Comment by dgb23

I agree with everything you've said one hundred percent.

However, I'm not talking about honest discussion, truth seeking and competing perspectives etc. But about literal dishonesty, actual lies and complete disregard of proof and data in order to achieve a goal (usually power or attention).

Like "no troops in Crimea", "Jewish space lasers" or "windmills cause cancer"...

There is a qualitative difference between honestly believing X versus constructing X in order to manipulate and deceive. It seems to be that the latter has become much more prevalent, aggressive and even automated in recent years in public discourse. That's what is meant by "misinformation".

I don't believe in systemically/institutionally policing speech (with exceptions like calling for violence, doxxing and similar). And I don't have a solution in mind. But it sure as hell is tiring, because it takes a lot more effort to deconstruct lies and misinformation than to spread them.

It's an honest question: Are the tools for honest public discourse even effective against this in the long term? Is that how we go forward?