>> You're assuming that "doing something" about the problem of misinformation invariably has only one design, which is fraught, ergo 1) the problem's persistence is inevitable and 2) one should just "lie back and enjoy it."
To the contrary, I have been taken to task here for pointing out that is precisely what Musk did. He recognized, like many of us, that to "do anything about it" requires someone to make a judgment on what the lie is, which is as often as not simply a furtherance or obfuscation.
Louis Brandeis famously said that "Sunlight is the best of disinfectants", and he was manifestly correct. If there is something you believe is misinformation let the "public square" decide.
The only sensible way to manage so-called misinformation is to counter it with factual information and support for that position. But the danger is that it can become like media "fact checkers", where they themselves create more misinformation (e.g., Leslie Stahl interview with Trump where she effectively lied, herself, and has yet to correct that lie.) She effectively got away with it with the end result many people continue to be misinformed.
There is no solution to this other than correcting the mistake or lie. It is a very much unappreciated task.
As between Democrats and Republicans, there is simply no way for a Republican to correct a Democrat's confusion on an anti-Trump comment: They'll just say, "Okay, but I don't believe that."
That is where we are as a nation. But you cannot force people to know the truth.
Trump, jokingly, says, "I'll be a dictator for one day" during which he would deal with a couple issues by Executive Order. I don't even remember what they were. While speaking on Telemundo a day or two ago -- replying to the question of a man who said he was leaning toward Trump -- she said that Trump SAID HE WOULD BE A DICTATOR! HE TOLD YOU HE WAS GOING TO BE A DICTATOR!
That was, of course, a bold-faced lie. All the context suggested that while he joking used that phrase, he had a couple of instances of things that need to be cleaned up with Executive Orders. He said it in a joking manner, emphasized as such, and now she is out there LYING LIKE HELL.
All you can do is what Musk has done. Democrats hate it and refuse to participate. But it is there for those who want it. It has problems, but it does enable people to participate if they choose.
x.com's posts related to news are consistently more reliable than what many of us used for years, Google News. It is clear to me that Google News is being milked at its end of life for whatever revenue it can produce.
But X continues to be a place where if one is SEEKING factual clarification, both sides of the argument can usually be heard while the factual side can singled out as the truth. This is not how it was before Twitter was acquired, because you had to try to figure out what the moderators were up to. |
