It is, though. Studies in disinformation have proven this. This is why right-wing bullshitters are so eager to engage in debate: just getting the chance to show up and be refuted in a legitmate setting, like a major newspaper, gives them an audience for the ideas and credibility, that their position is one worthy of refute.

This is how we got the alt-right in 2015: by taking neo-Nazis seriously.

This is what the media doesn’t understand, and why fact-checkers are getting–correctly–rolled on social media. Every time you bring up one of these lies, even to fact check it–especially to fact-check it–you give it credibility.

This is why the Harris/Walz campaign’s tactic of ridicule is working so well. Instead of saying “No, you’re wrong about XXX because YYYY and ZZZZ”, they’re saying “What is wrong with you? You’re weird.” The latter doesn’t give the lie any oxygen.

“Liberal” doesn’t mean what many people think it means.

It doesn’t mean “leftist” or “progressive” or “humane”. There might be some overlap, but these are not the same things, despite conservatives trying to define them as such.

Yes it is.

You might not wish it to be, but fact-checking absolutely does amplify fake news, especially if you give details.

A simple “this story is bullshit” is all that’s needed

And now you, the mainstream media, are amplifying it and giving it oxygen.

It’s like y’all never learned the old Usenet adage: “don’t feed (quote) the trolls”.

Reichstag fire moment.

Do they?

Because their actions imply otherwise.

Oh, so right wingers are asking for Federal regulations instead of braying about “Staaaaaates rights!”?

I hope Biden wins, and if he does, that he whips put the regulatory hammer and starts hitting hard. The oil industry, despite Democrats bending over backward to appease them over the last two decades, are siding with fascists just to make a buck.

It’s called the Information Deficit Hypothesis.

And yes, it’s been proven wrong.

Boy, I bet the Democrats feel really good about how much of a good partner they were to the petroleum industry, slow-walking reasonable regulations, helping them with funding, etc.

I bet they feel great seeing this.

If they do manage to pull out a win in November, it needs to be no more Mr Nice Neoliberal. Bust the industry’s collective balls.

His “public criticism” amounted to being fascist apologist and handwaving away the fact that Fox et al can make up news whole cloth and radicalize the electorate, but it’s somehow NPR’S fault.

Some of these guys are Captain-Planet-villan levels of evil.