My personal experience with politically motivated misinformation.
I was recently a target of misinformation. On the first of November, a group that I am proudly and publicly affiliated with was targeted by a local GOP group. Livonia Citizens Caring About Black Lives is a non-partisan anti-racism group, and I am proud to work with them to promote peace and equity in Livonia. Unfortunately, it seems the local GOP group trolled our private Facebook group, desperate for something to use against us. They found it in the form of a single post about a spreadsheet.
On July 2, 2020 one of our admins asked members, in a private Facebook group post, to document “Trump/hate signs” in Livonia. A spreadsheet was created to compile the data and added to the group’s files. In theory, this could include anything from “Saw a pickup with a Confederate flag driving down 6 mile” to the address of a house adorned with lawn homemade cardboard signs with hateful rhetoric childishly painted upon them. This spreadsheet would then theoretically be used to “target” our CommUNITY Crusades (peaceful Sunday afternoon walks through local neighborhoods) while keeping members safe (waving a pride flag on the lawn of the man with signs threatening the gay community isn’t the safest choice).
Leadership chose not to use the spreadsheet because the leader of the walks felt walking route beforehand gave her a better sense of safety, and areas to avoid. No one entered a single line of information into this spreadsheet, though any member could. It could be that because members did not feel comfortable documenting this information. It could be because we were so busy at the time that hardly anyone engaged with the post. It could be because some members may have disagreed with the idea of such a list in the first place. At any rate, not a single line was ever entered in the spreadsheet, and it was forgotten by the group until 11/1/20.
On that day the Wayne 11th Republican Committee posted screenshots of the post (but not the spreadsheet itself) on their Facebook page implying that LCCABL kept a spreadsheet of addresses with Trump signs for nefarious purposes. The group was careful not to directly accuse us of stealing signs or coordinating an effort to do so. Instead they mentioned the spreadsheet, then sign-stealing in the next paragraph. They did, however, flat-out allege that the spreadsheet itself was voter intimidation, an allegation that absolutely does not hold with the law. By the time the post came to my attention it had been shared 40+ times.
Over the next 24 hours, the group’s leadership and I attempted to fight the misinformation, as the post shares climbed and climbed.
Once a group of people start spreading vicious attacks and lies, it’s very hard to recover. This doesn’t surprise me. As an amateur thespian I know drama, on stage and off. I’ve met the best people while acting, but I’ve also seen the most toxic environments. I have personally been spared the worst of pain and bullying, especially since wide spread social media use didn’t happen until I was out of high school. The way things spread on the internet is insidious. I wish there were no parallels to be drawn between high school drama and modern political tactics, but alas, that’s just not the case.
Almost nothing I said mattered to the people sharing the post. Even the most open-minded person I engaged with compared our empty spreadsheet to Schindler’s list. It didn’t matter that the sheet was empty. It didn’t matter that a local anti-choice leader was posting personally identifiable information of one of our admins publicly, because of this group’s allegation. It didn’t matter to the poster, at all, that a post from JULY was only brought to light the day before the election.
I sent several messages to the page asking to speak to someone so we could discuss this like adults. I could see that some people sharing the post were truly frightened. They have been fed so many lies about BLM that they honestly thought we had their addresses and were coming for them and their families, just because they support Donald Trump. Nothing could have been further from the truth, and it was upsetting to think they were scared because of our group. I urged the admin of the page to contact me so we could correct the misinformation and reassure folks that they were not in danger. I did not receive a response. I reminded them that they could have their “spy” in the group to access the spreadsheet. It was still there, empty. They could have taken screenshots. Instead, I had another lie thrown into my face. They alleged we had a different group with only trusted and verified members, so it would do no good to look further into the same spreadsheet that they posted about.
In the days since, I’ve felt differently about the misinformation spread by President Trump and his family, and the extreme wing of the GOP that supports him. The way they manipulate people by spreading lies that cause people to fear is truly evil. This goes far beyond winning or losing. It’s about human decency. Taking folks who are frightened and confused by a long and stressful process and causing them more hurt and pain, that is morally bankrupt.
These lies are so difficult to counter, mostly because the people starting them do not care at all about the damage that they may cause. I am not asking them to worry about the damage to their opponents, I am asking them to consider the stress and heartache they are causing their own supporters. How dare they manipulate people in this way? How dare they take an extremely stressful, bleak time and create even ONE MORE negative feeling in a person they claim to care about? For their own political ends? It’s unbelievably selfish. It’s shocking.
Despite personal experience, I have no words of wisdom for effectively dealing with this. We know lies spread faster than truth, and we know that once something is out there on the internet it cannot be taken back. So, all I can do is ask and beg, people in both parties. Evaluate the information presented. Feel your feelings. Breathe deep through the fear, and anger, and count to ten. Please, do not just hit that share button, despite your anger, fear and sadness. Verify. Investigate. Your share of false or misleading information spreads painful emotional reactions like a virus. Do you want to put that energy out into the world?