05-30-2021, 03:32 PM
(05-30-2021, 12:17 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Spreading misinformation these days is dangerous and harmful, and it needs to be monitored, countered and retracted where necessary.
In World War II Americans were warned to not accept rumors as truth. Rumors could be misinformation and (perhaps even more dangerous) official secrets. There was much to not tell, like ship sailings, directions of ship sailings (especially of troop ships), weapons productions and new weapons (such as retooling).
The problem today is that the totalitarian menace to America is no longer in Berlin, Rome, or Tokyo; it is Americans with contempt for the civil liberties of those who disagree with their agenda. Totalitarian ideologies often begin with crank beliefs. Never underestimate the hazard of crank beliefs, as crank beliefs can send people to gas chambers.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
