Understanding the Hoax of the Century | Jacob Siegel

Hidden Forces

Demetri Kofinas

Government, Business

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Episode 309 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Jacob Siegel, a senior editor at Tablet magazine and the author of a widely shared article about disinformation titled, “A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century.”

The ‘hoax’ according to Siegel is the information war itself, which he believes conflates the anti-establishment politics of domestic populists with acts of war by foreign enemies turning the American people into targets of the US government and its intelligence agencies.

Demetri and Jacob spend the first hour of their conversation trying to wrap their arms around this sprawling leviathan of public and private surveillance that has left so many of us feeling increasingly disoriented and vulnerable to being manipulated and controlled. They discuss what disinformation is, what it isn’t, and how the information ecosystem has become a battlefield for narrative warfare and mass psychological operations conducted against civilians across Western countries.

In the second hour, Siegel and Kofinas debate what can be done to solve the problem. Demetri is of the view that we can and should regulate the large tech platforms by introducing governing incentives, epistemic objectives, and non-partisan transparency that can produce higher quality information and while also being more conducive to consensus building. Jacob shares his views, which in some instances differ from Demetri’s in what was a spirited debate and lively conversation.

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Episode Recorded on 04/17/2023

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up everybody? My name is Demetra Grafinas and you're listening to Hidden Forces,
0:06.0	a podcast that inspires investors, entrepreneurs and everyday citizens, the challenge consensus
0:13.0	narratives, and to learn how to think critically about the systems of power shaping our world.
0:19.0	My guest in today's episode is Jacob Siegel, a senior editor at Tablet Magazine, and
0:24.5	the author of a widely shared article about the subject of disinformation titled, A Guide
0:30.4	to Understanding the Hoax of the Century. That hoax, according to Jacob, is the information
0:36.0	war itself, which he believes conflates the anti-establishment politics of domestic populists
0:42.0	with acts of war by foreign enemies, turning the American people into targets for mass
0:47.5	psychological operations and into instruments of control.
0:52.2	Jacob and I spend the first hour of our conversation trying to wrap our arms around this sprawling
0:57.7	Leviathan of public and private surveillance in order to both understand it and reassert
1:03.7	our power over it, and over an information environment that has left us feeling increasingly
1:08.6	disoriented and vulnerable to both foreign interference and the disinformation efforts
1:14.2	of our own government and intelligence agencies. The second hour of our conversation is
1:19.3	devoted to thinking through and in some cases arguing about what can be done to begin
1:24.9	to solve the problem. As you will hear, and as regular listeners know, I am of the view
1:30.2	that we can and should regulate these platforms by introducing governing incentives at
1:35.9	bestemic objectives and transparency that is nonpartisan, in which can produce an information
1:41.2	environment that is in everyone's best interests. If you want access to that part of the conversation
1:46.9	and you're not already subscribed to Hidden Forces, you can join our premium feed and
1:51.9	listen to the second hour of today's episode by going to hiddenforces.io-subscribe.
1:58.9	All of our content tiers give you access to our premium feed, which you can listen to
	...

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