Publications [#380793] of Nancy MacLean

Papers Published

1. MacLean, N, “Since We Are Greatly Outnumbered”: Why and How the Koch Network Uses Disinformation to Thwart Democracy, in Disinformation Age Politics Technology and Disruptive Communication in the United States (January, 2020), pp. 120-149 [doi]
   (last updated on 2025/06/16)

   Abstract:
   This chapter examines one source of the strategic disinformation now rife in American public life: the Koch network of donors, allied organizations, and academic grantees. The architects of this network’s project to radically transform our institutions and legal system have adopted this tactic in the knowledge that the libertarian agenda is unpopular and therefore requires stealth to succeed. In the 1970s, Charles Koch and his allies determined that changes significant enough to constitute a “constitutional revolution” would be needed to protect capitalism from democracy. In the light of these foundational efforts, subsequent active disinformation by this network become more comprehensible when understood as driven by a mix of messianic dogma and self-interest. The project could not succeed by persuasion and organizing alone. Later cases include climate science denial, promotion of the myth of mass voter fraud to leverage racism to restrict the electorate, and the use of concocted memes of violent mobs requiring restraint in order to win passage of new legislation to criminalize protest, particularly against the fossil fuel industry (legislation that includes SLAPP lawsuits and laws penalizing alleged infringements on “academic freedom”).