Five types of people who spread misinformation

People often assume that public figures who spread false information are just “liars.” Still, I think it’s more accurate and useful to realize there are at least five distinct and important types of misinformation spreaders: 1) Narcissistic deceivers: they don’t track or even consider whether what they are saying is true; they say what feels good to them. This relates to what philosophers call “bullshitting” (as opposed to “lying”). Some well-known politicians fall into this camp. 2) P...
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Everyone Misspeaks, So Watch Out For Cherry Picking

Obvious but often forgotten: everyone misspeaks sometimes. We all sometimes say things that: don’t make much sense we realize we don’t agree with (after a moment of reflection) are based on misremembering facts sound different than what we meant High stress situations tend to increase those effects. An interesting implication: anyone on TV, or who is otherwise recorded enough times, will be found making the mistakes mentioned above. So people can cherry pick examples t...
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