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Gisele Dubson's avatar

Oh yes, I remember this story. Trust Elon to get it absolutely backwards.

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Donna Halper's avatar

May I suggest that this is done intentionally? Elon knows what the story actually was, but the facts don't suit his purpose. As you know, it's a dominant discourse on the right that "the mainstream media" are all liberal (or LIB-rull, as Rush Limbaugh used to say), and thus, they cannot be trusted. Only the Dear Leader can be trusted-- in this case Elon, but also provocateurs like Tucker Carlson or Donald Trump. So, given the tendency of Elon's supporters towards confirmation bias, he likes to repurpose any content he finds online, as long as it reinforces the dominant discourse that facts are not facts, and you really can't believe what you see with your own eyes. And every time he says something that is utterly false, he is fairly sure that his "true believers" won't fact-check what he just told them; they'll just believe it, no matter how untethered from reality it might be. We've all seen the commentators on Fox News, as well as Trump himself, using this same tactic many times as well, ripping something from its context, and then generating outrage about it. As I said, this is an intentional strategy; the goal is to reinforce what his supporters already believe, while keeping them loyal-- because they know only HE tells them the truth, and the "liberal media" are filled with lies. (This story makes me sad, because it's yet another volley in the battle against critical thinking. It promotes "belief" over analysis. It's also a reminder that few folks can turn on the outrage machine more effectively than guys like Elon or Tucker or The Former Guy.)

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