Jacob Siegel: 'Disinformation' Is the Hoax of the Century
From Russiagate to COVID discourse, elites in government and the media are trying to control and centralize free speech and open inquiry.
This is the audio version of The Reason Livestream, which I co-host every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern with my Reason colleague Zach Weissmueller.
Today's guest is Jacob Siegel, a journalist who served in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He's written a fantastic essay for Tablet magazine called, "A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century: Thirteen ways of looking at disinformation."
This is, simply, the best piece I've read about how what Jacob calls "the ruling class" is trying to literally and figuratively control political and cultural discourse about politics, public health, and other pressing topics. Jacob provides a history and a deconstruction of the concept of disinformation, a term borrowed from Cold War spycraft that became ubiquitous in the wake of Donald Trump's presidential victory in 2016.
Along the way, we discuss elite apologetics for suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story on social media, the revolving door between the national security state and the media, and how tactics devised for use overseas in the global war on terror are now being used against Americans on a daily basis.
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Trust the experts
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Disinformation is disinformation!
What makes you believe that to be true?
Nothing that you say is true.
You don’t believe the Jews tricked people into believing they were mass murdered?
How dare you!
You believe as true what I’ve refuted as false. Nobody has refuted me.
How stupid, bigoted are you?
Certain things that he says are not true. That doesn’t mean that “Nothing” he says is true. Beings like the hypothetical logic-puzzle version of Cretans (who always lie) don’t actually exist.
THe mother of all disinformation is when nothing is said pro or con, as with abortion or homosexuality , for example. It is someone saying this important thing is not important so I will shelf it.
Abortion would have reached the current state of public displeasure sooner if the Gosnells had been reported on.
As to the Cretan thing , it is not a paradox if a non-Cretan said it.
In Logic it is an Axiom called The Law of Identity. A thing is itself, A Is A, or as New Yorkers would put it, Fuckin’ A Is Fuckin’ A.
And it is is true, whether you believe it or not, or whether the prompting of “Revelation,” “Intuition,” “Class Consciousness,” or “The Blood” tells you or not.
And The Law Of Identity has no mercy for those who try to defy it. Your brethren tried and they died doing so. They tried to have a Thousand Year Reich while chasing off, imprisoning, and murdering their best and brightest scientists, entrepreneurs, and workers.
They tried making 10,000 V-2 Rockets with slave laborers, ignoring the reality of the success of free men and women, and 80 percent of the V-2 Rockets were shot down, fell into the ocean, or even blew up on the landing pad.
And they fancied themselves Aryan Pure Supermen, yet their vaunted Thousand Year Reich didn’t last 12.
Objective Reality grasped by Logic and the evidence of the senses says to you what I say to you:
Fuck Off, Nazi!
I’m not convinced by bigotry or coercion. Nobody should be. You are.
I use correctly applied logic and science to discern truth and it refutes the holocaust story as told.
You have been weighed and measured and found sorely lacking to refute anything that I say.
If you think mere words are coercion, than you are lying to yourself even deeper than you think.
Turn yourself into yourself for lying and Fuck Off, Nazi!
Words that convey intended authority to compel anyone to act in the interest of others instead of their own are by definition coercion.
It need not be effective as you repeatedly demonstrate.
Fuck you’re stupid.
Idk bout y’all, but I’m with rob on this one. Fucking beat down bro!
THe mother of all disinformation is when nothing is said pro or con, as with abortion or homosexuality , for example. It is someone saying this important thing is not important so I will shelf it.
Abortion would have reached the current state of public displeasure sooner if the Gosnells had been reported on.
As to the Cretan thing , it is not a paradox if a non-Cretan said it.
I do trust the experts. But not everyone who calls themselves and expert is actually an expert.
And not everyone that gets called “expert” by someone else is actually an expert. You should think for yourself instead; you haven’t shown any of that so far.
The problem with disinformation is that it exists. Very obviously. Internet manipulation happens from awkward attempts from Iran to sophisticated botnets from China to even more sophisticated operations from many private agencies. Not just Soros, though his folks were the forerunners. There are actual boiler rooms of people making the media landscape seem a certain way, a way different to that of the actual populace. It is the new propaganda, and it works. Fifty centers and sock puppets on all the major social medias (and even on after article chats for web news sites) are real, and everyone knows it.
It really feels like all of the attempts to use disinformation as a governmental excuse are, in their own way, disinformation. They’re redefining an ill-defined term.
I’ve read spec-fic books where the problem with using the future internet for information isn’t finding information, it’s finding correct information. The correct stuff is buried behind walls of bad information, the most pernicious of which is almost plausible but only slightly incorrect. Enough it doesn’t get filtered out and wastes users’ time enough they may never get to the real information. Search engines have gotten to be like that now.
So, here we are, pushing this guy’s book or article — this is at least the second, if not the third, link I’ve seen to the tablet article, so you KNOW it’s a paid ad. That’s reason’s m.o.
But, if it’s not gaslighting, it’s something else. Like “disinformation doesn’t exist, but only because we’ve defined it slightly differently than what you’re seeing” level of disingenuousness.
Government certainly shouldn’t be using disinformation as a crisis to pass pet laws and create unpopular policies, as lots of censors want to do. But it sure as fuck exists, dis- mis- or whatever type of malicious and incorrect information you want to label it.
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Sorry, but you are Misinformed, Disinformed, and Malinformed on who wrote this article, Angie. I think there must be Mercury and lead in your tattoos.
Yes. When people cannot tell the information from the disinformation (and they realize it…), they tune out.
Who does that benefit?
Or people just choose to accept the reality that fits their preconceived bias.
And this isn’t anything new. 40 years ago, people believed rumors that there was a mass wave of satanists coming for our kids. Other people believed that Ford had a car that runs on water that they withheld from the market. The community room on sunday mornings at my childhood church was full of people just spouting ridiculous nonsense gossip, and old wives tales.
The difference between pre-internet and post-internet, is not the presence of disinformation or even the prevalence of it, but instead the fact that our disinformation is no longer challenged in a constructive marketplace of ideas. If I brought up a “counter fact” at the church community room, that person had to integrate it into their worldview. They were going to see me next week and if our community was going to continue, we had to come to some sort of agreement on the facts, or agree to never talk about it again.
But in the internet world, that is no longer necessary. A Flat Earther can find millions of people and studies backing up whatever nonsense they believe, and they never have to reckon with the notion that they are wrong. And these comment threads show you that there is never a need to actually moderate your position. People show up here with their beliefs and largely don’t change their mind. Chemjeff was here in 2020 arguing that declining to mask meets the libertarian definition of aggression, and if pushed on it he will still insist it today.
The ties that bond a community together do not exist on the internet. If I behaved like we do on the internet in real life, my community would fall apart- just screaming at everyone at work all day, at schools, in line at the grocery store. Indeed, one of the problems with cancel culture is the attempt to use the “rules” of the internet in daily discourse. This should underscore for you how important it is to periodically take a breath and engage with your community in real life rather than online.
I said it when I stopped looking at the face books in the 20teens, if the people who said those things, vile, horrific things ascribing my politics (independent, but decidedly anti-Hillary) to the worst of intentions, I’d probably fight them.
In fact, there are more than a few “friends” from there that I still owe a punch in the nose.
The anonymous nature of the internets allows much broader manipulation. But it does as you say. It removes natural community and the decorum that comes from looking someone in the face. See someone every week and it humanizes them, so it’s a lot harder to call them a racist nazi when they’re bringing cookies to your school’s bake sale. So the propagandizing minority can more easily divide and isolate communities.
Hey stuck in California – beat it you fucking bot from South Africa. Yeah I know this article is relevant to your work, but we can see right thru your stupid cover story. Anti Hillary. Gtfo here bro.
Libertarians? Look this goes back to imprisoning the guy who handed 13A to conscripts in 1918, every sedition law, all Dies and HUAC heresy hunts. Orwell described the well-trained, intimidated dog that smartly spits out the government line. Suddenly the PCs of the 1980s turn into libertarian media communications the Comstock Laws cannot suppress. Solution: declare them child molesters, traitors, commie agents, Nazi frogmen, financial hackers and tools of “that Other looter party,” then add ammo and cuffs. Problem solved.
You are not a libertarian.
Trump voters know disinformation is a hoax, for the President has proclaimed that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive .”
AGW is not a hoax, it is a failed hypothesis since its predictions have not been realized. The Chinese use this religion against us by amplifying the idea with the intention of undermining our industrial might.
‘Disinformation’ Is the Hoax of the Century
So disinformation is … disinformation? It’s freakin’ me out, man!
Well there goes 80% of JFree, Mike and Sqrlsy’s arguments.
Plus, WHO officially declared the COVID emergency over recently, in a very timely fashion might I add.
JFree might be leaving his apartment for the first time in years, and might even take off one of his masks.
He’s going to be really disappointed that “rationing care” was never needed, and also, that hospitals haven’t even been pushed to near full capacity in…2 years?
His world, crumbling. MSNBC propaganda is a helluva drug
Reason is only 7 years late to the party. Fashionable as they say.
ENB must be livid about the back to back articles melding with what commentors have been saying much longer.
In 5 years “Why sterilizing your child is abuse.”
“In 5 years “Why sterilizing your child is abuse.””
And they will ask for amnesty there too. “We just wanted to help! We were just trying to make little Johnny happy! We had good intentions!”
A couple things will happen, one of which has already started. That being govts that have done some of this stuff that are on the socialized medicine wagon (read: rationed care) are going to think twice about it. Why? Well, money really. Its going to come down to a very simple bean counter decision.
“Here is X treatment, it is not based on any good evidence, has lots of nasty side effects, and requires non-stop treatment (expensive) plus possibly surgeries (expensive). All of which not only throws the body wildly out of homeostasis, but causes actual disfunction to natural body parts. It is highly expensive and does harm…” The NHS across the pond is already shutting some of this down due to what amounts to a financial decision, money/care aint free, and there are already massive lines for NECESSARY care, socialized systems dont have the resources to provide what amounts to elective vanity projects (that are objectively harmful).
And the other important point will be the evidence. Not only will they be unable to produce any kind of convincing data on it being a benefit, at some point we will get the contrary: a long term study that this destroys people’s lives. Not a “hey these 100 people who transitioned last month said its the bestest ever! Evidence: check!”, an actual long term study of these people and what happens to them. How do we know its going to be damning? Because the sky is still blue, grass is still green, and allowing a child to make a decision that will probably sterilize them, fuck up their development, and put them on a path towards destroying their body/physiology is fucking retarded.
Modern lobotomies. That’s what this stuff is. It will be looked at exactly as such when the fever finally breaks and society returns to its senses.
There is a contingent of soft libertarianism that refuses to speak out amoral actions and simply defends thinks like the trans contagion with a defense of not wanting government to step in. They don’t realize libertarians can speak out about bad acts without involving the government. But they will always defend the bad acts claiming government has no involvement. Oddly they will cheer the government on on actions they agree with. They tend to be left leaning.
Libertarians can speak out against the mutilation of kids. And they should agree that kids do not have full agency and can’t consent to life long medical decisions. Libertarians can also speak out with things like drugs are generally bad while not calling for them to be made illegal, but also support enhancements to crimes that stem from drug chasing.
You are naive.
It’s going to get worse.
Much worse.
Yes. If cooler heads were going to prevail they would already have done so.
So is it disinformation that this article is tagged “Afghanistan”?
Yeah, that’s gotta’ make you think. Why do they want to get it misclassified in the search engines?
Well, that or the fact that, though everyone here is an “editor” except the intern, nobody actually does any copy editing.
I am not sure it’s entirely accurate to say “Disinformation [is,] a half-forgotten relic of the Cold War,” and date its revival to 2016, when this book came out in 2001:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966410076/reasonmagazinea-20/
followed by this in 2002:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971394202/reasonmagazinea-20/
The choice of start date seemed a bit fishy…
Pretty disingenuous of both of you to consider those articles a “revival”. Robby isn’t wrong about the concept of “disinformation” being prominent in both the cold war and now.
Somebody’s not getting a Christmas card from the White House. But maybe from the IRS.
https://twitter.com/ConceptualJames/status/1654608991647834113?t=4xA8W5PxUnFUbDZEgYq3-w&s=19
NYTimes propagandizing again. This time they’re saying “no indication…that he made any direct threats.” it’s a Leftist manipulation because he threatened the whole train by saying “I’ll hurt anyone.”
[Cite]
https://twitter.com/BDSixsmith/status/1654406418793938947?t=ocToLdMzMksH9j4xGzqQaA&s=19
It’s incredibly Guardian to write a whole article about “attempts to portray him…as violent” and not get around to mentioning that he had a warrant out for his arrest after allegedly hitting an old woman. You don’t have to excuse his death to be honest.
[Link]
Reason writers have helped and pushed establishment narratives the last 5 or 6 years.
And a majority of them who voted chose Biden.
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For thousands of years, the world’s brightest philosophers have been telling us it’s impossible to actually know anything. I guess it’s time to admit they were right.
My, my, how the meaning of words depends so entirely on their context. The word “elite” is certainly a good example.
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.” –Lewis Carroll
In my home town (in Wisconsin by the way) there was a soda fountain and candy shop called “The Elite”. I think the shop was given the name prior to WWII, possibly prior to the Depression, when the word didn’t have the pejorative connotation it has now. Nowadays everyone uses the word as a slur, but different people will have in mind different groups with which they “have issues” or even wish to demonize. Since the word gets applied to just about everyone in one context or another, I suggest that it has become meaningless. I suggest that thoughtful people are well advised to avoid using it, in any context.
As usual the comments have spun off into interspace somewhere and lost track of the point. The point seems to be that “disinformation” exists but the real question – as always – is what, if anything, should be done about it, and by whom? Almost all of us should be able to agree that the government should do nothing about disinformation! Starting from the other end, it is ultimately up to each person to decide what to do about lies, damned lies and statistics. The tools are available. The fact that there’s a sucker born every minute and that honest researchers can certainly point to the aggregate outcomes of big money in political campaigns and malicious foreigners trying to “interfere” in our elections and government processes, the fact remains that official regulations and deep state countermeasures are almost always worse than the problems they claim to be trying to solve.
We are only 23 years into the new century and disinformation is the best you can come up with as being the hoax of the century? Give it time when “Climate Change” starts to affect your life in meaningful ways via government intervention to your power and how they will ration how many electrons you can receive due to fear of the weather. Yet not a single scientist worth a shit who delves in “climate change” aka tax-payer grant money awardees for theories and models on weather can’t expressly tell you how much they want the mean surface temperature of the earth to be and how much it will cost to achieve that number.
Hear that sucking sound? It’s all the money being tornadoed into this pit of absolute horseshit lies.
Disinformation = the Truth the government doesn’t want you to know!
Hoax is the disinformation of the century!
THe mother of all disinformation is when nothing is said pro or con, as with abortion or homosexuality , for example. It is someone saying this important thing is not important so I will shelf it.
Abortion would have reached the current state of public displeasure sooner if the Gosnells had been reported on.