In our last dispatch: BS Detection in a World of Fake News and Real Threats. Defining the fundamental differences and mutual dependencies between misinformation and disinformation in a complex world flooded with sweeping assertions and unproven claims.
So how do we identify these forms of coercion? So much of our public space is occupied by the intention of persuaders to influence our behavior that we’re likelier to notice the absence of manipulation in our digital interactions than neutral actors whose only impartial goal is to put their information before us.
You know you’re on the receiving end of a disinformation campaign when at least 3 of the following conditions are met:
Passive Voice: Using the passive voice to validate a premise or conclusion defies plausible explanation, i.e. "it's been said" … "people are saying" … "we're hearing more and more", etc. Implicit Agreements: Messengers bury the unstated agendas of their sponsors and underwriters. Inconvenient Complications: They're glossed over when they don't match, confirm, and ultimately undermine the campaign goal. Battle-ready Posturing: Building resistance is the point -- not the actual conflict in question. Reflexive Responses: Ignoring a late-breaking event with narrative-altering potential. Gaslighting: Framing an adversary with the very accusation that accounts for the disinformer's own misdeeds, rogue behavior, and punitive actions. Time Warps: Confusing the ordering of events separates fact patterns from the arguments they're supporting. Self-confirming Statements: "I feel. Therefore I'm right." Circular Reasoning: This is the echo chamber of ad nauseum talking points. Under the Radar: What's not only explicit or implied but escaping the notice of the messenger completely, a.k.a. their blindspots. The wider the unawareness, the more likely we are under a disinformation attack.
Reclaiming Our Agency as Investigators
So how de we keep our bearings in this cloudiest of landscapes? How do we regain our footing when the stampeding crowds are oblivious to detachment and perspective-taking?
Self-awareness: Our first line of defense against a muddle of mis- and dis- is to recognize our own predilections and assumptions. Only by recognizing our personal biases and instincts can we assess our own blind spots. Where are we most persuadable by misleading actors? Where do we let our guards down? When can we be most easily played?
The middle ground: Once we move past the polar bear clinging to the melting glaciers, we need to cast outward to the motivations of the message sender. Is it merely self-interest that places us in the line of their motivational fire? Have they gone the extra step to be transparent: “don’t take my word…” or conversational, especially if the motivation is of mutual concern.
On one side of the fence, accusers tend to inflate actual damages. On the other, deniers tend to under-estimate the unintended consequences of their public statements. Investigators should factor these confirmation biases into their own findings.
Smell test: Finally, we need to calibrate our BS detector. What’s the end game here? How complete is their full disclosure. Are they running past some loose-ends still a long way from resolution? How do you know your sniffer is working?
- Always brake for integrity. Someone share a compromising piece of info? At whose expense? Clear your spyglass and take in an extra breath of empirical deliberation if it “costs” the provider something in the process.
- Don’t let a skeptical nature dismiss competing explanations. Persons of good faith may differ but an understanding of those differences demands this.
- Resist the rush to judgement. We’ve all been burned. We’ve got our suspicions. But they can be harbored under the protection of your better judgement while keeping an open mind to opposable sets of facts, alternative interpretations, and unshared experiences.
There are other fog-clearing practices to clarify the incoming mis and determine the unstated intentions buried in the dis. The hard part is absorbing the force of the disinformer’s aggression. Surprise and haste are two calculations made by disinformation campaigners to engage our visceral impulses.
We need to rise above the insistence to react at the provocation before us. This is not an unresolved issue up for debate. This is a willful act to influence the persuadable and shutdown the opposition.
In such matters the independent voice falls outside of either camp. We need to consume the message without absorbing its uncritical acceptance of its claims on our own judgments. Only then can we tell what’s worthy of attention from the falsehoods planted to distract our focus. Our own goals are not to evolve into impartial fact-checkers but of independent investigators, swayable by evidence. Only when we come to know the motives of the disinformer can we petition for our own interests.