After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News

The American education system is a totally failure. Half of the American population is so easily to be manipulated by certain people with illogical way of thinking. They are so naive to be manipulated and so easy to be mouth fed by fake news created by certain ideological extremists. Some of the fake news creators are completely depending on what they sow daily over their radio programs or particularly by a specific TV News. The so-called Fake News, if I remember correctly was appeared and spread like wild fire across America since 2016. The "Fake News" creators actually created Fake News on a daily basis. It was used by a guy on the Twitter to discredit any news that were not to his favor, anything not good to him would be tagged as "Fake News" by him. The No.1 Fake News creator has since divided America into two parts. He uses Fake News to polarize the naive Americans, creating a cult like belief that if anything and everything he doesn't like or not in his favor IS FAKE NEWS. Before this guy appeared, I never thought America got so many rednecks with guns. They are waving American flags to show that they are the true patriots, they love and care about America more than those who don't wave the flags or hold guns. These hotheads don't believe anything that was not from or certified by the fake news creator. They don't believe science, they don't trust anything from the other side of the aisle if they don't carry the same political color like them. The result: America has the largest number of death from COVID-19. They even believe if they wear MASK would only mean the loss of their FREEDOM. Fake News is the weapon of certain politicians to fool the poorly educated Americans, it's also how certain people make their living by creating and spreading them.

Disclaimer: I'm European and I only read quality newspapers, both domestic and international. Sorry, I prefer specialist experts over self-proclaimed investigators.

That being said, I have a few friends who believe in multiple conspiracy theories. I see them sucked deeper into the rabbit hole everyday. Strangely enough, they present me with 'proof' of these outlandish theories (articles and videos), that, as it turns out, come from abroad, mostly USA and Russia. So this infowar is affecting the rest of the world also, slowly but surely.

Russia's tactic is simple: "Divide et impera" In the USA the tactic it's less clear: false news is being spread to discredit people, influence elections or just to make money.

In the documentary some guy says 'it's a war'. I don't understand: who are you fighting against? Another political party?

This documentary shows the consequences of spreading lies, and the effects are devastating. I nearly fell off my chair. Fake news, alternative facts, conspiracy theories, trolling, clickbait... This divisive messages are undermining the democracy in the USA. A country which could achieve anything if only they would work together, all politicians. Now they are bombarding each other with smear. Happens elsewhere too, but not in such a nasty way... yet..

Well made documentary. The look in some of the victims eyes shows how incredible and frustrating it must be to be a target of the fake news culture. The saddest thing is knowing our current president has utilized this counter culture for political gain.

Seeing the fake news machine do their work blatantly on camera doesn't surprise me at this point.... what scares me is that a lot of Americans will watch this and chalk it up to "poor editing". Don't get me wrong I'm not fond of politicians in general. But this last 4-5 years has been a turning point in our history. We have shown the government that they can get away with anything. And we can thank Russia for that. Let's keep up with these nonsensical conspiracy theories while they keep screwing all of us in ways the average American can't comprehend.

"After Truth - Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News" (2020 release; 94 min.) is a documentary about the recent (as in: last 5-6 years) phenomenon by (mostly) right-wing conspiracy theorists to purposefully spew falsehoods onto social media. As the film opens, we get to know Jack Burkman, right wing consultant who looks at the use of "fake news" as nothing more than one would look at the use of chemical weapons in time of war: "it's there to use, it doesn't mean I like it". We then go to "2015, Bastrop, Texas" as Washington Post journalist Elizabeth Williamson talks about how local conspiracy nuts create a media frenzy claiming that US military exercises are just a front for imposing martial law and rounding up political opponents... At this point we are 10 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from veteran documentary-director Andrew Rossi. Here he examines the rise of "disinformation" (translation: falsehoods) being launched onto social media and what it does to society, The documentary focuses on several specific incidents: Bastrop, TX (2015), "pizzagate" (2016), Seth Rich's death (2016), and the smearing of Robert Mueller (2018). All of it is sure to make your blood boil in disgust, if not anger, as we watch how (mostly) right wingers cynically use and abuse facts to twist a "new" or "alternative" or outright false truth that suits them politically. The great thing about this documentary is that it isn't a one-way street, but instead it lets both sides of the story give their view/version, and the viewer can deduce his or her own conclusion. Along the way, Rossi and his team also examine how technology platforms like Facebook and Twitter enable these manipulations while standing by. And then this dilemma: should the left join the frenzy and spew their own falsehoods? As someone laments: "Do you win by playing their game?" "Two wrongs don't make it right", offers Alabama Senator Doug Jones.

"After Truth" premiered on HBO in late March, and is now available on HBO On Demand and other streaming services. If you have any interest in politics, or simply in understanding how falsehoods come about and influence society, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion. I myself found it to be must-see TV.