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The Left Is Weaponizing 'Misinformation' to Silence Dissent
Newsweek ^ | 2/3/22 | Angie Speaks

Posted on 02/03/2022 4:07:04 PM PST by nickcarraway

Just as you thought the 2020s couldn't get any more dystopian, we are now witnessing the enthusiastic embrace of corporate censorship by the Left in the name of combatting the nebulous scourge of "misinformation." Joe Rogan, the most popular podcaster in the English language, has found himself at the center of a firestorm of progressive ire, from scientists to celebrities to rock legends to White House spokespersons acting in their official capacity, all for the crime of allegedly spreading dangerous misinformation and endangering public health.

This absurd pushback is not new; progressives and outraged "experts" have been anxiety ridden for years over the prominence of Rogan's podcast and its wild success. But the straw that broke the camel's back has been Rogan's open skepticism about official COVID narratives. This skepticism has pushed liberal establishment outrage to such a fevered pitch that that it provoked White House press secretary Jen Psaki to urge Spotify, the platform that hosts Rogan's podcast, to "do more" to combat COVID misinformation on the platform.

Labeling skepticism about official narratives "misinformation" is steadily becoming the liberal establishment's favored tool to silence and defame dissenting perspectives. The term "misinformation" is often employed with such reckless abandon that one need not actually spread malicious falsehoods to be assailed by it. Thus, a comedian like Rogan, who makes no claim to intellectual authority or expertise, is now at the center of this ridiculous controversy.

COVID has pushed this penchant to another level. Just a year ago, it was considered treasonous heresy and even "racist" to question the narrative pushed by the liberal establishment that the coronavirus has zoonotic origins. The "lab leak" theory was considered beyond the pale—though now, just one year later, it is the consensus view of COVID-19's likely origins.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: leftdissent; misinformation

1 posted on 02/03/2022 4:07:04 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Dr Fubar is a pro 🤪


2 posted on 02/03/2022 4:08:27 PM PST by NWFree (Somebody has to say it)
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To: nickcarraway

This is from Newsweek??? Amazing.


3 posted on 02/03/2022 4:10:36 PM PST by Parley Baer
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To: Parley Baer

Agreed... shocked this is moving into mainstream media.


4 posted on 02/03/2022 4:14:21 PM PST by JoanSmith
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To: nickcarraway
I learned today from the left that I can hold my breath around people to avoid getting COVID-19.

I know this must be true because the mayor of Los Angeles said it and nobody has banned it as misinformation.

-PJ

5 posted on 02/03/2022 4:16:11 PM PST by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
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To: nickcarraway

The left are the FASCISTS and we need to start saying that.


6 posted on 02/03/2022 4:16:52 PM PST by Singermom
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To: nickcarraway

This has been going on since at least the election or the “insurrection”. Wherein anything related to the election or COVID has been flagged as to tell us we should be wary of this posting.

Re: COVID…..to flag what they do as if it is horrible that someone might be misled with misinformation, means they SHOULD have been doing that all along to the many hair-brained “alternatives” out there pushed as the way to cure cancer, etc.

Never flag all that nonsense snake-oil stuff? Then don’t flag all the stuff regarding COVID.


7 posted on 02/03/2022 4:18:14 PM PST by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMV)
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To: Parley Baer

Newsweak let this slip through?! Wow.
Be still my heart.


8 posted on 02/03/2022 4:19:04 PM PST by A strike (Public Health 21st century murder by government. DoktorFauxiMengeleGates to a TerreHaute gurney now)
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To: nickcarraway

Always do


9 posted on 02/03/2022 4:19:27 PM PST by Skywise
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To: nickcarraway

“Misinformation”: Just one of thousands of words as examples of the Left’s manipulation of language. Call it “Newspeak”.


10 posted on 02/03/2022 4:22:16 PM PST by windsorknot
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To: nickcarraway

11 posted on 02/03/2022 4:22:31 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: NWFree; All

https://www.westernjournal.com/dr-fauci-admits-moving-goalposts-covid-purpose/


12 posted on 02/03/2022 4:25:09 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: nickcarraway

Today’s squeal of “misinformation”

Is nothing more than last month’s squeal of “ debunked” or “ baseless”

. they have a rolodex of rhetoric.


13 posted on 02/03/2022 4:25:36 PM PST by cuz1961 (USCGR Veteran )
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To: nickcarraway

Maybe there are journalists that hate the Wack-a-mole dissemination of information by Big Government.
May I remind them,
Tacitus — ‘If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticise.’


14 posted on 02/03/2022 4:27:35 PM PST by griswold3 (When chaos serves the State, the State will encourage chaos)
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To: nickcarraway

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t ever remember anybody in the media or politics using the term, “misinformation” before Trump got elected.

The Democrats cried their eyes out over the supposed lies of the Swift Boat Vets, back in 2004. They even invented the term “swiftboating” to describe a false slander of an honorable person. But they never used the word misinformation in conjunction with the Swift Boat Vets, or anything else that I can recall, prior to 2016.

It seems as if they have weaponized the word misinformation as a direct response to the rise of the populist movement, which has no interest in participating in Uniparty fake wrestling anymore.

The Uniparty loved it when Republican voters were cheering for the likes of John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mitch Mcconnell, the Koch Brothers, etc.... and they could just call all of us a bunch of Nazis, even though they didn’t believe it themselves.

But now that Republican voters have figured out how thoroughly corrupt both parties are, the Uniparty are terrified of the populists, and finding a way to completely censor us is one of their only options.

They have no choice but to act as though attacking the first amendment is no big deal, and pretending that “dangerous misinformation” is some new phenomenon that never existed before, and must be rectified.

Just another psy op from the evil Globalists. Sure wish Steve Bannon and other good people in conservative media were articulating this.


15 posted on 02/03/2022 4:33:21 PM PST by The Fop (God Bless Donald Trump, Frank Sinatra, Joan Rivers, and the Fightin' Rat Pack Wing of the GOP)
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To: Singermom
The left are the FASCISTS and we need to start saying that.

Like lemmings, the Dems are followers. They can be trained to spew out labels like that in concert, but their opposition (us) is free-thinking, and can never settle on the same label. It's a dis-advantage that we only lose by becoming them.

16 posted on 02/03/2022 4:38:05 PM PST by Tellurian (Your phone is your cattle tag. 2/4/2004: DARPA Lifelog terminated, Facebook initiated. )
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To: nickcarraway
silencing-the-opposition-makes-you-the-fascist
17 posted on 02/03/2022 4:53:12 PM PST by Westbrook
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To: Parley Baer
They've had a few good and truthful pieces, lately.

The editor must be drinking, again.

18 posted on 02/03/2022 5:22:28 PM PST by Eagles6 (Welcome to the Matrix . Orwell's "1984" was a warning, not an instruction manual.)
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To: nickcarraway
"...Weaponizing 'Misinformation' to Silence Dissent"

Thought Police Alert!

And why not?
Is there any slightest indication that the American people would either stop, seriously attempt to stop, or raise hell in the streets about this?

Our communist masters are living large and in total control...
This is just the barebones beginning...

When Americans realize how bad things are, they will band together, once again, on the Lexington Green or at Concord Bridge and chant:
Bow down!... Obey!... Snitch!...

Not since the Japanese created & implemented the concept of organized "thought police" a couple of centuries ago has the world seen the concept implemented as efficiently and rapidly as is being done by our new communist rulers...

19 posted on 02/03/2022 6:14:05 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is another Sam Adams now that we desperately need him?)
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To: nickcarraway

Keen grasp of the obvious Newsweek.


20 posted on 02/03/2022 7:46:42 PM PST by Blue Collar Christian (I'm a nationalist.I'm white.How does that make me racist?)
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