Fake news--this is how it works

I’ve been puzzling (since November) about how “fake news” actually works. Do people do it on purpose? Is it like a game of telephone where things get distorted as they are communicated? So for the last few days, I’ve been visiting on of my MOC’s web pages and I saw it in action.  Jeff Duncan was in fact at the address to congress last night. He saw what actually happened. And yet, after several ultra right-wing “news” outlets reported that Democrats refused to stand for the widow of the Navy Seal killed in the Cheeto’s first raid, he went to the dark side and accused Democrats of not standing to recognize her. This is the important part—he was *there*. He knows that that’s not what actually happened. But he posted it on his page, and his right wing constituents jumped right on board. His supporters joined the conversation (and I apologize in advance—I couldn’t figure out how to make it just one thing without it getting so long—talking about how they saw it too and found it disgraceful. But that’s not possible, because it never happened. They’ve agreed to believe a falsehood, despite multiple people letting them know where they can go to see what happened. I noted with a red x on the right each time that happened. On the left the red x marks are the places where someone disagreed and pointed out that this thing that everyone is mad about didn’t actually happen.  We need to figure out a way to combat the disinformation campaign we’re facing.  War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Democrats refused to stand for the Seal widow.  I’m not sure how we’re every going to find common ground if we don’t even agree what reality we’re in. And I’m not sure how we fight political officials—their numbers are now growing—who embrace and spread falsehoods.