Paul Goble
Staunton,
January 20 – Those in the Duma who want to pass a law banning fake news do not
understand the nature of the problem they face and the essential difference
between lies as they are traditionally employed and fake news which has become “an
inalienable part of political discourse,” according to Boris Yakemenko.
“The
task of the traditional lie,” the historian at Moscow’s Friendship of the
Peoples University says, “is to conceal the truth; the task of contemporary
fakes is to replace reality” altogether in the minds of those it is directed
against and “to organize political discourse as such” (realtribune.ru/news/authority/1526).
Consequently, Yakemenko says, “the fake becomes the framework
with which political discourse develops and by means of it is possible to
distinguish reality from illusion. Now one is speaking not about hiding or distorting
particular factors but about eh intentional and systematic replacement of
reality by fakes.”
Because
such a replacement works, there are ever more fakes on offer, he continues,
just as “freaks ever more often replace ordinary people.” That is “a trend,”
and trying to reverse it by declaring fakes illegal is a fool’s errand.
“Millions
of people live in this reality as in a genuine world since one must use one’s
brains to distinguish life on the net from real life and the majority simply
aren’t interested in doing that.” Given that and given that fake news will be
accepted by so many, there is no useful purpose served by banning it.
Indeed,
except as yet another means to selectively persecute members of the media and
the population, there is no real reason to think that such a ban would have any
significant effect beyond making its authors feel they were doing
something.
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