Thinking Out Loud Here

1 min read

I'm curious how these thoughts will age, so I'll put them here as a timestamped point of reference.

I've been thinking about the frame of disinformation as a "demand problem" lately - as in the problem of disinformation and misinformation exists because there are people supplying the lies, and also because there are people who are eager to consume those lies.

There is some accuracy in this, of course - it feels approximately similar to "if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?"

But I don'e see this as a "demand problem" - people don't consume disinformation because they want to be lied to. I see this as more of a junk food problem - disinformation and misinformation are not good for us, but they are easy and they taste so good.

And it's great until Democracy dies of a heart attack and diabetes.

I'm certain that someone else has already articulated this idea - please feel free to point me to prior work here.