Social media in the 2016 election

[Belsnickel]

(10-18-2016, 10:24 AM)xxlt Wrote: Perception is reality. And, our perception is always being manipulated, this is just the latest incarnation.

Sadly, it makes the people who deny what appears to be reality and indisputable facts look sane®.

Allegedly a former CIA director said something like this, "When nothing anyone in America believes is the truth, our disinformation campaign will be complete." I have a friend who likes to reference that quote. I kind of believe, based on what I know about the CIA that it is a real quote from a CIA director. But I don't know.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but wonder what people think about that alleged statement and about the social media illusions.

It's absolutely true that we are always being manipulated. I have been talking about this recently with others, but public opinion is a two-way street. What public opinion is about certain things will always influence politicians and public policy, but politicians are also constantly manipulating public opinion to win over the public to their sides. People think they are getting "unbiased" or unfiltered information, but they never are.

Just for an example, the people that denounce the mainstream media for their biases are getting the information and claims that the MSM is biased from people that have their own biases and in fact benefit from these people thinking that the MSM is overly biased. Yet they trust those that are feeding them the information even though their motives are the exact same as those they are denouncing.

The accessibility of information is more open than ever, yet the public are more uninformed or misinformed than ever, and this is just another brick in the wall being built to hide things from the general public. If the quote is real, then I am concerned because it is not the role of the CIA to operate domestically. But this campaign of misinformation on all fronts is certainly a concern.