The reliably good @GregSargent on Elon Musk’s latest tweets as an example of right-wing info warfare: “In much of the right-wing info-ecosystem, liberal outrage is a sign of an attack's effectiveness. It can be only confirmation that the Libs Were Owned. Shaming is useless in such an environment, and in some ways can backfire.” He also talks with the also great and reliable provider of incisive takes @mmasnick in this piece. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/12/musk-fauci-right-wing-information-warfare-how-to-respond/
@SarahOestreich @GregSargent @mmasnick I find laughter and ridicule to be effective.
Also, "liberal outrage" is a broad measure with little meaning. Are we outraged at what was said or are we outraged that there's a person shitty enough to say it.
@shuttersparks @GregSargent if you look at Twitter, so many people have built massive followings by essentially just saying “har har look at how stupid this person is” without offering anything else. What about refutations? And pointing out the real world implications of their dangerous rhetoric? In what way is pure ridicule effective? I would hope offering the things I (and @mmasnick much more eloquently) mentioned would be better than simply calling them stupid and feeding into their narrative
@SarahOestreich @GregSargent @mmasnick But by responding you feed into the right-wing narrative. Responding in a reasoned manner is seen as weakness by the Nazi and results in laughter. So after years of trying the reasoned method, I switched to laughing first.
@shuttersparks @mmasnick but the goal shouldn’t be to try and to convert the original speaker bc often they are lost causes. It is for everyone else to see what is being said it wrong and harmful. I’m not saying don’t be outraged, but rather try to use the outrage constructively. Sometimes it’s unclear what that means and sometimes we fail even when it is and that’s okay. I just think there may be more useful ways to respond. But you don’t have to agree!