Beyond Selidor

When I saw the one about TikTok apparently being Americans' only avenue for finding out about socialised healthcare, shared with apparent sincerity by several Facebook friends, I had to sit for a few minutes and stare at the wall, because I just could not believe they could be taken in by something like that.

I've been discussing disinformation campaigns aimed at progressives in another comment to edwardianspinsteraunt above; the specific thing we've identified is now really obvious to me whenever I see it. The other really recognisable one aimed at the left (especially at Americans) is one designed to demotivate people from voting: 'they're all the same, so why should I bother?' or 'this individual Democratic politician did something I disagree with (or the party isn't perfect on this issue), so why should I support them?' Obviously they hinge on real issues and real feelings that people care about, and this kind of sentiment can be genuine, but there are contexts in which I encounter it in the social media wild where it's really clear that it's intended as deliberate disinformation to drive a particular political outcome (apathy and low voter turnout). I'm now inclined to be very suspicious when I see this kind of thing being spread around, and to distrust the critical thinking skills of the person sharing it.