I'm thinking of one journalist I interviewed in my Oxygen of Amplification report. Reflecting on how amplification of far right views normalized & incentivized those views, they said, "At this point we have built the world that they told us existed." We must not do that now.

https://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/1325938815417151488

And this isn't to say that reporting magically conjured a MAGA army/created the ideology from nothing. It was already there. But when you set the table for them, they will come to eat. Setting the table for bullshit claims about nonexistent voter fraud carries the same risk

I was a competitive track and cross-country runner when I was young (starting at 9) & would go to nationals each year/traveled a ton/it was my whole life. One of the things I learned was that, after a big race/training all season, it's really common for people to get depressed. Not necessarily depressed as in "I feel sad about X," it was more confusing than that. You could be extremely happy about an outcome yet still feel.....floaty, emotionally muffled, physically exhausted. Like molasses, is the best way I can describe it.

Quick thought on Trump's attacks on the FDA/"deep state"; as @rmmilner and I show in our deep state/QAnon chapter, Trump rejected that framing for *years* (even if he also referred to elements of the theory; see Crowdstrike mention in call with Zelensky) thehill.com/hilltv/rising/… Merely saying THAT he referenced the deep state doesn't get to the heart of the story (& the thing people need to know most) which is WHY Trump now sees the deep state as goldilocks just-right conspiratorial. It's a position of weakness, desperation & last-ditch doubling down

I appreciate the context @BrandyZadrozny and @oneunderscore__ bring to this discussion. Some additional historical context is helpful too, as the same thing --basically point by point-- happened during the Satanic Panics of the 80s and 90s nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news… The panics first gathered energy in the 70s within Evangelical circles & through the 80s circulated within far right distribution networks (churches + far right radio were major hubs). The accusations that emerged in the 80s explicitly referred to Satanism/Satanic ritual abuse

Excited to announce that my new book w/ @rmmilner (forthcoming @mitpress) is available open access NOW via @pubpub. It diagnoses the causes and consequences of a fundamentally polluted information landscape and prescribes immediate & long term solutions you-are-here.pubpub.org We finished structural edits just as the US was heading into lockdown; our chapter on Deep State conspiracy theories needed major updating, and took on new urgency. We made our last additions in mid April. Big thanks to MIT for letting the book meet the post-Covid world.

Belief that negative coverage will disinfect harmful action/people goes back generations- it backfired spectacularly in coverage of the 1st & 2nd Klans (eg see work by @FelixHistory), and does the same w/ populist demagogues now. Yet it remains for many an unshakable assumption

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1210603261364985861

And of course for some, this coverage can be helpful, but CAN is the strongest thing you can say. It just as easily normalizes & bolsters hate, providing bad actors all the manipulation fodder they could dream of-- which Klansmen knew in the 1920s and the late 1860s before that

Here is what @BostonJoan and I recommend for reporters looking to cover this story responsibly: To the question facing many journalists--"how do i write about this without citing it"--is, simply put, that you don't. Like most people, the attackers had an online footprint. Their online footprint reflected their personal political ideology, which was one of hate, chaos, and manipulation. That doesn't need any further spelling out.