Information Wars--A Report From the Local Front

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Worldview Watch issue #78 posted 11/3/2024 Information Wars—A Report from the Local Front

in the news: the Science Works column below was published in the Prescott Arizona Daily Courier

worldview related analysis by Stephen P. Cook, Managing Director, project Worldview

VALUING HONESTY, LEARNING

I like sharing “Today I learned…” and later using my new knowledge in teaching others. I’m honest, value facts, and can distinguish between the role of genes and memes in human evolution. I want to advance cultural evolution and shape healthy worldviews by promoting memes I value, and encourage learning from experience of Reality. Feedback this provides can guide humanity adapting to its global environment, promote worldviews associated with better predictions, and encourage honesty. I value exposing lies / deceit, countering false information, and teaching critical thinking skills to others so they can do this.

SPREADING DISINFORMATION / TACTICAL DECEPTION

I’m an imperfect human being, so I will occasionally lie. Given my ambition and desire to “win,” I will spread false information if that’s what it takes. Is this evil or sinful? I don’t know, but I do know that long ago my ancestors lived in a “kill or be killed” world! “What if everyone values the truth so little?” you ask. I’d say we’re living in that world today and many of us are doing fine. (Note: knowingly spreading lies, computer viruses, deceit, etc.
is something honest people typically don’t do. If this hurts innocent people and is done for hateful reasons, most would say it’s evil.)

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The term “Info Wars” was popularized by a website run by Alex Jones, one devoted to spreading fake news and baseless conspiracy theories—and making money. Founded in 1999, its notoriety grew with claims the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was “completely fake” and when followers began harassing grieving parents of murdered children. By 2015, InfoWars.com was fourth on a “Top Ten Worst Anti-Science Websites” list.

Both science and our legal system depend on facts established beyond reasonable doubt. Courtrooms are where those peddling false claims face consequences. Consider defamation lawsuits against Alex Jones, Fox News corporation, Donald Trump, Arizona would-be politician Kari Lake, and former New York mayor / Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. They all have essentially lost these lawsuits and have paid— or are wrangling over how much they will have to pay—victims.

And facts…Jones, facing jury awards of $1.487 billion in damages, declared personal bankruptcy in 2022. Last year Fox News paid Dominion Voting Systems $787 million. Shortly thereafter a jury found Trump liable for sexual (“forced digital penetration”) abuse and defamation of E. Jean Carroll. In January another jury ordered him to additionally pay Carroll $83.3 million. In late March, Lake—who recently appeared with Trump at a Prescott Valley rally— declined to defend herself and filed for default judgment in a defamation lawsuit brought by Maricopa County Recorder, Republican Stephen Richer. In the last two weeks, Giuliani, owing $150 million, was ordered to begin paying Georgia election workers he slandered. And Trump was hit with a defamation lawsuit from the Central Park 5—teenagers accused in 1989 and imprisoned for many years before they were exonerated—for lies he told about them during the September 10 presidential debate.

Many conspiracy theories have no obvious victims and their inventors have not faced courtroom scrutiny. Two examples: 1) Jewish people were behind the 9/11/2001 attacks, and 2) the QAnon conspiracy theory. The latter involves supposed patriot Q battling “deep state,” Satan worshippers, child-molesting pedophiles, and cannibals—typically all Democrats. What do these conspiracy theories have to do with Prescott? The man widely expected to next represent us in the Arizona Senate—Republican LD1 candidate Mark Finchem——“built his brand on election fraud and other conspiracy theories ” according to Arizona Mirror reporting following the Islamist terror attacks 23^rd anniversary when he went on a talk show with anti-Semitic host Scott McKay. Note: Finchem spoke at an October 24, 2021 QAnon convention in Las Vegas.

Anti-science is not exclusively Republican territory—see a July 2023 NPR story headlined “RFK Jr. is building a presidential campaign around conspiracy theories.” My advice: “Voters beware. Electing politicians who spread baseless conspiracy theories and don’t respect facts can empower them to thwart efforts to hold law-breakers accountable.”

Conspiracy theories involving scientists and their relationship with government are often laughable and easy to debunk to well-educated audiences. But communicating reasons for skepticism to the scientifically illiterate can be challenging. One example: that supposedly NASA faked the whole 1969 lunar landing. Note: in recent years Prescott has had a special relationship with a guy promoting this —he’s been called “our town celebrity” and “enthusiastic flat-earther” See a YouTube video “Prescott’s Oddity: The NASA Is A Hoax Truck” and my June 9, 2024 column for more.

Another example: the supposed “climate hoax.” As described recently in the Courier, this involves scientists supposedly seeking to profit from “the money river from government” by continually “pushing a man-made climate change lie”. They are “fear-mongering” since supposedly “the climate is fluctuating within a normal range.” I disagree and offer three things.

First, no one disputes that climate naturally fluctuates. Over periods spanning thousands to hundreds of thousands of years, solar energy received by Earth varies in complicated, but well understood, cycles. Second, the warming of the last 150 years cannot be understood as part of this. For details see “Why Milankovitch (Orbital) Cycles Can’t Explain Earth’s Current Warming” on the science.nasa.gov website. For a graph, see “Global Temperatures Over Last 24,000 Years Show Today’s Warming ‘Unprecedented’” on the news.arizona.edu website. This is from University of Arizona professor Jessica Tierney, a member of the world’s preeminent climate science authority: the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Third, for my responses to readers comments and more, see “Courier Climate Dialogues” on the projectworldview.org website.

Finally, two Hurricane Helene / North Carolina additions to my last column. First, PBS News reports “Lawrence Berkeley National Lab scientists [preliminarily] determined that climate change caused 50% more rainfall” and “observed rainfall was made up to 20 times more likely in these areas because of global warming.” Second, the recovery effort has been complicated by conspiracy theories. Notably, Alex Jones posted a video claiming the government aimed Helene at North Carolina—supposedly to force people out so it could mine large lithium reserves.

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