Rumors on X Are Becoming the Right's New Reality
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/rumors-x-twitter-musk/680219/?utm_source=msn
"As Musk has drifted to the right, his profile picture now features him in a MAGA hat, the platform he rebranded as X has become the center of a right-wing political culture built upon a fantastical rumor mill.
……The amplification of emotionally manipulative chatter is a familiar issue on social media. What's more disconcerting is that Republican political elites, with Musk now among them, are openly legitimizing what the X rumor mill churns out when it serves their objectives.
….History shows that the weaponization of rumors can lead to devastating consequences, scapegoating individuals, inciting violence, deepening societal divisions, sparking moral panics, and even justifying atrocities.
…..Conservatives have reframed fact checking as a censorship technique by "woke" tech companies and biased journalists.
…..Without a concerted push to defend truth, by leaders, institutions, and the public, the rumor mill will continue to churn, and its distortions will become the foundation of an irreparably divided political landscape. As Hurricane Milton roared across Florida, social-media users were fantasizing, absurdly, about government control of tropical cyclones and making death threats against weather forecasters.
…..Rumors have always circulated, but the decision by Republican politicians and Musk to exploit them has created a problem that's genuinely new. In the modern right wing propaganda landscape, where facts are recast as subjective and any authority outside MAGA is deemed illegitimate, eroding trust in institutions is not an unfortunate side effect, it is the goal. And for now, the result is a niche political reality wherein elites on the right, including the world's richest man, amplify baseless claims without legitimate pushback."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/rumors-x-twitter-musk/680219/?utm_source=msn
"As Musk has drifted to the right, his profile picture now features him in a MAGA hat, the platform he rebranded as X has become the center of a right-wing political culture built upon a fantastical rumor mill.
……The amplification of emotionally manipulative chatter is a familiar issue on social media. What's more disconcerting is that Republican political elites, with Musk now among them, are openly legitimizing what the X rumor mill churns out when it serves their objectives.
….History shows that the weaponization of rumors can lead to devastating consequences, scapegoating individuals, inciting violence, deepening societal divisions, sparking moral panics, and even justifying atrocities.
…..Conservatives have reframed fact checking as a censorship technique by "woke" tech companies and biased journalists.
…..Without a concerted push to defend truth, by leaders, institutions, and the public, the rumor mill will continue to churn, and its distortions will become the foundation of an irreparably divided political landscape. As Hurricane Milton roared across Florida, social-media users were fantasizing, absurdly, about government control of tropical cyclones and making death threats against weather forecasters.
…..Rumors have always circulated, but the decision by Republican politicians and Musk to exploit them has created a problem that's genuinely new. In the modern right wing propaganda landscape, where facts are recast as subjective and any authority outside MAGA is deemed illegitimate, eroding trust in institutions is not an unfortunate side effect, it is the goal. And for now, the result is a niche political reality wherein elites on the right, including the world's richest man, amplify baseless claims without legitimate pushback."
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