Tropes of Deception (and how to spot them)
Global crises – including accelerating climate breakdown, widening socio-economic inequality, armed conflict, and rising social polarisation – are exacerbated by the dysfunction of media systems increasingly captured by corporate and political interests.
The following content is a cross-topic and globally relevant extract from ‘Tropes of Deception by Tom Hardy, which provides significant depth and insight to the climate disinformation landscape in the UK.
1) Spectacle over substance
What it is: News values overweight the dramatic, immediate and negative; slow-burn crises and civic action get sidelined.
What to do: Ask “What’s missing over the long term?” Prioritise trend lines over headlines; look for follow-up reporting, datasets, and context.
2) False equivalence (“both-sidesism”)
What it is: Placing fringe or unevidenced claims alongside established expertise as if they’re equal.
What to do: Check for weight of evidence and relevant expertise, not just “having a guest.” Demand disclosure of funding/affiliations.
3) Ownership, funding & conflicts
What it is: Media and commentators with undisclosed financial/ideological backers shaping coverage.
What to do: Follow the money: who owns it, who funds it, who benefits? Treat anonymous “institutes” and “foundations” as claims, not credentials.
4) Algorithmic amplification & silos
What it is: Platforms personalise feeds, intensifying outrage and narrowing viewpoints.
What to do: Intentionally cross the stream: sample credible sources outside your bubble; use tools that expose opposing frames and missing angles. Step away from algorithm social media, and choose somewhere like Mo-Me instead.
5) Language as a weapon
What it is: Framing via loaded labels, euphemism, passive voice, dog-whistles, and “fig leaves” (respectable-sounding covers for prejudice).
What to do: Translate to plain language:
- Replace euphemism (“collateral damage”) with reality (“civilian deaths”).
- Flip the passive to active (“X bombed Y”).
- Flag weasel phrases (“some say…”, “many experts believe…”) without sources.
6) Statistical sleights
What it is: Small/biased samples, cherry-picking time windows, mean vs median confusions, correlation ≠ causation, context-free percentages.
What to do: Ask five checks: sample? timeframe? average type? base rate? mechanism? Prefer primary data and full series over cropped charts.
7) Emotional hijacks
What it is: Stories engineered to trigger fear/anger so reason short-circuits.
What to do: Notice your state before you share. Park the feeling; verify the facts. Seek out disconfirming info on purpose.
8) Vague attribution & speculation
What it is: Claims pinned to “critics say,” “sources suggest,” “could,” “might,” or scare-quotes around invented groups.
What to do: Demand names, numbers, and documents. Treat hypotheticals as fiction until supported.
9) Visual manipulation
What it is: Misleading photo juxtapositions, stock imagery implying causation, cropped clips.
What to do: Reverse-image search; check timestamp/location; look for the uncropped original.
10) Repetition & slogan-craft
What it is: Mantras, alliteration and three-word slogans that bypass analysis through sheer repetition.
What to do: Ask “What specific policy/trade-off sits behind this phrase?” If none is offered, treat it as advertising, not analysis.
11) Incitement dynamics
What it is: Dehumanising frames escalate from rhetoric to threats to violence against out-groups or activists.
What to do: Watch for verbs that license harm (“crush,” “hunt,” “enemy”). Platform counterspeech; report direct calls to violence; document patterns.
12) AI-accelerated deception
What it is: Targeted propaganda, synthetic text/images/video (deepfakes), bot-boosted narratives — and AI tools that can also detect them.
What to do: Use basic deepfake tells (lighting, lips, reflections), check provenance/signatures, and lean on credible verification outlets. Treat viral “leaks” as unverified until multiple independent confirmations exist.
13) Source & motive first
What it is: The foundational literacy move: who made this, for whom, and why now?
What to do: Identify author, outlet, funding, timing, and what’s not reported. Track corrections as seriously as claims.
14) Justified True Belief (JTB) as a quick test
What it is: Knowledge = Justified (evidence/coherence) + True (corresponds with reality) + Believed (held with appropriate confidence).
What to do: Ask: Is the claim (a) well-evidenced, (b) reality-checked, and (c) held with the right degree of certainty (not more)?
15) Confirmation bias (yours and theirs)
What it is: Seeking, interpreting, and remembering info that fits what we already think.
What to do: Run a bias audit: What would change my mind? Seek out the strongest credible counter-case before concluding.
16) Fact-checking ecosystems
What it is: Independent verification networks and methods that work globally.
What to do: Use reputable fact-checkers (IFCN members), ask for primary sources, and prefer transparent methodologies over anonymous assertions.