[39] News from Absurdistan - The Asymmetry of Disinformation

Disentangling and debunking disinformation is far more resource consuming than producing distortions or lies. There is an inherent advantage to the misrepresenter. In a society that rewards acumen in organising special interests rather than principled concern for the public weal, in a political system that works on the basis that repetition and the level of noise authenticate truth, dexterity at disinformation becomes second nature to those who wish to succeed. When the political fabric of our society moulds us to haggle disingeniously and manipulate, we become a people of disinformers - reconstituting our finest institutions of commendation to award disinformers (see the recent Nobel Prize for Peace).

The destruction of honesty is one of the highest prices we pay for democracy in its present form.

Here is an example of how resource consuming it is to hold your own against disinformation - consider also the flood of disinformation one is exposed to.

Daniel McAdams writes in The LRW blog:

Reading this weekend's Washington Post piece on Blackwater founder Erik Prince, I came across a paragraph that perplexed me:

"Prince was a White House intern under President George H.W. Bush. His political donations over the past two decades total almost $263,000 to Pat Buchanan, Oliver North, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) and former senator Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, among others."

What? Why would an individual who has profited to the tune of several billion dollars from the drug war and the Iraq and Afghanistan war be giving money to the most antiwar and anti-war-on-drugs Member of Congress? Catholic guilt?

So I decided to do some looking around.

First I went to the Federal Election Commission website and checked contributors to Dr. Paul's presidential campaign. No Erik Prince.

Then I looked at Dr. Paul's contributors to every congressional race since 2001 (pre-Blackwater bonanza days). No Erik Prince.

Then I cross-checked all of Erik Prince's political giving, going back to 2001 on CQ's excellent Moneyline website. Nothing.

Surely the reporter didn't make this up?

Ah, finally found it! When Ron Paul returned to Congress in 1995 Prince gave $1,000. Then he gave another $1,000 the next year. Nothing since then. And Prince's listed profession when he gave two grand to Ron Paul? US Navy!

That equals less than one-one hundredth of what Prince is said to have given to dozens of GOP recipients, yet somehow that same Washington Post that doesn't seem to know that Ron Paul even exists saw fit to print it without clarification or explanation, leaving the reader to conclude that Ron Paul is just another candidate who gets money from the military industrial complex that he (pretends) to rail about.

This is called "disinformation," and from Ron Paul to the wars they are shilling for against Iran and Syria, the Washington Post is proving itself a master that would have made Trotsky proud.