Talk:Misinformation

These comments below were originally placed on the misinformation page by an anonymous contributor. I'm moving them here because they really aren't specific to misinformation, and they would need work on punctuation and grammar to make them useful. Also, the concept of "false esoteric knowledge" appears to be this contributor's own coinage and doesn't appear to be an important concept in the study of misinformation or propaganda. --Sheldon Rampton 23:06 13 Dec 2003 (EST)

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 * False esoteric knowledge. widely circulating snippets of information with the illusion that the information is only known to a few. then stating that those with the opposing viewpoint only have that viewpoint because they are not "in the know". wanting to avoid being seen as ignorant, the information is accepted as truth and the opposing viewpoint is considered the viewpoint of the ignorant or uninitiated.
 * Usually accompanied by statements that the opposing viewpoint can be "easily disproven", without actually providing any evidence to disprove it, apart from the false esoteric knowledge, which has the burden of proof removed from it, because it is supposed to be a secret only known to a few.