Attack from Within

How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America

De: Barbara McQuade

Narrado por: Barbara McQuade

Duración: 10 h y 28 m

Resumen del Editor

MSNBC's legal expert breaks down the ways disinformation has become a tool to drive voters to extremes, disempower our legal structures, and consolidate power in the hands of the few.

American society is more polarized than ever before. We are strategically being pushed apart by disinformation-the deliberate spreading of lies disguised as truth-and it comes at us from all sides: opportunists on the far right, Russian misinformed social media influencers, among others. It's endangering our democracy and causing havoc in our electoral system, schools, hospitals, workplaces, and in our Capitol. Advances in technology including rapid developments in artificial intelligence threaten to make the problems even worse by amplifying false claims and manufacturing credibility. In Attack from Within, legal scholar and analyst Barbara McQuade, shows us how to identify the ways disinformation is seeping into all facets of our society and how we can fight against it.

Disinformation is designed to evoke a strong emotional response to push us toward more extreme views, unable to find common ground with others. The false claims that led to the breathtaking attack on our Capitol in 2020 may have been only a dress rehearsal. Attack from Within shows us how to prevent it from happening again, thus preserving our country's hard-won democracy.

©2024 Barbara McQuade (P)2024 Tantor

HONESTY MATTERS

An honest warning to all of us in America who wish to continue an America we have always taken for granted.

Important information

I thought was thought provoking and helpful information. Sometimes redundant examples but under different topics. As even handed as possible in today’s circumstances.

Important topic, great analysis

The last two chapters were amazing. Excellent suggestions toward resolving a difficult and important problem.

Truth

Mrs McQuade presents the hard to hear truths about dis- and misinformation utilization within America against Americans. Education is power, and everyone should read this book. It will inoculate you against the bad intentions of authoritarian speeches. History is watching. Wake up America!

Clear, Concise Examination

Thank you, Barbara, for such a clear, concise book and your never failing spirit of democracy whenever I see you on TV. We need your strength to keep us going in the face of all today's difficulties!

We must arm ourselves, with truth.

In a time of rising authoritarianism that seeks to wield power through misinformation and racist, misogynistic aggression, we can only respond with a clear eyed enthusiasm for the ideals that this country was based on: a shared life, an unbounded Liberty, and a common pursuit of happiness. We must fly in the face of the demagogy which would use division and derision to separate us as a country. 

Topics were well explained.

I enjoyed the entire story because it gave me a good summary of the problems our nation is facing due to conspiracy theories and lies .

Just the facts mam.

Dislike?? Not a thing this book was in my opinion absolutely spot on and Barbra’s narrative was again smooth, and factual without being confrontational

This is not a feel-good book. Review and commentary:

I almost quit the book multiple times. The content makes me sick. I don’t find fault with Ms. McQuade at all. I am actually grateful. The truth hurts though. She is just one of the messengers, but maybe the most effective. She tries to offer hope at the end, but the current state of affairs in our country gives me no hope that democracy will survive the attack from within she so eloquently, expertly, and exhaustively described. She certainly says the right things to offer actions to remedy the sickness and try to reverse the disinformation problem. Alas, I believe the dark collective force of lies and will-to-power that has risen up through Trump and the MAGA right moment has captured too many Americans. Democracy is already too far gone. Trust is broken. Truth is buried. It seems takeover must run its course before the darkness is truly exposed and hopefully taken down. The reality of the power and the non-compromising drive of the authoritarian MAGA right movement hasn’t even been fully acknowledged by “we the people”. The MAGA movement is a cancer that’s already completely taken over the Republican Party and seems to be too strong and resistant to being defeated as it takes over the entire government. Our country is too overwhelmed to stop it peacefully. And only “we the people” can bring back democracy. It will be a war not to stop what’s happening but to resurrect something new. As is obvious to me in this book, and in the many others that have recently been published by political and social leaders and journalists, democracy is terminally ill. Most of us are still in denial, and the massive cult of Trump adherents who are living in a delusional alternate reality of lies actually believe God is on their side. It’s hard to thank a doctor for delivering news that you have terminal cancer. Like a good doctor she tries to give hope. History, science, and common sense, with which Ms. McQuade not so subtly winks at us throughout her book, tells us that our current democracy doesn’t have long to live.

Truth Is Paramount

I really liked and believed Barbara’s constant topical approach to moving back to the central main point, which I so strongly agree with, that true facts, along with compassion in behaviour towards others is so important in these times.