A Nesting Doll of Trolls

 One of the ways that Russia helped and helps Donald Trump is through troll-bots. That was true back in 2016, but it's always been true of Russian propaganda and information warfare. 

Recently, we've seen a wave of mis- and disinformation surrounding hurricane relief from Helene and Milton. Some of this is from Trumpists, but some is coming from overseas. The potential for AI to supercharge this is underrated as a threat to democracy. 

While there are plenty of reasons to criticize the American media, this one seems most profound. Because the Republican Party's motto is now "The rules were that there would be no fact checking" no mainstream media outlet can fact check Republicans and expect to still have them book guest slots on their shows. First off: good! Second: fact checking the most basic crap is literally your job. 

The First Amendment is a bedrock of American civil liberties, but I have to think that it's a stretch to argue that freedom of speech applies to computers. True, a human likely repeats it or posts it in the first place, but the ability to "flood the zone" with lies is Trump's ultimate degradation of democracy. The press is abetting him.

As Charlie Warzel argues, the purpose of the more obviously false "AI slop" is not to persuade but to confirm. The viral bullshit is not about "doing your own research" or "exposing the hidden truth" but to comfort people's already held views. If you think that the national government is tyrannical, then a shitty AI picture of a girl holding a puppy is an example of the failed FEMA response intended to kill Republicans rather than...a shitty AI picture of a girl holding a puppy. The fact that it's obviously false is irrelevant. If it confirms your pre-held beliefs, then the factual accuracy of it is besides the point.

Of all the questions that scholars will study about our time in Trumpistan, the biggest will be whether Trump is a symptom or a cause of our political dysfunction. Of course, they go hand in hand. As Warzel notes, Stephen Colbert came up with "truthiness" almost 20 years ago. 

It does feel, though, like the descent into unreality is linked both to the epistemic closure on the right and the educational polarization of the two parties that increasingly groups those without the sort of skepticism that a liberal arts education might hopefully build into one party.

Critics talk about the dumbing down of America, but I don't think America is any dumber than it's always been (or any country has always been). What has happened is that one party has become the home and engine of a sort of ignorance that has profound implications for whether we can persist as a self-governing democracy.