The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread

I'm a technical professional in a tech-rich region of the country, so I'm used to being tasked by everyday conversations to consider novel notions. This book activated these same challenge reflexes, allowing me to stay in my engaged-comfort-zone. It's undoubtedly a book by intellectuals for intellectuals, and I'm not sure I would have bought it if it wasn't, the world currently being what it is.The authors clearly decided early on that persuasion would not be among their goals, which is laudable but would certainly detract from their publication-release "buzz"; I see this as an unavoidable artifact of modern book publicity, and I'll ignore it. The book is properly a scientific anchor-point, as opposed to a policy statement, and policy wonks should look elsewhere for inspiration.The book excels in accurately describing the gradual subversion that the historical notion of "marketplace of ideas" has endured over more than 100 years. More importantly, it explains in depth the degree to which modern special interests hold the upper hand over honest and earnest pursuers of truth, through the use of centuries-old propagandistic methods, in spite of all our modern technological achievements.The book offers no clear prescriptions, nor is it clear to me that it should. It's sufficient to me that the authors explained how scientists arrive at scientific certainty, and that they describe the various ways interested parties have sought to disrupt that certainty among the electorate.

What a great book!!It draws on social networks, social epistemology, history and philosophy of science, and current events to give us a better understanding of the spread of misinformation and the dangers of propaganda in a free society.

So some groups of people and media that you "trust" are right sometimes; but, importantly, could also be WRONG sometimes. And some groups of people and media that you "don't trust" are wrong sometimes, but, importantly could also be RIGHT sometimes. But because you would NEVER listen to those that you "don't trust" -- you might be missing out on valuable information. And because you ONLY listen to those that you "trust" you are susceptible to being misled and misinformed. Therefore you are vulnerable if you take action (or don't take action) on information based simply on who you've chosen to trust (or not to trust) without further evaluation. I define "right" to mean information leading to decisions in your own best interests.Your decision to "trust" or "not to trust" is primarily a function of perception and pre-existing beliefs. This is largely determined by: Choice of LANGUAGE deployed by the other; perceived level of AUTHORITY of the other; the number of FOLLOWERS the other has; those having FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE to your mind; CONFORMITY BIAS aka "doing what the crowd is doing," FEAR and REPETITION. Generally speaking, more trust is granted to those using the language that you use; more trust is granted to those with higher perceived authority; more trust is granted to those with more followers (i.e. social media personalities); more trust is granted to authorities when we are in states of fear (think pervasive "terrorism" on the news); more trust is granted to things we are familiar hearing or seeing regularly; and more trust is granted to existing, ingrained thoughts from childhood. This is because we all must trust caretakers to survive as a child. So our close relatives have strong influence over our life-long beliefs which generally persist thru adulthood. Although, "close relatives influence" on children has largely been replaced by entertainment propaganda, characters, brands and digital experiences devised by mass media, who I will argue have ulterior motives.Much of the above happens at an EMOTIONAL or SUB-CONSCIOUS level. So, if we put FEELINGS of trust over analytical thinking, we are vulnerable to manipulation on many levels by advertisers and propagandists. Propagandists are specialists at exploiting the knowledge mentioned in the preceding paragraph. One of the most effective propaganda gurus in the US was Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud was a master manipulator of the subconscious. Propagandists ARE NOT limited to commercials, advertising agencies or foreign adversaries. As I explain later, they are integral to shaping and directing our "free" society without you knowing it.It is possible to defend against these vulnerabilities, but we must become better at logic and rational thought (more on this below). It takes dedication and effort. I can give specific examples of how propagandists manipulate language to gain trust and ultimately use that trust to deceive, but it would be better for you to think of your own examples. In all cases the propagandists do NOT come out and say: "hey, I'm here to influence you to do xyz" and sign their names to it. No. They use deceptive TECHNIQUES on you, like a skilled martial artist. This is what we must be FULLY conscious of -- that you/we/us are the TARGETS of, sometimes, very advanced deceptive techniques and practices.We are deceived thru our trust. On a larger level, propagandists seek to shape mass consciousness by doing our thinking for us. They will "the herd" to act against their own interests with their *collusive* control of the media, big business, big tech etc. For the most part, the propagandists are not outright liars. Rather, they are deceivers. They need to keep us strung-out long enough to achieve their ends (starting a war for example) before eventually losing our trust. But by the time the public realizes that they've been duped, the propagandists ends have already been achieved. Today, the propaganda is often very subtle: it obfuscates the truth, is masked as entertainment, is buried in a maze of distraction and half-truths, etc.One of the most effective propaganda techniques is controlling all sides of the narrative. Those that you trust could actually be working against you. Many people can't understand this. As an analogy using Orwell's 1984: Winston trusted O'Brien, who publicly appeared to be on Winston's side. However, O'Brien was actually a deceiver working for the inner party in secret. Thus O'Brien controlled both sides of the narrative--publicly (as hating the system) and privately (as a gatekeeper FOR the system). Propagandists do the same. "Controlled opposition" is effective in keeping the public pacified because the public is presented with heroes (albeit controlled and staged heroes) that fight the good fight for them so that they don't have to. This keeps Joe public on the couch and not active joining any causes. Thus controlled opposition (setup and led by propagandists to fail) keeps the control structure unchallenged. This is its main job.At an elite level, propagandists incite war; trick us into voting for this or that politician; get us to adopt new technologies, and so forth. Regarding war: propagandists instigate an attack or invent an "enemy," then coordinate mass media to demonize that enemy as "savages", "terrorists", "bad guys", that must be defeated by us "good guys", thus playing on our emotions (the 1997 film "Wag the Dog" provides a good fictional account of how propagandists contrived and sold a war to the public)....Regarding tricking us into voting for this or that candidate: propagandists dress the candidate like us, have them talk like us, and appear flawed like us, while overlooking criminality and gross incompetence....Regarding adoption of new technologies: propagandists prey on our imitativeness and fear-of-missing out to get us to accept technologies that don't benefit society on the whole, and don't benefit society in the long run.Understanding the above alone is an accomplishment. At the very least, after reading this book, if you begin to listen to groups that you "don't trust" to broaden your perspective, and, as a check to ensure that you are not being misled by those that you DO "trust", this book might be worthwhile. (Although, there are pitfalls including wasting your time with endless amounts of useless noise if you don't practice good discernment)However, my main problem with the book is that it DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE TOOLS TO DISTINGUISH AND EVALUATE ARGUMENTS. Because you now need tools to evaluate all the *new* arguments you'll be hearing (from those groups which you did "not trust" before) and all the *old* arguments which you should be re-thinking. For this, I recommend Anthony Weston' s "A Rulebook for Arguments", and Anthony Weston's "A Workbook for Arguments"The Weston books will give you the tools to develop your OWN THOUGHTS and actively EVALUATE what you're hearing. This book does a lot of thinking FOR YOU, i.e. it does not present objective facts or arguments; but rather mostly prints stories from second-hand authoritarian sources (Washington Post, NY Times, NASA, etc) which represent the viewpoint of the owners of our technological society, and which the authors take for granted as the "truth."Interwoven within the book are scientific models with diagrams that the authors use to explain how "true" or "false" beliefs can spread throughout communities. This is interesting but overly simplified, and again highlights my principal issue with the book -- namely, that, after reading it, you won't have a better toolbox to evaluate arguments for yourself at an INDIVIDUAL LEVEL.After all, a society is a group of individuals. The more that can critically think and reason rationally for themselves (and not be subject to language manipulation, conformity bias, fear etc.) the less society will be subject to false beliefs and manipulation, and therefore the better society will be as a whole. Conversely, the opposite is true and society becomes worse off when more people can't reason individually and, instead, take action in herd behavior resulting from trusting propagandists. But the authors fail to recognize this, and instead supplant abstract models which aren't very useful.Today, the line between the journalist, tech mogul, youtube star, investment guru, celebrity, politician, sports star, etc..AND PROPAGANDIST IS BLURRED. This is assisted by consolidation of mass media to only 5 or 6 corporations. Despite the mere appearance of an endless variety of "programming" -- it is all ultimately controlled and approved by a handful of owners at the top.So a few owners of these corporations *colluding* together in secret have full-spectrum control of the narrative of our world: news, entertainment, politics, sports, health advice, investment advice, etc. Note that the elite owners of society hire the propagandist, and the propagandist coaches and coordinates with the performers, who are the journalist, tech mogul, politician, Youtube star, sports star, etc. Simplified here:Owners--> Propagandists --> Performers --> The deceived herd content watching the Performers on television and Youtube.Think of the propagandists as the conductors directing the Orchestra performers. There are thousands of performers, and you know their names. But you probably don't know the propagandists, and you don't know the owners operating behind the scenes. This is designed like this on purpose. You can't fight against what you can't see--what is not there. The performers are well paid, sworn to secrecy or "sold their souls." So there is no incentive to question the orders given down the line. Like any corporate job, they do what they are told (more or less.) This may difficult for many to believe, but I'm sure that almost everyone put in front of you is an actor performing a script coordinated by propagandists.. The 1998 film "The Truman Show" gives a prescient account of this world I'm describing here: You/we are TRUMAN; the cast would be akin to the PERFORMERS; and the PROPAGANDIST would be akin to the bald director on the Moon staging the production named "Christof." Christof was hired by OWNERS not seen.But he individual, and society is facing an uphill battle because technology dumbs us down. The authors fail to recognize this -- that technology is the primary cause for increased polarization. Technology allows for A PLETHORA of useless information (propaganda or distraction propaganda) to bombard the individual at all times and on many levels.This over-abundance of information causes the individual to give up on trying to recognize and evaluate REAL ARGUMENTS. Instead, the individual skips the thinking process, and simply FEELS out who to trust. But because some groups trust some media; and others trust different media; and still others trust different media -- and all of the individuals are not thinking for themselves. So we become fragmented & siloed. Communication among folks is strained or not possible because there is no common ground; no "coming to terms" with each other. As Winston says in 1984, "if there is hope it lies in the proles." Technology and propagandists will continue to ensure that there is no hope for us proles coming together (other than as directed by the propagandists/owners for their benefit and our loss).Hence we become "programmed" on different tracks so-to-speak by different media. Those tracks are leading us on diverging paths; and, dangerously, those tracks could be co-opted to create head on collisions. Or the tracks could be co-opted to direct society to take actions benefiting the propagandists (and ultimately the wealthy elite owners hiring the propagandists). Technology makes this co-opting and controlling of herds of people by a few elite controllers much easier and much quicker than at any time in the past.Note that seeking out arguments and information from those that we "don't trust" is NOT as simple as listening to CNN if you are on the right (or vice versa for Fox News if you're on the left). This book re-enforces this false left/right paradigm -- that the NY Times and WaPo are reliable and are on one side, and Fox News and Breitbart are not reliable and are on the other side. THE TRUTH IS THAT THEY ARE ALL CONTROLLED. The performers get us to unthinkingly imitate the play-fighting they do on TV; but we do it for real in our own real lives. This serves as a "divide and conquer" mechanism which keeps the public distracted and fighting among themselves. What you are seeing from these controlled outlets (which the authors believe to be the whole of reality) are very narrow ranges of thought representing a few owners of technological society who wish to (and do) control the thinking capacity of the masses.For me, seeking out better information to digest means truly listening and giving consideration to the HUMAN BEINGS that we come across in our lives with difference of opinion. Even though we may not agree, at least we can try to rationalize with other human beings (unlike a TV screen or a controlled propagandist posing as a journalist.) Seeking better information means information from books, and other PRIMARY SOURCES of information. We should draw our own conclusions and not let our thoughts be influenced by cheap propaganda. Cheap propaganda which replaces the real thing with THEIR version of the thing, thus preventing us from experiencing individually and directly. Almost every important historical event or important work of fiction has been uprooted and is instead experienced as a propagandized Hollywood film or TV documentary. In truth, often times there never is any mass historical event at all -- its always only existed as a Hollywood production occurring on TV or social media.When we learn new things, it is helpful to exaggerate to get past mental blocks. For this, ironically, I find that READING FICTION and LITERATURE is helpful. This is because fiction helps stretch our minds in exaggerated psychic reality which we could not otherwise do (reading is superior to television/movies/VR because reading is more of a two-way process; television is more of a one way brainwashing due to the sensory overload that television puts our brains under, allowing trauma and perversions to be imparted into our minds which we can't process at rational levels). Reading makes us more flexible and empathetic when encountering new people and ideas. Literature transcends time. The Crying of lot 49 by pyncheon, and White Noise by delilo are good ones related to the topic at hand. I often find that fiction is more REAL than what is presented to us as non-fiction on TV news. It's just a matter of swapping the non-fiction LABEL for the fiction LABEL, and vice versa.Seeking out un-propagandized information is challenging for several reasons. This is because most people are very busy, and don't have time to sift through enormous amounts of information. The controlled media dominates everything that most Americans see and hear (even the "alternative media" is controlled behind the scenes.). Most people just repeat what they hear on the television without thinking about it, so finding original thought is rare. Much of the valuable information is simply not available, even on the internet due to shadow banning, censorship, and our pre-programmed mental fences which we are afraid to jump over. If you don't have a pre-existing thought to search for something, and it is not put in front of you, how can you even search for it to find out more? In short, most simply "accept the reality of the world with which we are presented."Propagandists are also effective in PREVENTING you from seeking out what could be valuable information by sowing DISTRUST toward groups that the propagandists don't want you coming across. The same techniques to get you to "trust" are applied in reverse to get you to "not trust" (see second paragraph). For example, you might not give much weight to a single individual voice speaking his or her mind because few others believe it; few others are following along; the language is unsettling to you, the speaker has no authority, and the idea might violate your pre-conceived notions about the thing.. Lastly, the propagandists are very skilled. They have developed and sharpened their techniques for decades and technology has put them on steroids. Advanced software allows everything on the internet to be tracked, read, and monitored in real time. This allows the propagandists instant feedback. They can monitor responses to their tactics and change them swiftly if they are not effective. Often times they are so skilled, you are not even aware that what is being presented to you is propaganda -- they make you think that you have chosen to support xyz war, or xyz candidate, or that you have chosen take xyz action on you own.But thankfully we now know that we should not use "trust or not trust" as ways of knowing about things and making decisions. We need to separate out our emotions, and all the noise to think deeper to identify and evaluate real arguments. We need to SLOW DOWN. We need not be afraid of new ideas. That is why we should be thankful when we hear human beings offer thoughts that would formerly give you a negative knee-jerk reaction. Understand that that emotional negative knee jerk reaction has probably been programmed in. I often remind myself to "take everything as it is, without prior rules about how it should be." I generally avoid all media produced by large organizations (including Youtube) with the understanding that it is 95% controlled or in some way disinformation targeted at us. Most of the time we can't figure out how the pieces of the puzzle fit together -- that is we can't understand what future event we are being conditioned or programmed for as we are being programmed for it. However, simply to know that we ARE being setup, programmed, or conditioned in some way is enough to know to understand that we should avoid all media. The best course of action is to avoid all narratives that are not crafted by you yourself or thoughtful, well reasoned others.Generally speaking, schooling conditions us to trust and accept authority until we are 18. In college, I was explicitly taught to only seek out "authoritative" sources for all works cited. We are not taught to question. We are not taught critical thinking. But this is a much larger topic than what i can write here, but I wanted to mention it because people will often say "schooling is the answer." Clearly it is not helping.The answer is LESS TECHNOLOGY or INCREASED REASONING / CRITICAL THINKING at an individual level or some combination of both. But note the interrelationship between the two -- increased technology usually leads to increased dependence, meaning less confidence in one's human nature and capacity to tackle complex problems which is integral to fighting off propagandists and disputing authority. Given the trajectory that society is on, we are absolutely going in the wrong direction. Since we don't control the media, we can only take individual actions to make those close to us aware of the problem. I suggest that we develop and promote an ideology that is skeptical toward technology. READ, READ and READ more. Turn off the Television and radio. Get propaganda out of your life.I give one star for the wonderful quote by Edward Bernays on page 99. That quote, and the rest of the paragraph following that quote is what you really need to know. Take that, and leave the rest.Finally, I want to point out that this book on modern-day misinformation does NOT mention that fact that the US Congress recently over-turned the smithmundt act. This act previously prevented the use of propaganda against the American Public. It is now LEGAL to use against the american public.

Reading this confirms what I’ve suspected: humans are hopeless animals hell bent on self-destruction and ill equipped to prevent manipulation by sociopaths in industry. We’re going down for sure.

I bough this book hoping to learn more about how misinformation winds it way through social media. It has become a major issue in modern life. Unfortunately, the content is so poorly written, that it is almost impossible to follow. Instead of data leading you to a logical path in support of a specific thesis, the story wanders aimlessly until it folds back on what I suppose was a major point suggested earlier. I had the definite feeling that after the initial draft was prepared, the authors felt compelled to beef up or stretch data detail until it became very hard to follow. Rather than guiding readers through facts which led to logical conclusions, it seemed to drag readers through a maze of unconnected information which would generate migraines in any logical thinker. It read like a mediocre college paper but provided less impact.

A thorough, informative, and engaging look into modern day mass psychology and opinions, the basis of many being completely fabricated or influenced by agents set on achieving their own social and/or political agendas at any cost. This book allowed for a far deeper understanding of how we process and use information information that comes to us (as well as how and why false information reaches us). This highlights how in this day and age, we must all be ever vigilant in our critical assessment and belief of everything we hear/see in our never ending pursuit of truth. A must read!

The Misinformation Age offers important insight for scientists, journalists, nonfiction writers, and anyone who wants to combat the spread of false beliefs.

Excellent philosophy of science applied an important social problem of our age.

Worth a read

“The Misinformation Age - How False Beliefs Spread,” criticizes, “largely make white and Western European culture that had committed atrocities around the world”. “The whole field of statistics” is claimed derived from ‘racial superiority’. O’Connor & Weaterall endorse Sandra Harding, a ‘feminist theorists’ who exposed “the proliferation of rape metaphors, with the scientist forcing Mother Nature to submit”.A book on “misinformation” should not endorse political correctness, race victimization theory or misandric feminism.Returned for refund.