately a society which can't separate fact from fiction and truth from lies is a society that cannot function.

Why? Democracy requires people with different opinions on things to hash out compromises based on a common set of established facts. A new local program, for example, might increase high school graduation rates by 10% but increase property tax by 20%. Is it worth it? Is it the best use of money? These are the sort of arguments democracy excels at. What democracy can't survive, however, is a world where one side claims that a policy will double property tax and another that it will decrease it, where one side says it will improve graduation rates and the other side says the supposed new graduates are actually paid actors and the high school doesn't really exist.

Hannah-Arendt — Hannah Arendt (CC BY-NC)

When discourse and debate sinks to that level, democracy is no longer viable, and autocracy -- where the question is not "What is true?" but "What is convenient to believe?" -- takes its place. Hannah Arendt, a scholar of Nazi Germany, put it best:

"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” (source)"

It doesn't have to be totalitarianism of course. It could be dictatorship or other forms of autocracy. But a belief that the truth of things is not important is not compatible with democracy, where people must inform themselves in order to make collective decisions.

One wonders if we are getting to this point in the United States. People across the political spectrum often post and share material that is verifiably false, and when confronted with that fact claim that whether it is true or false is not the point. It expresses how they feel. they'll say, or it's true on another level, even if it's not, well, literally true.

Over time our sense of reality erodes. For every lie we see from our side, we point to another on the other side, as if two lies would somehow make a truth. Some people give up on truth altogether, posting anything that supports their team. Others tune out and withdraw from public discourse altogether, feeling that "you just can't trust the internet."

But both those that become shills for a cause and those that withdraw have let disinformation win. If you want to democracy -- the government for the people and by the people -- to survive, you can't help it by withdrawing or giving up on the notion of truth. You have to learn how to cut through the confusion. You have to empower yourself, and hopefully empower others