That word used to be only used in sentences that contained the word Russia….
But with Donald Trump?
It’s become used more and more as a political foil against Democrats and even Republicans who do NOT tow the Trump line of ‘his’ warped reality….
Ex-President Obama, who has be the recipient of Trump’s bull shit and has ‘skin in the game’….
Former President Barack Obama is urgently throwing himself into the fight against disinformation, taking a yearslong private fascination into the open as he makes addressing the issue a key pillar of his post-presidency.
More than a decade after the false and infamous “birther” conspiracy theory was promulgated by his political opponents, including by the then-private citizen Donald Trump, Obama is hoping his personal experience with disinformation and his knowledge of its ramifications can help determine the best way to regulate social media platforms that promulgate disinformation and find ways to address what he calls the “demand for crazy on the internet” that has filled a void as local news outlets have diminished.
Obama’s effort has been sweeping, say the former President’s confidants and outside advisers with experience in the tech industry, with Obama convening meetings and conversations with academics, activists, researchers, tech sector leaders, media executives, former government officials and former regulators. People who have met with the former President describe him as gripped by the issue, showing up to meetings with handwritten notes and questions and often referring to reading he has done on the topic, including reports by the RAND Corporation and the Aspen Institute, and a research study on partisan media by David Broockman and Joshua Kalla.
Eric Schultz, an Obama adviser, said the former President views disinformation as a “through line for all of the challenges we face right now,” including the pandemic, climate change and racial injustice. And for Obama, Schultz added, the “arc of this issue also tracks the arc of his public life” — while social media helped get Obama elected in 2008, the misinformation that spread on different platforms also accelerated during his time in office….
image…CNN