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This might be the scariest fact we've ever seen about social media. You know it's bad, but this bad? And it explains a lot about how crazy political discussions have gotten online. 0.1% of users? No really. The amount of disinformation is staggering. And what does it do to our brains? Plus: What people miss when Trump lies. When we roll our eyes, we miss the point. And - despite the challenges in front of us - why is Joe optimistic about how we can break out of the funhouse? Read "Inside the funhouse mirror factory" here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352250X24001313 Read the Atlantic article here: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/01/january-6-justification-machine/681215/?gift=bcL26f46jRxbKrUp1kTCRFgu6En8nVf7xwPsSYEqCiU&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share And visit getrealnews.org.

David Pepper found out this week that the bizarro reaction from "blue checks" on Twitter doesn't mean sea levels aren't rising, but does confirm that the swamp of right-wing disinformation and conspiracies on the social media platform is rising even faster. And yes, we know His Imperial Weirdness changed the name to X, but we're not calling it that because even wackadoodle-billionaire-fascist-huggers can't always get what they want.

Feel like someone's watching you? You're probably right. Rick Wilson and Byron Tau, author of "Means of Control" talk Big Tech's big data collection. Is there an alliance between tech companies and government agencies? Get ready - Rick and Byron discuss the birth of a new American surveillance state.