I think you’re viewing this completely backwards. With a more free and efficient public discourse the opportunity for disinformation and dehumanization is reduced.
Sure, some idiots on the internet will be saying x, y, and z, but that’s not very effective. It’ll only be roughly as effective as their claims are true. Historically these campaigns would be waged by groups with overwhelming culture-making powers, who could get away with campaigns that were much more divorced from reality: the church, the state, corpora media, etc. For those groups, the truth didn’t matter because they controlled society… they controlled the “Truth.”
> It’ll only be roughly as effective as their claims are true.
Boy, do I wish I had your faith. That hasn't been my experience with how claims are evaluated on the internet, nor with how they spread.
It certainly seems to me that claims that are more interesting or emotive spread further, regardless of their truth value. It certainly seems to me that corrections to false claims don't spread nearly as far as the original false claims. And it seems to me that false claims are much easier to produce than true claims, so are produced in greater volumes.
I just don't see it being "as effective as their claims are true", I see it being "as effective as their claims are *desirable*". That seems (again, to me) to be the much more important factor in how a claim spreads. And...well...humans have a very strong tendency to blame their problems on outside groups and factions. It's very desirable for groups to blame our problems on others.
I really have seen very little evidence that an idea/meme's effectiveness at spreading has a strong correlation to its truth value.
I hope you're right. I want to live in a world where you're right. But I also am terrified that we live in a world where you're wrong. I don't think the world you want to live in happens automatically. I think it takes a tremendous amount of work to achieve, and if we just assume it's natural, I don't think we will realize that world.
Sure, some idiots on the internet will be saying x, y, and z, but that’s not very effective. It’ll only be roughly as effective as their claims are true. Historically these campaigns would be waged by groups with overwhelming culture-making powers, who could get away with campaigns that were much more divorced from reality: the church, the state, corpora media, etc. For those groups, the truth didn’t matter because they controlled society… they controlled the “Truth.”