I have joined Truth Social. I think of it as watching a bit of Tucker Carlson on Fox News. I did this as a type of experiment. Could I engage with the Trump supporters who are offering comments I know are false, respond with fact check links or links to evidence contradicting what was claimed, and engage in what I call argumentation. I write about argumentation as a learning activity a lot. If the term puzzles you, translate it as debate.
One of the most prolific posters on Truth Social (I am not sure what the equivalent of a tweeter is on Truth Social) is Dinesh D’Souza. Dinesh is one of those individuals would posts continuously originating or relaying any negative comment about Biden, Pelosi, the Jan 6 Committee, or Democrats in general that he can find. I often respond to indicate that the claims made can be evaluated using a site like Politifact or pointing to other sources disputing the claims made.
Here is the type of thing I encounter. The following post appears to be a short statement explaining a link. When you enter a link in a social media service (e.g., Facebook), you often get something similar to this link. The title and intro sentences are automatically generated with an image from the post. This is what commonly happens. Here is what is problematic and outright deceptive about this specific D’Souza post. Note the word I have enclosed in the red box.
Like I said, when you link to another online article with a link in a social media service you typically get what you see here – the title, intro comments, and a photo. I spend a lot of time in Wisconsin (I am in the state while I am writing this) so I follow the political scene in the state. I was interested in the Republican activities contesting the 2020 election and wanted to read this new development. The following is what I found when I followed the link.
Read the title. The word “of” in the D’Souza post has been substituted for “if” in the actual title. This completely changes the message. Of course, if fraud is proven this is a serious issue. The point is that it has not been proven and “of” has been substituted to imply a very different meaning. One of those autocorrections or finger fumbles while typing. This is not the way a link in social media works. The individual posting the link just enters the link and the image and text are selected as part of the feed. The title has been altered.