Weapons of Mass Distraction
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” –George Bernard Shaw
When faced with the words distortion of reality an array of concepts may come to mind. Perhaps mental health issues, psychedelic substances, fun house mirrors or generally bizarre ideas that have to do with physical, observable change. However, within our world exists a plague that spreads almost instantaneously across continents, has the ability to severely distort your perception of reality without your consent and continuously gains strength with the rise of The Digital Era. This incurable pestilence is more commonly known as fake news. The term was coined by Donald Trump after claiming that rumors surrounding his campaign were being spread to taint his public image. Often these are created and spread to influence people’s views for political motive and are likely to spread faster in places where external information is restricted. Alternative facts nevertheless, have an extensive history dating back to decades before Trump came near the face of politics.
In 1923, the Soviet Union created the Special Disinformation Office with the sole purpose of having agents develop credible stories to spread in order to deceive public opinion. This Russian methodology was seen as a cost-effective method of diverging public attention from real issues in order to gain competitive advantage over their enemies by putting their own people against their governments. Their modus operandi was planting false information seeds in third-world countries where journalists were likely to have limited resources and could be easily influenced and/or bought and simply waiting for one piece of news to make it in the big leagues. Patience was crucial for this operation to succeed.
After multiple subtle attempts against the United States, in the 1980’s one idea was planted in a pro-Soviet Indian local newspaper and spread in full force catching the world’s attention: The United States created AIDS as a biochemical weapon and is being tested locally to minimize the African-American, homosexual, immigrant and drug-addicted population. The news created international frenzy and the United States faced serious allegations with little to no damage control available. This complex scheme was backed up by multiple disinformation reports across international newspapers and became known as Operation InfeKtion.
In 1992, KGB Director Yevgeny Primakov finally admitted that his organization was behind the AIDS scandal and took responsibility. Despite this act though, a 2005 study by RAND Corporation and Oregon State University showed that 50% of African Americans believe AIDS was man-made, over 25% that it was the product of a government laboratory, 12% that it was created and spread by the CIA and 15% that it was a form of genocide against black people. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the long-lasting effect that false information can have.
As previously mentioned, fake news are news or stories created to deliberately misinform or deceive readers. Perhaps completely eliminating fake news is not a realistic goal given the society we live in and human’s tendency to repeat what has been heard with biased edits. However, there are multiple steps that can be put in practice in order to avoid spreading fake news ourselves: fact checking articles before sharing them on social media, verifying sources for veracity, and learning to identify and differentiate opinion articles vs. factual articles. Stay informed, participate and ask questions when something is not clear. Readily available information at our fingertips is one of the greatest assets we have in this era. Let’s not continue to allow it to be used as a weapon against us.
