BRAINWORMS, DISINFORMATION AND ONLINE PROPAGANDA

Many of us know people close to us who seem to have been infected by blatant falsehood. Guest Sean Nowlan, a student at Jeff’s university who recently did independent research on today’s topic, helps break down what’s going on with foreign powers using online technology to sow disinformation and divide their rival nation. He also discusses the ways domestic extremism has been using disinformation in dangerous ways. We discussing the connection between American evangelical belief and receptivity to disinformation. We conclude with the best ways to help friends and family find a way out of false ideologies concocted via disinformation.

CLICK HERE FOR NOWLAN’S FULL ARTICLE

Nowlan is majoring inHistory & Political Thought, Minoring in Law Politics. Beyond normal academic schooling, Sean is Captain of Concordia's Parliamentary Debate team and a participant in Concordia University's prestigious honors program.

NOTE: We make mention a couple times of “Old Testament” versions of God. We are well aware that this could indicate an anti-semitic/Marcionite understanding of these sacred texts. The reason we spoke this way was that we were recalling our mindset from our evangelical youth, in which the “Old Testament” was read in a particular “Dispensationalist” way, in which God operated according to different dispensations, using different “economies of salvation.” In such a context, the Old Testament represented a works-based, legalistic way to earn eternal life. This of course is not the way my Jewish friends would read the point of the Hebrew Bible. Too bad we never met any rabbis in our teens; they could have helped us at least understand some different ways of interpreting and using the wisdom of these books.

We also discuss:

Bots

State funded media

Algorithms 

Qanon

Domestic Terrorism

Extremist groups

Sean Nowlan