Is it Time for Moral Condemnation?

“As soon as we develop algorithms that identify and block fake news sites, the creator of these sites will have a tremendous incentive to find creative ways to outwit the detectors. .... This framework paints a dreary picture of our hopes for defeating fake news. The better we get at detecting and stopping it, the better we should expect propagandists to get at producing and disseminating it. That said, the only solution is to keep trying. .... The idea that our search for truth in public discourse is an endless arms race between highly motivated, well-funded political and industrial forces attempting to protect or advance their interests, and a society trying to adapt to an ever-changing media and technological landscape, suggests that propagandists and others who seek to distort the facts will constantly invent new methods for doing so.” -- Cailin O’Connor and James Weatherall, The Misinformation Age: How False beliefs Spread, 2019

“I develop a theory of propaganda which affects mass behavior without necessarily affecting mass beliefs. A group of citizens observe a signal of their government's performance, which is upwardly inflated by propaganda. Citizens want to support the government if it performs well and if others are supportive (i.e., to coordinate). Some citizens are unaware of the propaganda (“credulous”). Because of the coordination motive, the non-credulous still respond to propaganda, and when the coordination motive dominates they perfectly mimic the actions of the credulous. So, all can act as if they believe the government's lies even though most do not.” -- Andrew Little, Propaganda and credulity, Games and Economic Behavior, vol. 102, pages 224-232, 2017 (paper behind paywall)(free 2015 online non-peer reviewed version)

On conformity bias

People’s beliefs can sometimes be influenced by a psychological trait called conformity bias. When a group of people falsely believe something, other people in their presence sometimes come to believe the false belief by losing confidence in their own veracity and/or by simply wanting to conform to what the group believes. The phenomenon is well-documented. Cailin O’Connor and James Weatherall comment in their 2019 book, The Misinformation Age: How False beliefs Spread: “While conformity seems to vary across cultures and over time, it reflects two truths about human psychology: we do not like to disagree with others, and we often trust the judgments of others over our own.”

On evil

One school of thought says it is counterproductive to use the word evil in political discourse because it is too pejorative, inflammatory, etc. It shuts down continued civil discourse. There is some truth in that line of argument. 

Another school of thought, or maybe just me, disagrees and argues that, we have descended into darkness enough that it is now time to call evil out for what it is, regardless of whether people are consciously aware or not. 

That raises the questions of (i) what the definition of evil is, and (ii) how one can rationally hold someone morally accountable for their own unconscious morality and attendant beliefs and behaviors.

Evil defined

IMO, evil is acts that are beyond mere immorality. Evil includes a conscious or unconscious element of malice or harm toward another person or group. Harm can arise from intent or lack of intent. It can arise from ignorance, or flawed or partisan reasoning. In this regard, I'm now going beyond condemning what most people*** are consciously aware of. I am no longer willing to accept or forgive unsupported beliefs that directly or indirectly cause undue harm, especially when evidence reasonably shows the errors. Ignorance of relevant of facts is no longer acceptable because the stakes are so high and facts are now available to most people. 

*** People who don't have the time or means to at least try to find real facts and non-bogus reasoning are excused. These days, there is no excuse for unwarranted ignorance or false beliefs flowing from logical nonsense. There is reliable information available online for free. People without access to information online are a different matter.

Civic duty

An argument against unwarranted ignorance is focused on both average people and on the special interests and people who use dark free speech and false beliefs for their own personal, economic, tribe or other benefit. Average people have a moral duty to at least try to not be deceived and manipulated into false beliefs and overtly irrational behaviors when those things harm important ideals including democracy, social comity and the rule of law.

People should be free to think and be nutty in private and in activities that are essentially private, e.g., church services, or in the home. But activities that affect the public and society are a different matter.

The situation for interests and people who use dark free speech is different. They bear moral responsibility for the false beliefs and resulting bad behaviors that flow from that. Arguably, when their propaganda causes people to harm themselves or others, even unintentionally, that crosses the line from immoral to evil.


Questions: Do average people have some civic duty to try to be more informed and less deceived? Is it evil to use dark free speech leads and it leads people to harm themselves or others, even unintentionally? If people fail or refuse to try to be more informed and less deceived and their false beliefs leads them to harm others, is that evil, immoral or something else, e.g., just a mistake?

At the dentist's office yesterday