In Defense Of Truth, And The Threat Of Disinformation

There is an international, anti-democratic, nationalist movement buoying authoritarians abroad, threatening to end hopeful democratic moments in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. How much is due to new technology delivering novel means of propaganda? And how much of it is the pendulum of history, returning us to age-old concerns about the stability of liberal democratic states? In this essay, I place these concerns in historical and philosophical context, to elucidate both the problem and the best response. In section I, I begin with the problem of deining the topic. What is propaganda? In section II, I trace the roots of the problem back to the founding texts of western philosophy. In section III, I give a defense of truth, and further expand on the risks of disinformation eforts. I conclude with some recommendations about how public diplomacy can be marshaled to respond to the problem of authoritarian propaganda.