Local politics resists misinformation more than national politics does

Evidence

One possible intervention concerns the relationship between local issues and issues that are more abstract, in the sense of being disconnected from individuals’ everyday experiences. The more local our politics is, the less chance for it to be dominated by distorting social effects of the sort that have emerged in recent years. This is because policies with local ramifications give the world more chances to push back. Consider the difference between national legislation aimed at regulating emissions generally, and local legislation aimed at regulating emissions from the nearby coal plant. Or legislation on mercury contamination in a town’s fishing areas that has observable effects on the day-to-day lives of those who would vote on the bill. This generates a situation better matched by models in which there is a notable difference between the success rates of actions A and B, and where conformity is less significant. We should expect in such cases that social effects will not matter as much, and that it will be harder for industry to take advantage of these effects to obscure the truth. — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age, 587

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: A world or story where political life devolves sharply toward the hyperlocal as a deliberate epistemic strategy against false belief—verging on satire of its own logic.
• XREF: connects to: Earmark bans may have worsened political dysfunction by nationalizing voter attention — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age: How False…, 588; Health misinformation moved from fringe to mainstream political discourse — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age: How False…, 53; Politicization of anti-misinformation efforts blocks evidence-based campaign adoption — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 872

Broader Connections

• Politicization of anti-misinformation efforts blocks evidence-based campaign adoption #qualifies (0.75) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 872