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2024-11-11

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Many voters are willing to accept misinformation from political leaders – even when they know it’s factually inaccurate, if they believe the statements evoke a deeper, more important “truth.” (theconversation.com)

submitted 4 months ago by solrize to c/science

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Many voters are willing to accept misinformation from political leaders – even when they know it’s factually inaccurate. According to our research, voters often recognize when their parties’ claims are not based on objective evidence. Yet they still respond positively, if they believe these inaccurate statements evoke a deeper, more important “truth.”

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (9 children)

You can blame the gullible listener to only wanting to hear what they want to hear ....

... or ...

You can blame the well trained, educated and directed media for promoting, highlighting and normalizing the idea of spreading semitruth and fabrication in order to push an overall agenda.

I'm no conspiracy theorist, I don't subscribe to dumb delusions of aliens or illluminati cults running the world ... but I do believe that there is a culture of highly trained individuals working in media these days who just knowingly spread extreme views and pass them off as legitimate enough to be debated. A politician like Turnip shouldn't be normal ... but a national media has made it completely normal to have someone as unwell, politically unstable and sociopathic as Turnip to be acceptable enough to talk about endlessly as if there is nothing wrong with him.

In this case .... I blame the messenger

[–] mycodesucks 8 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Why does it have to be either or? It's totally reasonable to blame BOTH.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I could agree .... but the gullible masses have no idea they are being manipulated ... while the trained and educated media managers and owners (and to a lesser extent the actual journalists) know exactly what they are doing and why

I can blame the listeners for being stupid ... but I still blame the messenger for intentionally misleading the public.

[–] mycodesucks 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Things are different now as the educational system is being intentionally damaged, but every single child who grew up in America between the ages of 10 and 80 was raised in an educational environment that taught them in no uncertain terms ALL of the warning signs of fascism and manipulation - these haven't changed in hundreds of years. They are either willfully ignoring them or spent their years in school eating paint instead of internalizing anything.

It's totally reasonable to recognize they're victims. It's also reasonable to recognize that in most cases, they made themselves that way.