When confronted with the growing popularity of populist, extremist, and generally destructive ideas over the past decade or so, many establishment politicians, journalists, and experts have blamed “misinformation” (see also “disinformation”, “fake news”, “information disorder”, and “post-truth”).

Although this narrative comes in different forms, it typically involves three core ideas: (1) misinformation is widespread, (2) it is much worse than in the recent past, and (3) it is highly impactful in driving worrying political trends and developments. By duping large numbers of credulous citizens into believing falsehoods and deranged conspiracy theories, it fuels populism, support for demagogues, and hostility towards democracy and established institutions.

I’ve written about many of the problems with this narrative before. For example, it exaggerates both the quality of the past information environment and the gullibility of ordinary voters. In most cases, misinformation and demagogic politics exist because there’s an active market for them, catering to attitudes already prevalent in the population.

The narrative is also self-serving. By explaining support for populism as a result of manipulation and misinformation, it exempts establishment institutions from any blame for anti-establishment politics. It also delegitimises all populist concerns, treating the preferences of many voters (e.g., for less immigration or tougher policies on crime) as the result of simple cognitive mistakes.

Finally, the idea that “misinformation” is the kind of thing that mainstream journalists and experts can detect and regulate presupposes that misinformation is not a significant problem within their institutions. As many have pointed out, this assumption is highly questionable. There is a substantial amount of what Matt Yglesias calls “elite misinformation”.

“Elite misinformation”

So understood, elite misinformation is supposed to be different from the kind of fake news, absurd conspiracy theories, and quack science spread by “alternative media” outlets and pundits like Candace Owens, Alex Jones, Tommy Robinson, Andrew Tate, Tucker Carlson, and Joe Rogan.

However, the term “elite” can be misleading in this context. A vast amount of what Donald Trump and Elon Musk say is either false or misleading. Given that the former is the world’s most powerful man and the latter is the wealthiest, it’s strange not to classify them as “elites”. Nevertheless, their falsehoods are not the kind of thing people have in mind when they speak of “elite misinformation”.

Moreover, so-called “alternative media” and “non-elite” pundits are increasingly influential in