Misinformation and disinformation

"Misinformation" is defined as giving false or misleading information [1]. Simply put, this is information which is either an outright lie or information that leads someone away the truth. "Disinformation" is deliberately deceptive and propagated information [2]. The "facts" can be considered deliberately deceptive if they are based on something such as made up statistics or falsified test results. These false claims are then spread around to other people through word of mouth, various media outlets, and the internet. The Oxford Dictionary online actually combines the two definitions, which makes sense because no information can really be misleading or deceptive if it's not spread to other people in some way. Example: I can tell myself I live in Oklahoma as many times as I choose, but it doesn't become misinformation or disinformation unless I let other people know what I've convinced myself of even though I live in Pennsylvania. No I'm not crazy and I don't believe I don't live in the state I do. I'm just making up a crazy example. To make things easier, I'm going to refer to everything as misinformation.

So now let's look at some examples of some things that have been labeled as misinformation.

If you've been watching or reading news reports about illegal aliens (from this point on referred to as illegals) crossing the southern United States border, you've been exposed to bad information. Everyone from the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Myorkas, to the President's press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, have claimed the southern border is closed. Those same people claim the Republicans and other people are spreading misinformation by saying the border is not. Yet anyone who watches news footage of hundreds and thousands of people crossing the border at one time wonder just who is presenting the world with misinformation. Common sense alone would lead to the conclusion that if something (a gate, a door, etc) is closed then no one may enter. Like a door, if the border is said to be closed, then the total number of people crossing it would be zero, not what we see with our own eyes. Also, those same people say the number of crossings were worse under former-President Donald Trump than under current President Joe Biden. As you can guess, they claim any statement to the contrary is misinformation. An article presenting the real numbers states that, since Joe Biden took office, 6.2 million illegals crossed the border and were rounded up by officials. Add to this number another 1.7 million listed as "known got-aways". A House Committee fact sheet states that fiscal year 2023 was the worst year in terms of numbers [3].

What about the so-called "climate crisis"? Anyone who accepts the statistics offered up by the scientists who show studies and statistics supporting the claim of drastic climate change will label any information to the contrary as misinformation and call the people who believe and spread the opposite viewpoint as "climate deniers". Yet there are scientists who have the same level of education and conduct experiments under exacting conditions and review sets of accepted statistics who have drawn the opposite conclusion and so have to also be labeled as "climate deniers" and people spreading misinformation. The current President and the politicians who think the same way as him, as well as many other people with influence through their high profiles (actors, social media owners, etc), only agree with the statistics and experiments that fit their opinions and all else is labelled misinformation. According to them, people such as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. are the ones spreading disinformation because he lays out legitimate and accepted (by many scientists) studies and statistics that oppose their view in his book, A Letter to Liberals [4].

So who is spreading misinformation? That all depends on who is in charge of determining and controlling what information is to be labelled misinformation. The United States government under the current administration thought they were the ones. The short-lived Disinformation Governance Board, an advisory group under the Department of Homeland Security, is proof. Although they said it was aimed at foreign states and criminal organizations, citizens must wonder if and when it would have been aimed at anything we said or did. And you only have to view a few posts at Facebook that have been labeled as containing "possibly false or misleading information" to know the people in charge of that site have designated themselves as being the people who can make that determination.

Instead of labeling anything we read or hear as misinformation or disinformation for no other reason than we disagree with what someone says when they share their opinion, we should instead be willing to have calm and rational discussions with each other. Each person should present what they call the facts and actually read what the other person presents as theirs. We may not always come to an agreement about where those facts lead, but no one should have the power to sway everyone to their way of thinking by labeling something as misinformation without any more than their saying so. You can only prove something is false or misleading by presenting all of the facts, not just what they want people to hear.

Please use this thread only to discuss the definitions of the words and ways you've seen people try to censor or label something because they decided it's misinformation. If you want to have a discussion about a particular topic, please let me know in your response or through a private message and I can start a thread on that topic.

1. The New Merriam-Webster Dictionary; Merriam-Webster Inc; 1989

2. Wikipedia entry for the word "disinformation"

3. "Fact Sheet: Final FY23 numbers show worst year at America's borders - Ever"; House Committee on Homeland Security; 10/26/2023

4. A Letter to Liberals; Skyhorse; Kennedy, Robert F. Jr; 2 August 2022