
Lies – misinformation or disinformation in its polite academic and
media dress – fills the news today. Endless stories of lying Congress
members, dark money PACs spreading conspiracy theories, media’s
deliberate use of misinformation. Not a day goes by without some
headline in this realm. The use of such information, however, is not new,
although it has never been as prevalent as it is today. Promoting fake
news is an ancient tool of power. The weaponization of misinformation
for such purposes dates back to Babylon at least 3000 years ago according to research done by Martin Worthington, a fellow at St. John’s
College at Cambridge University. Worthington is an Assyriologist who
specializes in Babylonian grammar, literature, and medicine, and he
describes the first example he found in Babylonian literature, “Ea (a
Babylonian god) tricks humanity by spreading fake news. He tells the
Babylonian Noah, known as Uta–napishti, to promise his people that
food will rain from the sky if they help him build the ark. What the
people do not realize is that Ea’s nine-line message is a trick: it is a
sequence of […]
Great graph. I’m so tired of being challenged about “more people dying from Covid under Biden than Trump.” The reality is it is the unvaccinated GOP Trumpsters that continue to die.
Graph shows unvxxx republicans growing in number (or %), not diminishing. Seems interesting.
Unable to view the article🤔.
Me, too, Norma.
The link has been updated. You can also download the pdf here.