Misinformation emerged as the second winner of the presidential race.
It will have a place in the White House — along with the racism, sexism and patriarchy of occupant Donald Trump.
From goofy to kooky to alarming, the lies and conspiracies in this election cycle chipped away at democracy. And the public suffers. Yet the majority of this country craved more depravity and lies by giving the sexual abuser another chance.
Trump has embraced misinformation ever since he coasted down the golden escalator in 2015 to launch his presidential bid. He built a campaign around birtherism, a racist dog whistle claiming Barack Obama was not born in the United States. It’s absurd the lie lingered, and Obama had to pony up his birth certificate to disprove the lie.
Trump was just getting started.
As the Republican campaigned to be president again, the nonsense against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, hit a fever pitch. He and his sycophants have called her misogynist names I can’t repeat on this page. The words “communist” and socialist were thrown out to describe her, demonstrating that folks need deep civics lessons. Just this week, billionaire Elon Musk who has turned X into a cesspool tweeted that unless Trump wins, this would be the last election because “The Dems will legalize all the illegals in swing states, so there will be no more swing states. America will become a one-party, deep blue socialist state.”
The News Literacy Project, an organization I have volunteered with, has logged more than 850 examples of election misinformation. Election interference and fraud rumors continue to spread despite no proof. Abortion, economics and the border are also fair game for falsehoods.
It’s exhausting. I suppose that’s the point. Wear people down. Sow distrust to the point of no return. Fill voters’ heads with the emotions they desire. Trump’s promises of fascism appeals to the fragility of many white Americans. His win is not the fault of the Green Party or Gaza. White supremacy is aspirational.
We’ve seen this play out for almost 10 years.
One of Trump’s most inconsequential yet egotistical lies came shortly after his 2017 inauguration. His press secretary claimed it was the “largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. It was not because pictures clearly showed otherwise. But Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway went on television — with a straight face — to defend the remarks and called them “alternative facts.”
Trump has a devoted media partner in his crusade. Last year the Fox News channel settled a $787.5 million lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over repeatedly airing false allegations that the company’s voting machines were rigged against Trump in the 2020 election. Dominion said Fox knew the claims were false and sued for libel.
Fox cemented its brand by promoting birtherism and downplaying COVID-19. But before Trump, the cable network created a winning ratings strategy. It shilled for the Iraq War and unabashedly supported the GOP. Back in the early aughts, Stephen Colbert created a persona on his “Colbert Report” Comedy Central satirical show that poked at Fox personalities and the audience. In that spoof, Colbert coined the term “truthiness,” and there’s a clear line from two decades ago to where we are today. “Truthiness” means feelings are facts. Gut is more important than the actual truth. Fake. Not a lie if you believe it.
The latter appears to be Trump’s mantra, with too many Americans eating it up. So undoing the knee-jerk reaction to embrace misinformation could take generations to reverse.
But until then, misinformation will thrive, spreading faster than Trump can utter the phrase he popularized — “fake news.”
Natalie Y. Moore is a senior lecturer at Northwestern University.
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