Thread by @HoarseWisperer

What is playing out with Joy Reid is an object lesson in disinformation.

In Dec., Joy Reid apologized for comments she made about Charlie Crist years ago. She owned having made comments offensive to the LGBT community.

Now, "newly discovered" blog posts are being circulated.
1/

Reid both denies they ever existed and employed a cybersecurity expert to refute the screenshots.

Among the rather obvious flaws in the "new" blog posts: despite being incendiary, they allegedly drew zero comments or replies. That's... implausible.

2/

Disinformation works by taking a kernel of truth and layering lies atop it.

Disinformation plays upon confirmation biases.

It takes advantage of people's willingness to believe things that confirm their prior beliefs.

3/

So, while the circumstantial evidence makes the entire story of "newly unearthed" blog posts found only by Reid's detractors reek to high heaven, plenty of people are quick to believe it...

4/

Disinformation is so powerful that people are now even wrongfully jumping to the conclusion that Reid is somehow denying what she already owned and apologized for...

It's insanely uninformed... but it's a powerful lesson in how quick people are to believe convenient lies.

5/

Propaganda and disinformation work because people hastily believe things they want to believe.

If we're ever going to do better, even the left has to do a hell of a lot better than this.

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