Thread by @dr_ilardi

Fully 35-40% of the US population has been propagandized into an alternate reality in which Trump (the greatest president ever) won the election but had it stolen by evil America-hating socialists (Dems), Deep State conspirators (courts and election officials) & RINO traitors 1/6

The creation of this alternate-reality clan took 30+ years: Right-wing talk radio in the 80s, Fox News in the 90s, Facebook in the 2000s, KGB-inspired psy ops from 2015-2020. The epistemically closure is so complete that those trapped in the info-bubble think it’s all real. 2/6

So now the question is: How do we (as a free democratic society) de-program 35-40% of the population to help them see they’ve effectively been brainwashed? There’s a decent research literature on de-programming, and it suggests the task will be difficult and multi-pronged. 3/6

The first step is to cut off - or at least limit - the flow of disinformation. We could reinstate the Fairness Doctrine (scrapped under Reagan in 1987), insisting again that no media can become pure propaganda outlets. We can regulate Facebook to label & limit disinformation. 4/6

We can empower the US Intelligence community to aggressively combat hostile disinformation campaigns from Russia and other foreign adversaries. We can impose harsh sanctions and other punishments against these state actors for attacking our democracy. 5/6

Finally, can leverage some of the best minds on the planet to create compelling education campaigns to teach people how to spot disinformation and conspiracy theories, how to use critical thinking to evaluate claims, and how to find reliable sources of information. #YesWeCan 6/6