Agnotology and Epistemological Fragmentation
danah boyd,
Points, Medium,
May 10, 2019
The term "agnotology" refers to the the strategic and purposeful production of ignorance. before this term was introduced, we used (more meaningful) words like "misinformation" and "disinformation". For the most part danah boyd is on-point with this discussion of the practice, describing how the tactic is used by far right groups to sow down and dissension in society, and to promote their own message and to create and recruit radicals. She also describes "epistemological fragmentation" to describe the creation or appropriation of terms that seed doubt and fragment society. And she suggests that the best response is to "blanket the information ecosystem with the information people need to make informed decisions." I think that's an old strategy, but then again, disinformation is an old tactic. But just as I don;t think yiu can defeat propaganda with more propaganda, I don't think adopting the tactics if the disinformationists will work either. It will just create two camps - one camp that uses the word "agnotology" and another that doesn't.
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