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Fiction Writers for Better Misinformation seeks to use misinformation to get voters more engaged in the electoral process. We welcome proposals for books, movies, propaganda campaigns, reality TV shows.

 

The Problem: People disagree about basic questions of fact. What is the state of the economy? Whose plan cuts more from Medicare? Where was Obama born? Did Romney pay any taxes? These differences of understanding lead to rancor and, on occasion, violent confrontation.

The Proposal: Why not give everyone what they want and eliminate the cause of discord? We create a news reference website through which people can set their preferences and receive only comforting facts. You want to know the truth behind the Romney tax brouhaha? If you’re a Democrat and you search on our site, you’ll find, just as you suspected, a copy of his 2006 returns showing zero paid in taxes, proving the injustice of his tax policies. But if you’re a Republican, the same search will return documents showing he paid a hefty 14% in 2006, proving to you that tax rates on the wealthy are more than high enough already. Similarly, there will be multiple-choice versions of Obama’s birth certificate (US and Kenya), budget projections, and polling results.

Furthermore, the site will allow people from opposite parties to share information back and forth, while each is only seeing what they want to see. Say I’m a Republican and I want to prove to you–a Democrat–that Obama’s policies will cripple small businesses. I use the share tool on the site to send you the relevant graph. But you receive the Democrat-friendly version. I believe I have proven you wrong, while you believe you have been vindicated. We’re both happy, and we can happily move on to other things, like complaining about the weather.

—Submitted by R.G.

Find the latest misinformation proposals.

With the launch of Fiction Writers for Better Misinformation (FBMisin), Stoneslide Media announces a call for proposals to deliver more useful misinformation to America’s voters. Read the latest updates and submit your own ideas.

In a presidential election year in the United States, more than 120 million people will consider campaign proposals, scrutinize ideologies and political philosophies, and even sit through thirty second ads during Monday Night Football before casting their votes. In order to make informed decisions, voters need to understand the competing candidates and their platforms. Sadly, misinformation is the new norm in the current state of ruthless partisan competition, breeding frustration and cynicism in the body politic.

Both parties produce and air ads that are labeled “false,” “deceiving,” and “pants on fire.” That’s not to mention the contributions of shadowy and unaccountable Super PACS, corporations, and unions. How is a voter supposed to find truth amid the storm of competing claims? Can objective reporting and painstaking research help? Consider that four years after the 2008 campaign, 25% of voters believe President Obama was not born in the US, despite the clear evidence of his birth certificate and contemporaneous reports—in other words, what we used to call empirical evidence.

Empiricism has failed. We can no longer let misinformation be fought with the floppy impotence of “truth.” To bring the American people back to the electoral process, we must seize the stout sword offered to us—misinformation itself—and craft narratives that will make people care about elections again. This is the founding mission of Fiction Writers for Better Misinformation. And who better to do it than writers of fiction?

We invite all writers, editors, and readers to join us in our endeavor. This announcement serves as a call for proposals. How can misinformation be used to produce a better election? Send us your proposals.

FBMisin has already launched two pilot programs.

BETTER MISINFORMATION PROPOSAL #1
The Problem: Scandal detracts from optimal consideration of policy.
A candidate whose policy preferences match his or her constituents’ can nonetheless lose an election because of private indiscretions. People focus too much on these salacious stories and end up feeling the political system doesn’t serve their needs.
The Proposal: FBMisin will hire a team of actors, actresses, special effects artists, Foley technicians, gaffers, and writers to produce sexually explicit videos incriminating all 535 members of Congress and their opponents, so that each and every one will have a scandal hanging over them. This will give equal taint to all of them, and thus prevent scandal from tainting voters’ judgment. [Read more…]

Fiction Writers for Better Misinformation seeks to use misinformation to get voters more engaged in the electoral process. We welcome proposals for books, movies, propaganda campaigns, reality TV shows.

 

The Problem: Voters lose interest in policy speeches, debates, white papers, and other such “dry” materials before they fully understand what’s at stake in the election.

The Proposal: Increase voter attention and engagement by having beautiful naked people reenact stump speeches and debates. It’s obvious that this approach will initially get far more attention than men in stiff suits at a lectern. We’ll create a Naked C-SPAN to be sure the programming is available whenever anyone needs a little look-see. But that is only the beginning of this misinformation proposal. America can be united by the combination of nudity and an unlikely love story.

In our alternate, nude version of the election, Mitt Romney will be played by a widely admired and handsome actor (we can’t release names yet) and Barack Obama will be played by a famously seductive actress. Through their early stump speeches, it will become clear that these two competitors truly hate each other. Then comes the night of the first debate—the first time they see each other in the flesh, so to speak. [Read more…]

Mary Dacton had reached a point where she no longer thought work could be anything better than drudgery. Her job as a copy editor—daily paper, mid-size market—was the one thing that had once given her satisfaction, especially the mundane triumphs of catching someone else’s error or winning an argument about punctuation. But over the years, the pleasure had drained out of her days as she corrected the same fundamental mistakes time after time. She used to hope she would be plucked out of her current place and elevated, but being passed over for copy chief three times, despite her experience, had taught her that hope was an illusion.

But that all changed one day when she got an email announcing, “Chance of a lif time!! We got gold watchs from MAJOR brands for NOTHING. Win friends and influence with a ROLEX or a GUCI. By one now and you could win a LUXURY Vacation.” [Read more…]

Books & Magazine

The Stoneslide Corrective No. 1

Our first print edition, The Stoneslide Corrective No. 1, is a reading experience that can make your head spin, being constituted of fiction that’s more solid than reality, humor masquerading as somber reflection, and truth lazing about gussied up like a dandy. It includes the work of great writers and visual artists.

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