By Christopher B. Daly
What are the sources of ignorance, confusion, and false belief? They are many, and I am attempting to take a systematic approach to what I call “ways of un-knowing.” Please leave comments if you wish to contribute to this project.
A TAXONOMY OF ERROR
Ways of un-knowing
GOVERNMENT
Actions/policies
Authorized leaks (“plants”)
Spin/ p.r.
Photo ops / official photographers
Propaganda (selective truths)
Over-classification of info
Censorship
Disinformation
Espionage/sedition prosecutions
Jailing journalists
CORPORATIONS
Advertising
Native ads
P.R.
Anti-disparagement clauses
Suppression of info (lung cancer, climate change)
ACADEMICS/THINK TANKS
Obscurantism
Political correctness
Tendentiousness
Catering to funding sources
Dogmatism
Evading peer review
JOURNALISM
Good faith
Mistakes/ typos
Incompleteness (partial truths)
Misperceptions
False equivalency/ automatic “balance”
Advocacy/partisanship (conscious bias)
Hyper-partisanship.
Tendentiousness (unconscious bias)
Bad faith
Native ads
Exaggeration/hype
“clickbait”
Aggregating false news
Slogans/memes / trolling
Hoaxes
Fake news for politics (Infowars)
Fake news for profit (Macedonia)
Lies (knowing falsehoods)
Disinformation
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