Fake News has one job, to win the race to belief. This is important because people act on belief and once set, belief can be notoriously difficult to dislodge. Belief, by its nature, strongly resists contradictory ideas. It often takes a ton of facts to remove an ounce of belief so maybe it is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.
Now, if news exists to inform society then Fake News, being the opposite, exists to un-inform society. That need to convince us of things that aren’t true forces Fake News to deal in deceit. Knowing that, we can safely say that Fake News benefits corruption over honesty.
Politically, Fake News is a potent weapon because of how it is guaranteed to work at the policy level. Fake News and information are deluded because they don’t reflect reality. Fake Beliefs, then, are definitely delusional. However, because delusional policy must produce negative consequences, it will naturally work to extend and exacerbate the “problem” it was designed to address. What is the political fix? More Fake News policy, whose deepened delusion worsens the problem. This perpetual cycle of failure continues until Liberty quietly succumbs or, optimistically, wakes up to fight the evil of Fake News.
