The Outrage Dilemma: Staying sane and saving democracy under a Firehose of Outrageousness
A worthwhile thread from Teri Kanefield:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1116342184163196936.html
The Rand Corp. describes the extremely effective Firehose of Falsehoods propaganda method: a rapid, continuous barrage of outrageous falsehoods.
Russia's “Firehose of Falsehood” Propaganda Model
Since its 2008 incursion into Georgia, there has been a remarkable evolution in Russia's approach to propaganda. Effective solutions can be found in the same psychology literature that explains the R…
https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html
1/ Trump, who adopted the method from Putin, is a natural at this.
From the researchers: “Don’t expect to counter the firehose of falsehood with a squirt gun of truth.”(p.9)
Playing whack-a-lie will wear you out. Trump can reel off several lies in a minute.
2/ On the other hand, researching and refuting each lie can take hours.
Simple lies are easy to tell. Complex truths are harder and don't fit well into sound bites.
This is partly why the Rand Corp. researchers conclude that countering lies with the truth isn’t effective.
3/ Instead of trying to refute each lie, the researchers suggest preparing the population to expect lies, which we’ve now done.
. . . much more
