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Carol S.'s avatar

The attempts to show that Ukraine is really the malignant force and the cause of its own devastation at Putin's hands is comparable to the desperate efforts to prove that 1/6 was a false flag engineered to hurt Trumpers.

In both cases we see an unwillingness to believe overwhelming evidence in front of one's own eyes, an eagerness to ascribe deep corruption to American institutions, and a failure of moral discernment.

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Evan Meyers's avatar

Yes. We are being bombarded with nonstop information warfare. This is the great 21st century challenge - to maintain freedom, democracy, and an informed public in the face of disinformation, conspiracy, and propaganda.

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Carol S.'s avatar

One problem is that the conspiracy theorists like to believe that the "establishment" is lying to them, and that they are the ones penetrating the fog of disinformation. Sometimes it does turn out that the dominant take on an event was not accurate, and a little digging can expose some hidden facts. But sometimes, reason is overtaken by the zeal to disbelieve a wealth of evidence and keep digging for something to prove that evil is being done by ideological opponents (who are not actually evil). It's partly the thrill of being contrarian, under the guise of fighting back against an attack by some massive force of malignant intent.

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