The truth is, it’s getting harder to describe the extent to which a meaningful percentage of Americans have dissociated from reality. As Hurricane Milton churned across the Gulf of Mexico last night, I saw an onslaught of outright conspiracy theorizing and utter nonsense racking up millions of views across the internet. The posts would be laughable if they weren’t taken by many people as gospel. Among them: Infowars’ Alex Jones, who claimed that Hurricanes Milton and Helene were “weather weapons” unleashed on the East Coast by the U.S. government, and “truth seeker” accounts on X that posted photos of condensation trails in the sky to baselessly allege that the government was “spraying Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton” in order to ensure maximum rainfall, “just like they did over Asheville!”
As Milton made landfall, causing a series of tornados, a verified account on X reposted a TikTok video of a massive funnel cloud with the caption “WHAT IS HAPPENING TO FLORIDA?!” The clip, which was eventually removed but had been viewed 662,000 times as of yesterday evening, turned out to be from a video of a CGI tornado that was originally published months ago. Scrolling through these platforms, watching them fill with false information, harebrained theories, and doctored images—all while panicked residents boarded up their houses, struggled to evacuate, and prayed that their worldly possessions wouldn’t be obliterated overnight—offered a portrait of American discourse almost too bleak to reckon with head-on.
Even in a decade marred by online grifters, shameless politicians, and an alternative right-wing-media complex pushing anti-science fringe theories, the events of the past few weeks stand out for their depravity and nihilism. As two catastrophic storms upended American cities, a patchwork network of influencers and fake-news peddlers have done their best to sow distrust, stoke resentment, and interfere with relief efforts. But this is more than just a misinformation crisis. To watch as real information is overwhelmed by crank theories and public servants battle death threats is to confront two alarming facts: first, that a durable ecosystem exists to ensconce citizens in an alternate reality, and second, that the people consuming and amplifying those lies are not helpless dupes but willing participants…
… “The primary use of ‘misinformation’ is not to change the beliefs of other people at all. Instead, the vast majority of misinformation is offered as a service for people to maintain their beliefs in face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary”…
… As one dispirited meteorologist wrote on X this week, “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes.” She followed with: “I can’t believe I just had to type that”…
This is where truth is crazier then fiction, but perhaps we can begin to get to grips with it.
How to avoid a techno-apocalypse brought on by the internet. Talks of several books where this is a core part of the plot.
THE nuclear blast that takes out Moab, Utah, in Neal Stephenson’s 2019 novel Fall; or, Dodge in Hell is “epistemic ground zero”. That is because it doesn’t actually happen. It is an online-only 9-11, a viral conspiracy theory that becomes the fault line along which the US fractures in two.
On one side, the people who believe that Moab is a no-go zone, and that the event has been covered up by swamp-dwelling politicians. On the other, the people who can freely travel to Moab to see the town is untouched.
The know-nothing side of the US devolves into Mad Max anarchy, becoming a no-go zone in its own right, which Stephenson brands Ameristan. The rest continue unimpeded into the technological future.
The book is one of many recent ones that tackle one of the questions of our time. As comedian Ronny Chieng put it in his Netflix special: “Who knew all of human knowledge could make people dumber?”
This isn’t so different from how it always was. Before social media existed in its modern form, Alex Jones used to broadcast from a 100kW shortwave station. The chem trail nonsense goes back almost thirty years. I suspect the spiritual origin is traceable back to 60s counterculture. Snake Oil type scams and witch doctors go back to prehistory.
The biggest difference is that people can now engage directly with these things immediately and worldwide, they don’t have to be part of an alternative magazine mailing list.
The biggest difference is that …
But that’s an enormous difference, and it seems like it may push us to a place of crisis before it gets better. None of the tactics are new, they’re not even new to the modern era. But the reach is new, and it has enabled the creation of a large and broadly distributed group, that is thoroughly detached from and increasingly hostile toward mainstream society. With every indication that they are getting more entrenched, not less.
Aside from how spread out they can be, a group like that’s not new either, and basic intuition and history both point to this being a dangerous situation brewing. We really gotta figure out how to reach one another again.
that the people consuming and amplifying those lies are not helpless dupes but willing participants…
Ah yes, the willing participants who tweak the algorithms to show them the most enraging hyper personalized garbage there is.
Wait those might be different people.
Algorithms will show you what you like and what others like you like. That’s it. I got Muslim dating apps all day every day because I lived in London, but I never clicked, so it went away. It didn’t convert me to islam, just like seeing a church outside didn’t make me Christian because I’m semi-capable of at least some thought and not purely instinctual animalistic behaviour as you imply is the case for those who are led by algorithms.
As I said before, the internet is simply airing out our dirty laundry. Humans are bloodthirsty ghouls most of the time and will believe whatever it takes to justify killing each other.
In the context of WW2 for instance Hitler is the “bad guy”, but compared to some of the shit Churchill got up to for instance with the Bengali, he seemed fairly civilised, and even that would’ve seemed soft compared to Stalin’s purges and the Holodomor, but say what you will - none of them had Jim Crow laws.
Im not trying to say all are equal, but more that it’s not at all surprising so many seem downright evil
For the Internet as a whole, perhaps. For Meta platforms and equivalent - this is factually false. They do not simply show you what you like. Far from it. You should read up on it if you haven’t.
Are you implying that Facebook et al do not optimise for engagement? What do they optimise for then?
To elaborate on what others have replied already, the algorithms will show you what will keep you on the platform, not what you like. Optimising for this means keeping you angry, not happy. Angry and divided people stick around so they can tell the other side how wrong they are (or watch their favourite pundit do that for them)
So just leave the platform
Sure, and just quit heroin while you’re at it.
Facebook doesn’t cause physical dependency on a chemical like opioids or even benzos. Being “”“addicted”“” to Facebook is like being “”“addicted”“” to weed.
You seem to be implying everyone is you and knows what you know or are as “rational”
Like you reduce other people to animals and also assume they are not being tricked or pushed into more radical beliefs because… Ehh?
Your nuanced take is not a take at all. It’s just you touting superiority.
I saw an onslaught of outright conspiracy theorizing and utter nonsense racking up millions of views across the internet.
Another problem is, this (what you are personally being presented with, view counts) is also just something your screen is presenting to you to be taken at face value as reality. Might be better to give up on social media entirely as a reliable source of information.
Not regulating information flow on the internet is just as negligent as not regulating firearms. I’m not saying that we should be doing our own Great Firewall, but it’s clear that social media does a lot of societal harm and shit like unhinged conspiracy theories should be censored from it, and algorithms should be adjusted not to promote them.
Given that most of the horseshit seems to come from within the US, maybe the rest of us should isolate ourselves from them.
This is spraying everywhere that speaks English and poisoning discourse around the world.
Speaking as a Brit, I really wish we could filter out almost everything American at this point.
The coverage of their elections has been daily global news damn near every day since Trump first announced he’d be running back in 2015. Biden won the last election, and literally the day after he took office, Trump announced he’d be running again, and it’s been daily coverage ever since. Over here Rishi Sunak called an election, then six weeks later it was done.
I’m so, so tired of the bullshit and misinformation that spews from over there. From bankrupt Alex Jones still being funded to yell nonsense over the internet, to Fox News providing ‘entertainment’ masquerading as news, riling up their viewers. It’s exhausting. And there’s no way to block it beyond simply abandoning the internet.
SEEMS to come from “within the US”. Might be, might not
Edit in response: fair, there are plenty USers. I guess I was thinking of disinfo sources who might get paycheques from abroad
Alex Jones. Elon Musk. Donald Trump. The entire GOP…
Last time I checked these were all US citizens. Might be convenient to blame Russia, and for sure they’re standing there with a big stick stirring the pot and laughing at all the mayhem, but you’ve got a whole load of traitors right there. A whole bunch for whom the civil war was never really concluded or accepted. And in this brave new connected world, they’ve got the money and power to sling their waste far and wide.
Who’s going to do the regulating?
Sure, a liberal could impose sane regulation, but what happens next time the US elects a Trump?
You want Trump (or any other fascist wannabe dictator) to have the ability to control what people say on the Internet? He’s already calling to take down ABC for fact checking him!
So just like gun control (as in an all-out ban), regulation of free speech/communication is just so risky.
I do think platforms should be doing more to remove disinformation from the mainstream, no matter who it pisses off. Unfortunately that does end up leading to echo chambers when what Americans need is to hear (truth) from all points of view.
Very complex situation that AI is only making worse.
That’s why you use the courts for this, not some government censorship bureau. We need to make the social media platforms themselves liable for misinformation posted on them. If you’re seriously harmed in some way by misinformation posted on Facebook, then you should be able to sue Facebook itself.
Courts operate on high standards of proof and are deliberately separated from the political process. They are the proper venue for this. There are other things we already criminalize, like criminal harassment, that are just ad subject to that same kind of slippery slope concern as regulation of social media. “Who’s to say what harassment is?..”
People are so distrustful of our government and institutions of power that they are looking for information elsewhere for better or for worse. The ordinary citizen is not to blame. They are being forced fed tailored information through legacy media, social media, and everything else and can’t figure out what is true. This is the same for people from all sides of the political spectrum. Your frustrations should be focused on the powers who sow this misinformation into our reality for nefarious reasons.
I’m pretty sure I’ve just become desensitized to most of the outrage.
