That’s why you have to get in their faces for lying. Anybody with public influence or power needs to be held accountable. Question them, and mock them if they dissemble. Brigade and troll the fuck out of liars. It’s social correction for the greater good - it’s counter disinfo. https://twitter.com/novelsci/status/1387178864795951109

If you can get in the middle of a disinformation campaign and explain where it originated, what their goals are, and what they are likely to do next, and bring along a bunch of your friends to call them out publicly (online or offline) and just dunk on its purveyors en masse,

you can short-circuit it completely. It is also probably the most wholesome thing you can use social media for at this point.

If you aren’t confrontational, no problem. Just get a bunch of people to join you in reporting disinformation purveyors as others are calling them out publicly. Force social media to really take a good long look at what it enables and encourages.

Oh, and if you’re on the brigade/mock/troll side of things, don’t stay around to argue. If they draw you into a thing, they win. Go say something scathing and then laugh if they respond. Don’t give those fuckers a single inch.

This is what I’ve learned from years and years of shitlording it up in flame wars all across the internet as well as my disinfo work in the past few years. I was an early “it’s just a social experiment” asshole. I can’t believe it’s actually turning out to be useful.

Uh, sorry about that btw. In my defense, I tried to only troll sexists and racists, who deserve it