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My latest @WIRED piece draws from @rmmilner's + my new @mitpress book to highlight what we miss & what future harms we set ourselves up for when we focus on symptoms (QAnon rioters) not causes (decades of totally mainstream far-right conspiracy theories) https://www.wired.com/story/impeachment-deplatforming-not-enough/
Symptoms matter; we need to address them. But if we don't do something about the broader ecological conditions, symptom-focused solutions won't touch the problem; it's only a matter of time before a new crop of worst offenders will appear
So what to do? First, double down on media literacy; but not as a suit of armor to protect against falsehood. That's symptoms-thinking. Rather as a full historical reckoning of why there IS so much (incentivized) falsehood--w/ the role far right media have played front & center
Second, get people -especially conservatives steeped in conspiratorial thinking- to tell stories about their relationship to far-right media & to listen to the stories of others. Obviously the stories themselves aren't likely to change anybody's mind-- that's not their purpose
The purpose is, first, to reinforce the idea that our beliefs are shaped by outside forces. It's easy to assume our beliefs couldn't be otherwise if we've never reflected on the economic & historical processes that have cultivated them. That's a foothold for thinking differently
Listening to others' stories is another, as a way of opening one's narrative aperture to other experiences & explanations-- including how profoundly far right media have shaped the belief that liberals (the bad them) are coming to destroy the good (typically white/Christian) us
This is the root of extreme far-right conspiracy theories (QAnon/Deep State/the great replacement) + everyday ones, from the war on Christmas to handwringing about cancel culture. It's always: they're coming to destroy you & ruin America (believed to belong only to a select few)
We have to find ways to address that root narrative-- and telling stories about it, and our relationships to it, is a way to open up a different & more productive discourse than merely screaming assertions at each other
