One of the most widely-used terms in discussions of American racism has its roots in a campaign by two pro-slavery writers to troll abolitionists through a fake tract promoting "miscegenation."
Historians Peniel Joseph and Karl Jacoby, along with media scholar Howard Schnieder, assess the way that strategic misinformation on social media has exploited racial divisions in Trump's efforts to overturn the election results.
Today's media makes it easier to identify stories with reporters who have a track record for credibility (or lack thereof), and harder for political partisans to plant misinformation, though as even Honest Abe's track record shows, politicians will use disinformation to their advantage as much as they can.
There is no evidence that both Lincoln and Kennedy were assassinated because they wanted to destroy the Federal Reserve system (which also did not exist in Lincoln's day).
Persuading others – or even yourself – what is true is not a challenge unique to the modern era. Even the ancient Greeks had to confront different realities.
One hundred years ago, the U.S. government published documents that fueled the mounting Red Scare, helped justify the American military invasion of Russia and poisoned American-Russian relations for years to come.
"You know when Abraham Lincoln made that Gettysburg Address speech, the great speech, you know he was ridiculed?" Trump said during a rally in Billings, Montana.
