Disinformation Is a Threat to Our Democracy | Hacker News Reader

Disinformation Is a Threat to Our Democracy

barackobama.medium.com

1 pointdredmorbius7 comments

Fact: For eons politicians have uttered half-truths, etc. and they didn't want to be accountable and responsible. Over time, they intentionally crafted a system - nudge by nudge - where the masses are under-informed, less capable of being objective, less aware of the value of analysis, etc. Obama does well to rewrite history. The irony is stunning.

But now it's Big Tech's problem? Tho' he didn't seem to mind when The Media under his terms conveniently and consistently under-reported things that would damage the BO narrative (e.g., Gets Peace Prize...uses drones like Kleenex).

Mind you, yes, they can't bury their heads. But they shouldn't be alone in being named. Nor should these one-sided propaganda campaigns be used to sway opinion and then leverage that opinion to regulate Big Tech.

Again, more irony.

Obama was and still is a very successful politician. Those spots are still spots. A leopard is still a leopard.

Big Tech has shown themselves to be willing collaborators and shameless sycophants. Of course Obama would expect their eager compliance with enforcing his version of truth. Big Tech can't really complain about the pressure being put on them when they've long shown they're completely malleable in the right hands.

I would recommend reading "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism." Tech has the upper hand and it's playing the long game. Big Gov? It's slowly being marginalised, and it knows it. Thus, the former POTUS shamelessness.

"If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it".

Lie of the year in 2013.

https://www.politifact.com/article/2013/dec/12/lie-year-if-y...

This guy has less than no credibility when it comes to disinformation. He pals around with Ben "echo chamber" Rhodes, the master of disinformation during the Obama presidency.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/ben-rhodes/

Obama addressed that specific point during his Chicago appearance on the disinformation topic.

You, and other readers here, might care to see his comments on the point, which includes an acknowledgement of the strict technical truth that his promise wasn't met, but also what to my ears at least is an exceedingly reasonable justification for why, and how the labeling (and political deployment) of the statment has lost sight of those elements, to the point of fundamental disenginuity.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=uGXwA1W2cbc&t=25m35s (25:35 into the presentation)

We are controlled by Information which is the correct way. This way everyone can find the truth. Disinformation construes our view on real issues and controlles us aswell. We must get rid of disinformation to be controlled by the correct information!

Let me separate information and disinformation for you, so you can be correctly controlled. My political opponent is doing it in the wrong way!

Obama has made this presentation at both the University of Chicago and Stanford University. The former was part of a workshop on the topic as a discussion, the latter a speech. Both cover much the same ground and specific points.

Stanford speech via CSPAN: https://www.c-span.org/video/?519625-1/president-obama-warns...

University of Chicago discussion: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=uGXwA1W2cbc

Full playlist from UChicago Institute of Politics, "Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy":

https://yewtu.be/playlist?list=PLkFZB_XMYMJaE7wqstL6F9XEFHpW...

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