Fighting the illusionists and the liars
Whether in deepfake videos or candidate speeches, truth is challenged as never before
Who is to say what is true, and what is an illusion? In fact, we are. (Photo by Jeffrey Dungen on Unsplash)
Sometimes things aren’t what they seem. Magicians don’t really snatch coins from thin air, make rabbits disappear or cut their assistants in half on stage. That sort of sleight-of-hand is mind-boggling and fun. But these days a different kind of illusion has us worried: lies masquerading as reality in order to boost a political candidate. In this campaign season, if you see a candidate on a screen doing or saying something that’s hard to believe, it could be a so-called “deepfake video” — unless, of course, it's Donald Trump just being himself.
Laying aside the incredible ex-president, we ought to realize by now that we need to be more dubious than ever of information coming our way that might sway our opinions. Humans have always been ripe for misleading, but technology has given unscrupulous players new power to greatly enlighten or wildly mislead us. And we are poorly armed for this fight.
Take, for example, what seems to have happened to one of my pals from childhood, who we’ll call Leland. I haven’t seen Leland in decades, but social media has reacquainted us a bit. A couple of weeks ago, Leland passed along on Facebook an account purporting to be from someone who had just gotten back from Ukraine — a woman with a name and social media identity that seemed Eastern European. “Everything we have heard about what’s happening in Ukraine is a lie,” she asserted.
Ukrainians are “hopeless, utterly destroyed,” she wrote, and they are blaming their president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for not pursuing peace with Russia two years ago — which would be right about when the country was invaded. After recounting several scenes of chaos and misery, the post declared that Ukrainians have given up, and they “cannot comprehend why Zelensky wishes to continue the current trajectory, the one of human devastation.”
It ended, “Shame on the people, regardless of their intentions, who have supported this war. And shame on the media for continuing to lie about it.” The unsubtle message delivered to Leland’s Facebook friends, and anybody else who got the post: America ought not to be pouring money into Ukraine’s defense, because Russia’s triumph is inevitable, the sooner the better for the people of Ukraine.
That’s conveniently what Vladimir Putin wishes for Americans to believe, so that U.S. support in helping Ukraine stop Russia’s territorial expansion to the borders of NATO nations will disappear. It’s also a message that a growing number of right-wing Republicans are touting, backing up Trump — who “will not give a penny” to Ukraine if he returns to the White House, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared after meeting last month with Trump in Florida. We can’t be surprised. Time after time over the years, Trump has lined up eagerly behind Putin, often against America’s intelligence and security services.1
Most grown-ups have learned that engagement on Facebook is frequently disappointing, but that anti-Ukraine post annoyed me. So I typed a comment beneath it, warning Leland that he might be unknowingly passing along a message from foreigners who don’t have America’s best interests at heart. Both Russia and China, intelligence officials say, are interceding in the U.S. campaigns, using digital accounts to undermine the Biden administration and help Trump regain the White House. Maybe that post was genuine, but, I wrote, “This just sounds too suspicious to me — and exactly like the stuff that Hitler’s propagandists were pushing as he moved across Europe.”
Leland, whose social media posts often echo MAGA talking points, was unimpressed. “I don’t know her personally,” he replied, but “she is a friend of a friend who vouches for it. So I tend to believe it.”
You might fairly question the definition of “friend” in the internet age, but I didn’t think that would make a difference to Leland, nor would it help if I cited the warnings about foreign campaign meddling that have been widely reported by dependable news organizations. My information sources, after all, tend to be those denounced by Trump as “enemies of the people.” So I let the matter drop. If I came from a different religious heritage, maybe I would have turned for help to Saint Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of lost causes. But if I ever got onto that track, I’d probably have to be engaged in constant prayer, because Leland, after all, is only one of many.
Against such willful credulity — that is, as we face fellow citizens who eagerly embrace the sales pitches of unprincipled politicians, and who pooh-pooh facts from trustworthy sources — what are thoughtful folks to do? It’s an even tougher question now than it was during the last presidential campaign, because we have lost strategic help in the fight for truth, both on digital platforms and in public forums.
After Donald Trump instigated the Jan. 6 attacks, Twitter permanently blocked his account, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence,” and both Facebook and YouTube likewise blacklisted him. But his digital lies are no longer so limited: Elon Musk has welcomed wacky and shady since he took over Twitter and renamed it X, and Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, gave up its effort to rein in the wild force that is Trump, reinstating his accounts last year. Now X has little serious content moderation, and the Meta platforms have altered their algorithms to downplay political content.
In fact, Meta now welcomes false advertising: Political ads are allowed to say that past elections were fraudulently conducted, as Trump claims, even if it has been conclusively shown that they weren’t. At the same time, staffing cuts have hobbled efforts by social media platforms to stop foreign political meddling.2
The right-wing media establishment that flickered with affection for a post-Trump era has likewise caved in to the master of deception. A year ago, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and New York Post both were blatantly pushing the presidential candidacy of Ron DeSantis; now they’re again all in for Trump.
Yet allegiance to Trump is hardly the only offense against integrity by Fox News: It willfully exaggerates such threats as crime and illegal immigration, and unethically suppresses news that is less pleasing to Trump supporters. So most Fox viewers surely don’t realize that crime actually is declining in U.S. cities, and that the Biden administration has expelled five times more migrants who crossed the border illegally than the Trump administration did — not to mention that America is pumping more oil out of the ground now than it did during Trump’s term.3
Nor are as many politicians pushing back against deceit as they were in the last weeks before Trump left office. A lot of Republican officeholders broke with Trump after his Jan. 6 rally turned into a violent insurrection, including the party’s leaders in Congress, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy. One by one, almost all have returned to the fold, and are endorsing him to once again be the leader of the free world, his astonishing record of dishonesty notwithstanding. Except for two U. S. senators – Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins – every Republican in Congress who isn’t retiring is backing Trump. So the hope that the Republican party would regain its footing as a responsible force in American democracy has faded; it is Trump’s party now, firmly siding with falsehood.
Beyond that, the MAGAfied Republican party has become a welcome home to some flagrant fibbers. It’s not just such familiar figures as Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt Gaetz; this week the New York Times profiled Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana, who touts the claim that FBI agents set up the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and were transported to the Trump rally by “ghost buses,” and that Covid-19 was a plot by government forces to undo the Trump presidency. Far from being viewed as a fringe figure, Higgins has been rewarded with positions of influence in the Republican-led House, lending credibility to views that ought to be renounced by anyone in a position of responsibility. But Higgins’ stances square with the notion that people convicted of Jan. 6 offenses are “hostages” of the American justice system, deserving of a presidential pardon that the Republican standard-bearer promises to deliver. Such is the awful magical thinking that is today’s Republican orthodoxy.4
It’s not as though the truth that’s hard for some people to accept is hard for any of us to know about. Take the foreign intrusion into our elections that seems to have snagged the attention, unknowingly, of my childhood friend.
Russia is using fake online accounts and bots in an effort to undermine the Biden campaign, NBC News reported a few weeks ago, knowing that a second Trump presidency would undercut Ukraine’s defense and further weaken NATO. A similar effort is underway in Europe: A Russian disinformation campaign is trying to undercut Zelensky’s popularity, and a separate effort is aimed at June’s elections for the European Parliament.5
China, too, is using fake online accounts, some impersonating fervent Trump fans, in an effort to stoke partisan divisions and weaken Biden’s political standing. An account on X, The New York Times noted recently, that purported to be “a father, husband and son” — who is “MAGA all the way!!” — was in fact a product of a Chinese government effort known in the West as Spamouflage.6
This foreign meddling aimed at undermining the social fabric of America by exploiting our disagreements shares something in common with the bad acts of domestic illusionists — that is, the news coverage that distorts the reality of our daily lives and the blatant disregard for facts that is exhibited by so many politicians. All three — whether they are presented in speeches or on cable programs or in fake online accounts and deepfake videos — are challenges to the values Americans have long shared.
We have valued truth and integrity in our politicians and strength that can project democratic values worldwide. We haven’t laid aside partisan differences as much as we have been able to work through those divides for the shared goal of improving Americans’ lives.
All that seems too difficult these days because we have been disabled by a virus of deceit. Lies are laying America low, and the outcomes we care about most — happiness for our families, freedom and justice for all, and the potential for future opportunities for ourselves and others — are left at risk.
This isn’t caused by innocent chicanery, like the optical illusions that inspire our wonder; these are lies that work by triggering fear. That means that we can best counter them by building hope — by meeting political illusions with factual solutions. We need to be armed with thoughts and plans that offer a narrative contrary to the distortions that tend to grip us. Scolding people for believing lies, as I tried to do when my old friend Leland advanced a whopper, is less effective than putting forward a more hopeful alternative view.
But there is no way out of the imperative to defeat the illusionists. That is, we have to work constantly to assert what’s true and expose the fabulists, maintaining our energy in the effort. Americans are fatigued by the political combat of recent years, and many of us on the left are astounded at being forced, yet again, to fight the unprecedented threat presented by Donald Trump’s flagrant falsehoods and their embrace by virtually half the country. That’s the task demanded if we honor truth, though — and it’s hardly time to give up.
It's not necessarily a popular pursuit, of course. “The further a society drifts from the truth,” George Orwell wrote, “the more it will hate those who speak it.” But there’s no room anymore for magic tricks and illusion. In fact, it’s our time and task to insist on truth-telling, whether we find it challenged by sleight of hand or by outright deceit.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68533351
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/worried-meta-decision-allowing-2020-election-denial-ads/story?id=104985165
https://fair.org/home/fox-news-border-stats-distort-immigration-reality/
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/04/us/politics/clay-higgins-jan-6.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/russias-2024-election-interference-already-begun-rcna134204
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/01/business/media/china-online-disinformation-us-election.html
NEWSCLIPS FROM THE UPSTATES
Dispatches from our common ground *
Wherein each week we look around what we call the nation’s Upstates — those places just a bit removed from the center of things — to find illuminating news and intriguing viewpoints, which you might not otherwise see.
This week, we share reporting published here:
Swedesburg, Iowa (Des Moines Register, press-citizen.com)
New Bedford, Mass. (The Standard-Times, southcoasttoday.com)
Stockton, Cal. (The Stockton Record, recordnet.com)
Jackson, Miss. (Mississippi Clarion Ledger, clarionledger.com)
NOTE: The complete “Newsclips from the Upstates” section, and The Upstate American Midweek Extra Edition, which is sent to email boxes on some Wednesdays, are available only to paid subscribers. Thanks for your support!
IOWA
A real “Rosie the Riveter” dies at 99
Six million American women took jobs in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of them hired after a recruitment campaign that featured the iconic image of a bandana-clad woman flexing a bicep, saying “We can do it.” That image came to be known as “Rosie the Riveter,” and it represents the real life of Louise Unkrich of Swedesburg, Iowa, who died at 99, and whose story was recounted by Kyle Werner in Iowa’s Gannett newspapers this week. "Louise riveted not only metal but also the bonds of love, resilience, and unwavering dedication," Unkrich's obituary says. "This legacy, like the rivets she set, remains etched in the hearts of those who love her, a true testament to the impact of our Rosie, Louise.”
MASSACHUSETTS
Would you want a garbage facility in your neighborhood?
The average American generates about 4.5 pounds of garbage each day. Disposing of all that trash is a key challenge of government, as a story by Frank Mulligan in The Standard-Times reveals. Neighbors are fighting a proposal for a solid waste processing facility in New Bedford that would handle 1,500 tons of trash a day — where recyclables would be removed before the remaining waste would be transported out of state by rail or truck, to be landfilled or incinerated. The state has postponed a decision five times while weighing the potential noise impact. Left unsaid: If the trash doesn’t go there, where will it be processed?
CALIFORNIA
Wet winter is good news for western reservoirs — but…
It has been a soggy season in California, according to reporting by the nonprofit newsroom CalMatters in The Stockton Record — and that means 11 of the state’s 12 major reservoirs are storing more than 100% of average water at this time of the year. Downtown Los Angeles had had the second-wettest back-to-back years since records began in 1877, and the Sierra Nevada snowpack was 110 percent of average. But that doesn’t mean California no longer faces chronic water shortages, the report noted. Groundwater in the San Joaquin Valley has been drained more quickly than it can be recharged, so thousands of wells are still dry. The Colorado River still doesn’t have enough water to meet the demands of farms and cities in seven states. And droughts are becoming more common and more extreme as the climate crisis intensifies.
MISSISSIPPI
Feds will help local police and government with death notification
The U.S. Attorney for southern Mississippi says that the "lack of timely" next-of-kin death notifications has resulted in deceased individuals receiving pauper's burials in unmarked graves in Hinds County. And according to reporting by Pam Dankins in the Mississippi Clarion Ledger, there is a "perception" that race or other factors played a role in the process. So the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division will provide "technical assistance" to the Jackson Police Department and the Hinds County Coroner's Office in next-of-kin notifications, with training and a review of policies. “Families want and deserve transparency and the opportunity to make decisions about their loved ones’ burials,” said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.
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-REX SMITH
Rex,
The curiosity left me, so I resigned from Facebook 3 or more years ago, and I don't want to be better schooled in the "fabulist" doctrine from that channel. Nice piece. Thanks.
What I found piquing my mind was what happened on Monday: the eclipse. How is it that so many Americans gathered, smiled, wallowed in shared experience? How were the differences put aside (save for Alabama) for the hour or two of viewing; though perhaps for even longer considering runup, planning, and returning to work-a-day-world? Is it possible there are no way to share grocery shopping, or movie watching, or schooling our children or civically engaging in our towns' business? How could an infrequent US visitor like the eclipse shadow all the resentment and divergence?
Wonder-ous! It is an event that bears repeating if just for the brilliant quietness of wonder.
Thanks,
-Chris