Reader Responses to Rx for “Information Disorder”

BAM ran an article praising Brown’s participation in the  disinformation business. In light of the recent judicial ruling and the revelations therein, it behooves Brown to explain exactly what role they are playing and whether any of this has been ruled illegal.

I certainly welcome any approach to disinformation that would, for example, expose the “arrest” of Greta Thunberg as a staged performance (which it was). And I have no objection if anyone wants to present facts or arguments to counter an article or video on the internet. But what I do not want is a filter for news. We have our own filter, between our ears. And sometimes, misinformation can be helpful if we use that filter. One very good example: When the hydroxychloroquine controversy erupted, I could not decide whether it might actually be effective for treating COVID. But when certain opposing voices insisted “Hydroxychloroquine is dangerous!” well, I knew that was nonsense and that those voices should mostly be ignored.

A factoid in the “Rx for ‘Information Disorder’” article in the January-March ’23 issue stated that for 79 percent of people, their political ideology was a significant predictor of whether they’d take measures to prevent the spread of COVID. This does not pass a common-sensical sniff test. I have not come across anyone who elected to wear a mask or get vaccinated because of political orientation. These steps were taken for self-protection and public health concerns. However, political ideology might well have explanatory power specifically for those who decided against taking preventive measures. In other words, a finding that 79 percent of those refusing to take any actions against COVID is explained by political ideology is consistent with the 70 percent of Republicans who are MAGA hardliners who wrongly believe the 2020 election was rigged and who would also likely follow Trump’s dismissive lead on COVID. Without this preliminary condition filtering those who did from those who did not take preventive steps, you could probably get similar results, devoid of causal connection, to those mentioned based on political ideology if, instead, the correlation was between those who eat hummus and those who don’t.