Keen On

I’m just back from the Liberalism for the 21st Century conference in DC which featured a lively discussion about digital misinformation between KEEN ON regular Jonathan Rauch and Renee DiResta, the author of Invisible Rulers. As the former manager of the Stanford Internet Observatory, DiResta has been on the front lines of the disinformation wars and understands the chillingly close relationship between making something trend on social media and making it appear “true”. Her work focuses on those supposedly invisible people, our new ontological masters, who, she believes, turn lies into reality. Given that the 2024 election will be determined by which candidates’ version of reality is more ontologically convincing to the American electorate, DiResta’s well-informed perspective is an essential guide to how liberalism can not only survive but also flourish in the 21st century. Renée DiResta was the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, a cross-disciplinary program of research, teachin