Marcieca’s text relates to Robert-Millers because of the concept of demagoguery that we’ve been discussing in class. To refer back to Robert Miller, “Demagoguery is polarizing propaganda that motivates members of an ingroup to hate and scapegoat some outgroup(s), largely by promising certainty, stability, and what Erich Fromm famously called “an escape from freedom.” Marcieca’s concept of “weaponized communication” relates to Robert-Miller’s article, this is because it is the negative aspect is what she admits to as opposed to the “heroic demagogue” which brings in a little light to this negative linguistic term. She extends Robert-Miller’s claim by emphasizing the level of accountability. Though Robert-Miller briefly mentions it, Mercieca argues there is a “single criterion by which dangerous demagogues can be identified: whether or not they allow themselves to be held accountable for their words and actions.” This also extends Robert-Miller’s claim by declaring that weaponized communication is constantly changing: “conspiracy theory, fake news, and disinformation.” I believe this is an interesting point because we have to constantly be attentive to the hard-to-keep-up nature of internet trends and norms. Though it might seem harmless, this concept can misinform us and guide us in a way the internet wants us to go.
The websites Huzlers is a “fake news site” that is the format of a blog, much like BuzzFeed, that gets way too many shares than it should. Their most popular stories include Jake from State Farm was murdered for cheating, Employee fired for putting mixtape in Happy Meals, FDA finds thousands of Coors Light Beers Laced With Cocaine Nationwide, etc. Almost all of these stories have been debunked, but they have been shared thousands, some even millions of times on social media. Looking through the lens of Robert-Miller, this website is seen as “Heavy reliance on fallacious arguments, especially false dilemma, scare tactics, red herring, and ad personum.” They most likely use their fallacious arguments for the clicks and shares, which many will lead to their website and see ads, that they will get money for. Using such crazy and bizarre stories will bring out a shock factor within the internet audience that will make them go to this site. This relates to Marcieca’s text due to her notion of “fake news,” which this website is plenty of. “Dangerous demagogues attempt to distort reality by spreading propaganda, conspiracy theory, fake news, and disinformation. Dangerous demagogues attempt to distort the meaning by taking words out of context, intentionally ignoring contradictory information, and intentionally subverting the dominant meanings of keywords or using dog whistles to appeal to their partisans.” This website heavily distorts reality especially if the shock factor of it makes it “real to you” unless you’re technologically attentive and decide to do some research. Websites like this are a dangerous demagogue that is shared more times than it should be to the internet public.
Hi Asia,
Great blog post. You did a fantastic job of relating beck to Roberts-Miller and, with Huzlers, an excellent job relating to both Marceca’s and Roberts-Miller. While this website in particular seems to have little to no bearing on the public discourse and plight of humanity, it’s an interesting take into the ease which fake news can proliferate our lives. People are able to take things out of context very easily, and by training them to do so in ways like this, it can lead to more dangerous forms of fake news. This is a prime example of a fake news gateway.
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