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In yesterday’s blog, we discussed aspects of the current “information war” as it pertains to the recent indictment of “the Donald,” and his address to supporters at his Bedminster golf course and country club a few hours after his court appearance.
We closed that blog by stating that we would have more to say on the information war later. With volumes that could be written, we narrow our focus today on two related types of information: disinformation and misinformation.
Those two terms are now in widespread use in our 21st century civilization. We ourselves have used them on many occasions. So, we thought it might be helpful to offer a mnemonic in recognizing that there is a difference and what that difference is.
A mnemonic (the “m” is silent as it is pronounced nĭ-mŏn’-ĭk) is any device to help the memory. For example, a music student will learn to use the word F-A-C-E to remember the spaces on the staff in musical notation. And to remember the lines of the staff (E-G-B-D-F), we use another mnemonic: Every Good Boy Does Fine, or at least that is the one I was taught.
We made up our own easy mnemonic for distinguishing disinformation from misinformation. Here are my own simple definitions:
Disinformation is the deliberate dissemination of false information for purposes of deception. Notice all the words beginning with “d?”
On the other hand, misinformation is also false information, but it is put forth mistakenly, that is, with no malicious intent, and with the propagator of the misinformation himself unaware that the information is false. Again, notice how we mentally connect the letter “m” in misinformation primarily with the word mistakenly?
Disinformation and misinformation are both part of what is called “propaganda.” Propaganda is a word that can be used in either a positive or negative sense. Although it is commonly used overwhelmingly in the negative sense, it can be used in the positive sense as well. The verb form is to propagate, which simply means to set forth, i.e., to disseminate.
Christians strive to propagate biblical truth. Christian propaganda is therefore “good propaganda.” The antichrists, the wicked ones, the enemies of God, seek to propagate lies, in order “to kill, steal and destroy.” (John 10:10)
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, …for he is a liar, and the father of it.
In warfare, all sides in the conflict engage in propaganda for obvious reasons. When the wicked Pharaoh was trying to exterminate the Israelites by ordering the midwives to kill all the male babies, what happened?
At least some of the Hebrew midwives disobeyed and when they got caught, what did they do? They employed disinformation! They deliberately disseminated false information.
They told the Pharaoh’s “Planned Parenthood Police” how they were trying to comply with the government edict, but those lively Hebrew women had such brief labor in delivery that the child was born before they could get to the street address to assist in the delivery!
How did God feel about this disinformation (lies) on the part of the midwives?
Exodus 1:20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.
:21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
Another example is found in 1 Samuel, chapter 19, where David’s wife, Michal (daughter of King Saul) employed disinformation to help David escape from Saul’s SWAT teams whom Saul had sent to kill David.
Today, God’s people are in an existential battle. We are beset on all sides by the “wiles of the devil,” with their seemingly unending means and methods by which the children of darkness are seeking to exterminate not only Christian Israel, but 13/14ths of the world’s population! (Reference our blogs on the Georgia Guidestones. That likely includes all of us.) Add to that the bald-faced declarations by the elitists who populate the World Economic Forum. Global genocide is their clear intent.
Bottom line: get used to having to discern propaganda, and to realize that in this existential war, both sides are employing disinformation and misinformation. It is to be expected. It is utterly necessary because as with the Hebrew midwives, it is a matter of life and death—now in our era for almost all of mankind!
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