Barbara McQuade is a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, co-host of the podcast #SistersinLaw, and a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. Her first book is Attack From Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America. We discuss the dangers of disinformation and how we can defeat it.

Democracy depends on truth, and as Americans we should prize truth over tribe. A lot of disinformation is hiding behind the First Amendment – telling lies as a right to free speech. We are overrun with disinformation. One of the strategies is to exhaust us by constantly pumping false claims into the media ecosphere, so that we become cynical or disengage. That is fertile ground for would-be authoritarian regimes. For example, in response to the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen, a number of states have passed laws making it more difficult to vote. Defending truth is vitally important when it is under attack. 

Follow Barbara on X: 

https://x.com/BarbMcQuade 

Follow Mila on X: 

https://x.com/milaatmos 

Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/

Sponsor: 

Thanks to Shopify for supporting Future Hindsight! Sign up for a $1/month trial at shopify.com/hopeful.

Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey! 

http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard 

Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey!

https://www.democracygroup.org/survey

Want to support the show and get it early? 

https://patreon.com/futurehindsight 

Check out the Future Hindsight website! 

www.futurehindsight.com

Read the transcript here:  

https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/disinformation-is-sabotaging-america-barbara-mcquade 

Credits: 

Host: Mila Atmos 

Guests: Barbara McQuade

Executive Producer: Mila Atmos

Producer: Zack Travis