In much of the world we are living in what could be determined the post-industrial age. While there will in our lifetimes always be a need for the manufacture of products and the production of foodstuffs, but for the most part, even in poorer countries, information is the most valuable commodity there is.
The value of information, though, is also its biggest vulnerability. Thanks to the cupidity and greed that exists in some of our fellow humans—all too many of them as a matter of fact—as with any valuable thing, there are incessant attempts to steal or exploit it for personal gain or ‘just for the heck of it.’
The assaults on the deluge of information that we’re subjected to every waking moment of our lives is relentless in the form of misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies designed in many instances to make us believe that up is down and day is night. The problem with this is that for many people it works.
Humans as a rule have a tendency to believe whatever they read or hear if it confirms to biases or beliefs they already hold, and conversely, reject whatever contradicts those biases or beliefs. For example, even in 2024, there are people who still refuse to believe that a human actually walked on the Moon.
The outcome of information misuse or abuse in today’s world, though, is orders of magnitude more dire than it was in the days of ‘the moon landing was faked,’ or ‘Elvis is not really dead.’
The Covid-19 pandemic, in my opinion, was the most compelling example of the existential threat of disinformation and lies. First, I’d like to clarify the difference between misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is the provision of incorrect or misleading information, often out of ignorance, though sometimes with intent, while disinformation is the deliberate creation and distribution of false information for the purpose of causing harm.
During the pandemic there was an overload of both, and both were serious, but those who deliberately spread false information are, in my view, culpable for many of the millions of deaths from Covid. People who refused to be vaccinated because they believed that the virus was harmless, or that the vaccine was either useless or harmful, who subsequently contracted Covid and died, are casualties in the disinformation war that is being waged hourly by bad actors who do not have humanity’s best interests at heart.
Sadly, there’s no quick fix to solving this problem. As I said above, people tend to believe the information that confirms what they already believe. We have to try, though.
When presented with disinformation, misinformation, or outright lies, explain to others why it is not true and try to show the agenda of its source. For example, over the past couple of years, there’s been a drumbeat of disinformation in the U.S. about a planned banning of the U.S. dollar and its replacement by digital currency that will enable the government to track and control everyone’s spending.
This campaign is based on an executive order by the president that orders relevant agencies to study and understand how digital currencies work and how they’re being used to launder ill-gotten gains or fund criminal enterprises. Nothing in the order even hints at banning cash. A look at the senders of the torrent of emails on this subject that arrive in my inbox reveals that they come from gold traders, primarily in Florida and Delaware—two states that seem to have an abundance of online scammers—who are trying to entice people to buy gold.
Now, greedy people, or people who already don’t trust the government, are likely to fall for this and purchase the shiny yellow metal, and assuming this is not an outright scam, store their gold in their garage, basement, or attic, where it might or might not increase in value. In the meantime, the scammers will have these dollars that are supposed to be banned, but it’s doubtful if the pigeons who have been plucked have reasoned this far.
Whether it’s your very life being put at risk because of medical disinformation – and the Covid hoaxes are still alive and well – or your financial well-being under threat from con artists aiming to separate you from your hard-earned cash, disinformation is a serious threat to society and everyone in it. Next to climate change, it’s probably the greatest threat humanity faces today. | NWI
