The Right Is Already Using AI. We’re Still Debating It.
How refusing to engage with AI is widening the disinformation gap
In 2015 and 2016, I warned that Russian and right-wing disinformation wasn’t a side problem - it was the strategy. At the time, those warnings were often met with skepticism. Some people thought it was overstated. Others believed fact-checking and traditional media would contain it.
Then mainstream news collapsed.
Local newspapers disappeared.
Broadcast audiences shrank and aged.
And the right expanded their always-on media ecosystem to fill the void.
What was once a Firehose of Disinformation became a floodplain.
Now, we’re entering the next phase. And this time, the accelerant is AI.
Recent reporting—including Wired’s warning about AI-powered disinformation swarms - makes one thing clear: the right is already using artificial intelligence to scale persuasion, manipulate narratives, and dominate attention. Not in the future. Now.
Meanwhile, many progressives remain understandably uneasy about AI - concerned about surveillance, bias, job loss, corporate abuse, and ethical misuse.
Those concerns are real.
But opting out is not neutral.
It is a strategic surrender.
The question isn’t whether AI will shape politics.
It’s whether progressives will use it to defend democracy as effectively as the right uses it to distort reality
A Brief Reset: What Is Disinformation?
Disinformation is not simply “false information.”
It is deliberately misleading content, designed to:
Trigger emotional reactions
Reinforce identity and tribalism
Undermine trust in shared reality
Overwhelm people until they disengage from truth altogether
Modern disinformation is rarely about convincing you of one lie.
It’s about making everything feel suspect.
As I wrote in The Firehose of Falsehood, the right’s strategy mirrors a model identified by RAND in its analysis of Russian propaganda:
A high-volume, multichannel, rapid, continuous, and repetitive messaging strategy with no commitment to objective reality and a strong emphasis on emotional appeal.
The goal is not persuasion.
It’s confusion, exhaustion, and control of attention.
And now, AI makes this model cheaper, faster, and harder to detect.
Why Progressives Are Falling Behind
Progressives still tend to treat communication as:
Episodic
Campaign-bounded
Fact-driven but emotionally thin
Dependent on shrinking legacy media
The right treats communication as:
Permanent infrastructure
Cultural immersion
Identity reinforcement
A 24/7 day to day presence
That asymmetry existed before AI.
AI just widens the gap.
Right-wing networks are already using AI to:
Generate content variations at scale
Test emotional triggers rapidly
Target micro-audiences with tailored narratives
Detect and exploit emerging grievances
Maintain constant presence without burning out staff
Organize!
If progressives refuse to engage with these tools, we don’t preserve our values.
We abandon the field.
The Core Insight: This Is Not About “Fighting AI With AI”
This is not about bots arguing with bots.
It’s not about synthetic people or deepfake candidates.
And it is absolutely not about lying better.
The real opportunity is structural.
AI allows progressives to change how we communicate, not just what we say.
Used ethically and transparently, AI becomes:
An intelligence layer
A speed multiplier
A coordination tool
A way to stay present, local, and human—without collapsing under the workload
AI should sit behind the camera, not in front of it.
What AI Actually Lets Us Do (That We Currently Don’t)
1. See Disinformation Early - Before It Spreads
The right wins because it shows up first.
AI can monitor thousands of local Facebook pages, Telegram channels, comment threads, and fringe outlets to detect pattern repetition - the early smoke before the wildfire.
This isn’t rebuttal.
It’s radar.
You don’t counter a Firehose with a squirt gun.
You counter it by acting early.
2. Map Narratives, Not Just Facts
Facts don’t move people. Stories do.
AI can track:
Repeating villains and scapegoats
Emotional hooks (fear, disgust, grievance)
How a claim mutates from fringe → influencer → mainstream
That allows progressives to respond at the story level, not the sentence level.
Not: “That claim is false.”
But: “This is the same story they use whenever they want you scared and distracted.”
3. Sound Local - At Scale
The right sounds like your neighbor.
Progressives often sound like a memo.
AI helps fix that.
It can adapt messages for:
Factory towns vs. Old growth suburbs
Union households vs. retirees
Parents vs. veterans vs. small business owners
Same values.
Same truth.
Different local expression.
Trust travels through familiarity.
4. Never Go Dark Again
One of the right’s biggest advantages is relentless presence.
AI enables:
Continuous posting without burnout
Rapid response across platforms
Ongoing reinforcement of values - even between elections
This turns progressive communication from seasonal campaigns into permanent infrastructure.
5. Strengthen Real Organizing (Not Replace It)
The goal isn’t automation. It’s liberation of human time.
AI can:
Summarize community feedback
Surface recurring concerns
Help organizers tailor outreach
Connect digital engagement to real-world action
Less spreadsheet work.
More relationships.
Guardrails Matter - and They’re the Difference
Let’s be explicit.
Ethical AI use means:
No fake people
No synthetic identities
No impersonation
No deception about who is speaking
AI is used to:
Amplify real voices
Increase speed and relevance
Strengthen trust, not simulate it
That distinction isn’t just moral.
It’s strategic.
Trust is the scarce resource in modern politics.
The Real Choice in Front of Us
The right isn’t winning because its ideas are better.
It’s winning because it is:
Constant
Emotional
Local
Repetitive
Narrative-driven
AI lets progressives finally compete on those dimensions—without abandoning truth or values.
The danger isn’t AI.
The danger is pretending the information environment hasn’t changed.
They’re building worldviews.
We’re still building talking points.
That’s not a fair fight.
It’s time to stop debating whether we like the terrain - and start learning how to operate on it.
Because the Right Wing’s Firehose of Disinformation isn’t slowing down.
And democracy doesn’t defend itself.
Next: How AI fits into a permanent, values-driven progressive media ecosystem—and what it would actually take to build one that lasts beyond Election Day.
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Not sure the story is about AI. The story is about funding. You can't expect the 'messengers' to work for free. See NYTs article about RNC vs DNC funding edge
Love how you frame it as "behind the camera" amplification. Relentless local messaging, early threat radar, turning seasonal campaigns into 24/7 cultural immersion without compromising ethics.
It's the fresh structural shift beyond deepfake panic, matching their emotional firehose with our stories at scale. Which is a good thing to be worried about, though I think the "amount" is missing the real problem. So thank ya!