Lessons From the Fake News Pandemic of 1942: Politico

[TygrBright]

Lessons From the Fake News Pandemic of 1942

>>Seventy-five years ago, tens of thousands of white Southerners responded with agitated concern when they learned both by word of mouth and in some regional newspapers that first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was traveling widely throughout the former Confederate states, quietly organizing black women into secret “Eleanor Clubs.” The club motto, “A white woman in the kitchen by 1943,” portended a dangerous inversion of the region’s long-standing racial patterns.

It was already widely believed in the South that black men had been brazenly stockpiling ice picks, pistols, rifles and explosives in anticipation of a larger race riot. With millions of white men now serving in the armed forces and stationed away from their families, the story went, white communities were vulnerable to an impending assault. When that day came, black women—many of whom worked in domestic service—intended to force their white employers to cook and clean for them. “Eleanor Clubs are stirring up trouble that never should have arisen,” a white North Carolinian observed with worry. “Clubs are making the Negroes discontented, making them question their status.”

***

Indeed, the South in 1942 was particularly vulnerable to rumor and fake news. The region’s public school system was a creaky and underfunded affair. Though one-third of America’s school-aged children lived in the former Confederate states, the South accounted for less than 20 percent of national income. Consequently, expenditures-per-pupil ranged from one-third of the national average in Mississippi, to between 50 percent and 60 percent in Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky and South Carolina. Throughout the region, only 10 percent of children who entered first grade would go on to graduate from high school. In short, an undereducated populace was an easy mark for disinformation campaigns.

The South’s political system was also broken, particularly in Deep South states where poll taxes effectively disenfranchised the majority of black and white adults. On average, only 20 percent of voting-age residents participated in elections, a dynamic that left many ordinary people disconnected from local, state and federal institutions. Robbed of political agency, many Southerners accepted outlandish explanations of social and economic change.<<

Geez, they're not even innovative crooks...

interestedly,
Bright

[Hortensis]

1. Very interesting. Paints with far too broad a brush,

though. We know a major characteristic explaining conservatives is that they are more motivated by fear and anxiety than liberals, as well of course as by other vulnerabilities that tend to come with that. I live surrounded by these people, so I can definitely see the anxiety levels of many rising with these rumors, big time for some.

But not even all southern conservatives would be so foolish as to swallow this wholesale, much less most southern liberals and libertarians. Though many must have wondered if something might happen elsewhere, even if the idea of it occurring in their own homes, neighborhoods, or towns seemed obviously silly.

[underpants]

2. WWII FAKE news

Thanks. Interesting read.