Here’s a topical quote in Science Adviser (section: LOGBOOK) from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS):

In one of the articles I read, a 2012 paper by Karen Inouye, I found this quote from [Shibutani’s] 1966 book: “the Japanese interned in relocation centers as [sic] the United States sometimes referred to their unsettled way of life as dema-kurashi, literally ‘existence through rumors,’ but pronounced ‘democracy’ in a heavy Japanese accent.”

Something about that sentence speaks to me as U.S. voters trudge to the polls through a blizzard of misinformation. Talking to Starbird, I understood that for her, there is an important distinction between the natural process of sense-making that leads to rumors, and the way our modern information ecosystem allows some actors to subvert that process by seeking, manipulating, and monetizing attention. Eighty years after Shibutani’s experience, we still exist through rumors. But the question is whether that existence still sounds like democracy.