Of course, if I suggested that, I was blasted for "both-sidesing."

Then I discovered an area of scholarship: Communications and the overlap between communications and political science.

I read these books and all the light bulbs went on.

I wrote a series last November called the Misinformation-Outrage-Cycle.

I thought I was finished, but like a book that I finish several times, I wasn't finished.

https://terikanefield.com/invented-narratives-and-the-outrage-industry/

This time, I think I am finished.

2/

When I get it all connected, the blog post I just wrote will be Part 6.

The post I did earlier this week on the 14th Amendment Section 3 debacle will be Part 7.

I wrote a conclusion: What to Expect from the Rage Machine Going Forward.

I may do a short introduction including the information in this thread.

https://terikanefield.com/invented-narratives-and-the-outrage-industry/

If you read this blog post, and the two that follow (I have links at the bottom going to the next post) you will understand why I have been getting testy.

3/

There is nothing wrong with outrage based on facts.

Outrage about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade will probably keep Biden in the White House.

But manufactured outrage to fuel a for-profit industry is not good for anyone.

It is not good for democracy.

It is not good for the victims.

It is not good for the people trying to put out forest fires of misinformation with a squirt gun of facts.

https://terikanefield.com/invented-narratives-and-the-outrage-industry/

4/

The solution to a Firehose of Falsehood is not to try to debunk each bit of misinformation.

The fact checkers can never keep up.

The solution is to put raincoats on the populaton.

The same applies to the kind of misinformation that runs rampant in what I've been calling the CNN-MSNBC-left-leaning social media ecosystem.

It is super easy for pundits with cable platofrms or big social media accounts to toss out a rage-inducing simplification.

5/

Debunking each one is difficult and time consuming.

Think how easy it is to say "THE DOJ IS DOING NOTHING."

Now consider how much time went into putting together:
https://terikanefield.com/all-new-doj-investigation-faqs/

I believe the biggest threat to democracy is losing factuality and embracing lies.

Autocracy is based on lies. Democracy is based on the truth.

I wrote this series as I figured out what was going on: https://terikanefield.com/invented-narratives-and-the-outrage-industry/

I hope it helps others understand.

6/

@Teri_Kanefield You really need to find an instance that will let you post more than 500 characters at a time. When you post a series of posts, I generally see one or two ot of ten.

Just so you know, infosec.exchange will let you post up to 11,000 characters at a time. Some otrher instances will also let you post more than the Mastodon default of 500 characters, though as far as I know there unfortunately is no list of instances ordered by maximum post length.