I had a kinda funny thought this past week. That's not all that unusual, really, but I'm going to post it here to see if I can get some support for it. Because I think it would be a fascinating social exercise at least, and a powerful tool at best.
The "birthers" (where did that name come from, anyway?) and the right-wingers stomping around crying about the "death panels" and other healthcare falsehoods, are just two easy examples of how conservatives in this country are capitalizing on just about the only weapon they have these days, since they don't have any actual ideas: They are using lies.
Make up something absurd, spread it everywhere, pay people to show up at public events and make a scene about it... suddenly it becomes the truth even though there isn't a shred of evidence anywhere to support it. And that got me thinking... Couldn't the same weapon be used against them? And by that I mean, Let's make up some lies.
I couldn't be more serious. We're both looking at the easiest medium to use in spreading these lies, and that's the internet. Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, blogs, they can all spread "news" faster than anything else. Think about it, where did you first hear about Michael Jackson? Somewhere on the internet, right?
So here's my experiment: Join with me to create some totally outrageous fabrications that, in all likelihood, a lot of cretins could believe. I mean, they readily accept the laughable notion that a man made it to the top office of the land without anyone anywhere following a legitimate paper trail. How hard can they be to fool? Yes, I'm asking you to lie, and two wrongs don't make a right, yada yada. Sometimes you have to do ugly things in a war, and this has become an unavoidable war of disinformation.
Everyone is fair game. Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney. Pick a target and aim. Let's come up with some good ones and then spread 'em like gasoline on a wildfire. We'll all tweet them, blog them, put them in Facebook comments... and then sit back and watch. Will they catch fire and spread? Could it really be that easy to get disinformation into circulation?
Let's find out. Who's with me?
Saturday, August 15, 2009
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4 comments:
It's hard to come up with useful rumors, since the Republicans aren't in power. How about Limbaugh is impotent? Oh wait, he takes Viagra, so that's actually true. How about Sarah Palin is actually an atheist?
That's the beauty of the experiment -- they don't have to be useful. Just... wrong. It needs to be something that there *could* be evidence for, like Sarah Palin was actually born in Russia and has dual citizenship. Don't think petty (like someone being impotent, which it would be impossible to prove, so how could you start that rumor?).
And since when does someone have to be in power to be a threat? I'm seeing an awful lot of threat these days for a party that's not "in power."
What about... Glenn Beck was once the member of a Neo Nazi cult that molests children? I don't think that's really that far off anyways... I would believe that easily.
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