THE LIE DETECTIVES

A data strategist examines misinformation and disinformation as promulgated by right-wing Americans.

Being a “lie detective” is in some ways easier than other kinds of gumshoe work. As Issenberg, author of The Victory Lab, recounts, when he called on a Republican misinformation minion a couple of election cycles back, the fellow proudly proclaimed, “We have three major voter suppression operations under way.” That was just the beginning. The rumblings of conspiracy first seen in the days of the tea party became the chaos of QAnon, and the lies mounted as Trump normalized lying. Interestingly, that lie machine was first used on Republicans by Republicans, with rumors floated in the 2000 primary that John McCain was “a godless heathen” and had had a Black child out of wedlock. Also interestingly, much current conspiracy thinking can be traced to Gamergate, the “open-source reactionary movement” that began as a malicious rumor machine against a woman video game maker and turned into an army of right-wing trolls. Republicans may not like the word disinformation, Issenberg writes, since they “think it’s an excuse to silence, cancel, or censor them,” but that’s just what it is. The author also looks at Brazil, which has legislated against disinformation and is quick to fine and shut down bad actors. However, it’s a giant game of whack-a-mole, with new sites and new lies cropping up instantly and those arrayed against it faced with the “recognition that ultimately disinformation would move too quickly, and too stochastically, for anyone to successfully police it.” In other words, there’s not much to be done about the right-wing web of lies. As one data activist notes, “We will win some and lose some, and will probably start to lose more.”

A provocative if dispiriting look at the endless campaign to curtail the big lie and a million lesser ones.