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Beware ‘Smokescreen Trolling,’ Trump Followers’ Favorite Tactic | WIRED

Some of the claims coming out of the Trump camp in recent weeks are laughable: that Joe Biden is the Hamburglar, that Democrats are conspiring to take away the Chick-fil-A sauces of “real” Americans, that socialism is making your burritos more expensive. Some are much more serious, but just as demonstrably false: that the 2020 election was stolen, that Democrats are guilty of widespread voter fraud, that the January 6th insurrection wasn’t an insurrection at all. Others are couched in fears about “critical race theory” (even among those who can’t seem to define it), and the concern that liberals are woke Harry Potters roaming the countryside, indiscriminately casting the spell expecto cancellation.

These are disinformation campaigns. At the same time, “disinformation” doesn’t fully capture it. In fact, it’s difficult to find an existing term that does.

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Source: Beware ‘Smokescreen Trolling,’ Trump Followers’ Favorite Tactic | WIRED