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I want to take a moment today to talk about how the right wing misinformation machine works, how it churns up outrage, how supposedly “civil” Republicans fuel it...and what the real world consequences are for innocent people caught in its trap.
Last week a ton of people sent me a screenshot from a Twitter/Instagram account called @deuxmoiworld. They track supposed celebrity sightings - basically a completely unverifiable gossip account.
The particular post in question claimed to be a picture of the daughter of @GovPritzker at a restaurant in Chicago seated outside in a large group of people for a birthday party. Only problem is that’s not the Governor’s daughter (and doesn’t even look like her.)
I dutifully clarified this for people sending me the picture but, like clockwork, it soon made its way to the army of Twitter trolls invested in combatting the Governor’s Covid mitigations. Kicked off with tweets like this...
Putting aside the absurdity of the statements made in this tweet and the fact that this account self identifies as a “parody” account - the right wing media machine took the picture and ran with it as fact.
Our friends at a local “news” radio show trolled Chicago doctors trying to correct misinformation with the fake picture. The statewide network of propaganda publications (recently profiled by the @nytimes for their spread of disinformation) posted this article...
Real news publications mostly ignored this or helped debunk it - but unfortunately their reach is much more limited than the right wing online outrage machine.
And then there is GOP state Senator-elect Darren Bailey who shared the “news” on his Facebook page - truly helping spread the lies about the Governor’s daughter to a whole new reach of people.
And so over this past week, @GovPritzker HIGH SCHOOL age daughter started getting hateful and threatening DM’s on her social media accounts directly linked to the pic - prompting her parents to spend the weekend trying to make hard decisions about her safety & welfare.
Which brings us to yesterday when the Governor got a (legitimate) question at his press conference about where he was celebrating Thanksgiving. He’s human, he & the First Lady hadn’t made a decision yet about how they were dealing with Thanksgiving, & he gave an unsure answer.
Today, @GovPritzker clarified his plans with this statement (which you should read before moving on): https://capitolfax.com/2020/11/17/pritzker-put-yourself-in-the-shoes-of-a-high-school-girl-who-is-being-weaponized-against-her-father-by-his-political-opponents-weaponized-with-lies/
Here is where the right wing outrage machine really grinds into action, breaking through to “mainstream” Republicans. @RodneyDavis - who likes to talk a lot about “civility” - posted this after the presser yesterday
This is from the Congressman’s official Twitter account. It’s nice how he added the coda about where he will be celebrating - just to really twist the knife. Super civil. Lest you think this is an errant tweet - his account reposted it today
Then there was this FB post from the ambulance chasing lawyer who has gone all around IL trying to invalidate the Governor’s Covid orders (unsuccessfully - he’s been beaten in almost every case) - offering $1000 bounty for pics of the Gov celebrating Thanksgiving with his family
A bounty. A BOUNTY. For pics of the Governor’s family. In a post that was shared over 1000 times. Who do you think that incites?
I see the threats that come in to our office ever day. The governor is like every other father who loves his children, and hurts when they hurt and gets angry when his children are threatened.
I agree wholeheartedly that the Governor (and his family) should live by the rules he sets for the state. But notice how no rules have been broken here, just a lot of lies and innuendo that by the time it reaches Joe Q. Citizen look real.
And given credence and validity when - say - the Illinois GOP’s official Twitter account posts things like this:
I realize people think every single thing an elected official does is scripted down to the moment. It’s not. And right now, in the middle of this pandemic, we are lucky if we find time for meals - much less the full time image machine some folks seem to expect.
Notice also how supposedly responsible office holders jump to spread the innuendo - and will do nothing to correct the spread of lies when they are called out. Notice how we went from a fake picture to “GOVERNOR PRITZKER IS BREAKING THE RULES!!”
At the heart of this is a kid. A teenager. Who has every right to expect privacy no matter who her Dad is. This didn’t used to be controversial! When did we lose the common decency to keep kids off the table??
There is also a sentiment amongst some political folks and journalists that elected officials need to just ignore these things. That they should expect social media attacks on their family. And that they shouldn’t do anything to try & combat them bc that just fuels the machine.
That might have been true at some point - but it isn’t anymore. I’ve seen firsthand how things have gotten out of control. Elected officials can’t be silent anymore - we are charging towards a dangerous place. And we need to start calling a spade a spade.
I don’t have great answers for how we solve this. But we at least need to start combatting it aggressively and stop pretending that the misinformation spread online doesn’t matter or doesn’t hurt people.
