As I read the news this morning, something crystallized for me regarding the dynamics of disinformation tactics increasingly overwhelming our ability to navigate as a society: when a society is paralyzed by an epistemological crisis, relying on traditionally accepted adjudicators of truth is another name for losing.
Democrats won't win this war by referencing old-school norms. Snopes has no currency in today's battles for hearts and minds. Same goes for any expert you can name from Dr. Fauci to Michael Beschloss to the Republican insiders at The Lincoln Project.
So what do you do when facts no longer speak for themselves?
If your main interest is grifting, it's pretty damn easy. You flood the space with anything and everything that distracts, and create narratives strung from whatever tidbits bolster your agenda.
And if your goal is public-minded? If you can't rely on the old axioms, where do you go?
The answer is you do what the grifter does: create a narrative. A narrative based on a reasonable fact-based assessment of where we are now and where we need to be in eight years will have incalculably more currency than will litigating every absurdity thrown by the Republicans. You adhere to the facts as you understand them, but basically give up on the idea of proving anything.
Proving is losing. I don’t think I’ve entertained that thought that since I figured out how not to get beaten up in grade school. That’s where we are.