[skeeter]

You miss the point. The one-way war of disinformation needs to become a two-way war.

I hate to think anyone here is intentionally spreading disinformation.

But in order to be able to discern truth from fiction ALL information needs to be on the table, not only what the MSM wants on the table.

[dinoparty]

The halcyon days of “discerning truth” are over, unfortunately. I am all for the victory of truth, but if we allow that to rule our political activities it will lead to destruction in the terrestrial realm. Maybe we should give up on the terrestrial realm and abandon politics altogether, but we should not anymore hold out hope that the American population is capable of truth discernment.

[robowombat]

Some times disinformation does have a positive outcome. Paul Robeson was, no doubting this, a so-called ‘secret communist’. One who had a party card that was kept locked in a safe in CPSU HQ at Union Sqaure. He claimed he was a ‘liberal’ and an ‘activist’. In reality he was a very valuable communist asset both because of his celebrity status and because as a celebrity he traveled a great deal which made him a very useful courier and message disseminator to the party cadres. Robeson was on the road when a wire service story whose origins could never be traced flashed across the wires stating Robeson had made a public statement that black Americans should have no allegiance to the racist USA but support the USSR and that Stalin was the true leader of American Negroes. Robeson tried to put out the resulting firestorm but to no avail. His reputation was fatally damaged and his stature declined propitiously. In a year or so he moved to Moscow where he spent the rest of his life. The statement was a fake ‘but accurate’ rendering of Robeson's views. It was probably planted by the FBI. It destroyed an important communist asset. Job well done.

[virgil]

Yes, and I would like to add that we should search for facts and the freedom to analyze, discuss and form hypotheses. This is what we do on FR. This post is part of the search. There’s a lot of smart people on FR.