by Robert E. Wright
The American Institute for Economic Research
Misinformation, i.e., wrong claims innocently made, and disinformation, i.e., wrong claims willfully made, have long consorted to create propaganda, a distorted worldview designed to achieve some political goal.
The lines between those lies have so blurred that only a neologistic portmanteau, dismisinfoganda, fully captures recent reality.
Like an old hip-hip song, let’s break it down:
dis = intentionally wrong claims (lies)
mis = unintentionally wrong claims (error)
dismis(s) = denying a claim without empirically engaging it
info = a claim about the real world
(propa)ganda = that which is propagare, i.e., propagated or spread
Ergo, dismisinfoganda is the politicized spreading or squelching of claims without, or counter to, adequate empirical evidence.