MISINFORMATION: A GONZO ARTICLE.

By Jake Lankford

PRELUDE: A Cosmopolitan.

I bring the rose quartz-colored liquid to my lips for a sip and immediately let the drink wash over me with its relaxing, smooth silkiness. That is the nature of the perfect Cosmopolitan, rose-quartz pink and smooth as silk.

Here, I shall transcribe the recipe for you now, carefully crafted from notes and four of these suckers:

1 ½ ounces of vodka, preferably Tito’s, I love using New Amsterdam.

1 Oz. cranberry juice.

1 ½ Oz. lime juice.

0.5 or less Oz. of Cointreau/Triple Sec.

The goal is to keep it a rose-quartz shade of pink, ensure it is smooth, has little alcohol bite and serve it appropriately in a martini glass.

A good Cosmopolitan requires balance, presentation and flavor. The most important element of these is the nature of balance. The ingredients must be balanced to the most precise measurements, served in a way that presents a balanced, smooth drink.

I compare the fickle nature of the Cosmopolitan to the power of journalism and information in the modern world. One must get everything right in order to have that perfect article. You must have the perfect, curated writing style and the most accurate sources to craft your perfect Cosmopolitan of an article. But what happens when something is off? Not obviously off, like an off color or flavor, but something is off enough to where you won’t notice it until it’s too late? Like the addition of too much vodka in the drink, you won’t notice it until you start to feel the nasty effects later on.

That is the power of misinformation: you can have this perfectly written article and have reliable sources, but you can alter one little detail enough to where a reader will not notice, spread it to multiple readers and allow that piece of misinformation to become accepted as fact, and be borderline impossible to disprove later on. To give an example of the prevalence of modern day misinformation, Letter.ly cites 52% of Americans have regularly encountered fake news/misinformation. And that 56% of Facebook users can’t recognize fake news that aligns with their beliefs. A lot of tampered Cosmopolitans, a lot of prevalent fake news that can spread like wildfire among average people. What is an example of the sheer power of misinformation and how it can influence public policy? The story of absinthe, one of the longest and most persistent misinformation campaigns.

PART 1: Absinthe, a General Overview and Primer.

In 19th-20th century France, especially in the Belle Époque era of 1871-1914, absinthe was huge. This anise-and-wormwood flavored spirit was the national drink of France at the time, everyone was drinking it. At the same time, the wine industry was reeling from a fungus that destroyed large amounts of the vineyards, decimating their profits and allowing absinthe to take over as the most popular drink in France. The wine industry was at a loss, how could they get their title back from the competition? Their answer? One of history’s most long-standing and persistent misinformation campaigns.

Enter Dr. Valentin Magnan, the key figure in spreading the long-standing misinformation. Using research he did, the wine industry was able to claim that absinthe was making people go mad, hallucinate and commit violent acts. The problem? Magnan’s research concentrated on wormwood oils on animals, instead of absinthe, which has a smaller amount of wormwood compared to concentrated wormwood oil. Magnan also was testing on animals instead of humans. Of course a small animal is going to have a different, more pronounced reaction to wormwood instead of a human, but it didn’t matter. The wine industry had their credible source to spread their misinformation, but what was next?

The wine industry then shifted their attention to using recent examples of violence and maladies that could be tangentially related to absinthe at best and finding connections when they weren’t there at worst. In France, there were reports of cheap, toxic knockoff absinthe running rampant, and this was making people sick. In Switzerland, there was the case of Jean Lanfray, who murdered his wife and children after consuming high amounts of wine, hard liquor and two glasses of absinthe. Also at this time was Vincent Van Gogh chopping his ear off, allegedly caused by absinthe.

All three of these circumstances and Magnan’s research were used as scapegoats by the wine industry in order to push their demands for an absinthe ban. But did absinthe play a substantial part in any of these?

In France, all absinthe was blamed for getting people sick, when in reality, it was the cheap, toxic knockoffs made with copper salts that were responsible for this.

In Switzerland, Lanfray consumed more than just absinthe the night of his crimes. He was drinking wine and hard liquor all day long, the absinthe merely being one part of the equation.

Van Gogh’s mental problems were extremely well-known. It wasn’t absinthe alone that drove him to cutting his ear off, it likely exacerbated his problems, but absinthe by itself wasn’t the cause of his self-mutilation.

Magnan’s research didn’t even involve absinthe on people. He concentrated on wormwood oil and animals instead of absinthe and humans.

So what does this have to do with misinformation and stealthing it so the public doesn’t notice? The slight distortion of facts, changes so minor that you don’t notice them until it is too late.

TOXIC KNOCKOFF absinthe metamorphosed into ALL absinthe.

Lanfray’s ALL DAY DRINKING metamorphosed into Lanfray’s ABSINTHE DRINKING.

Van Gogh’s MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS were changed to Van Gogh’s ABSINTHE CONSUMPTION.

A subtle distortion of facts and a seemingly credible source. Carefully hidden misinformation under the pretense of facts. Like a subtly increased amount of vodka in a Cosmopolitan, it isn’t noticed until it is too late. 95 years too late, to be exact.

PART II: INTERVIEW WITH ADRIENNE LAVEY OF THE WORMWOOD SOCIETY AND FINAL THOUGHTS.

To better illustrate the sheer power of misinformation, here is an interview I conducted with Wormwood Society advisory board member, Adrienne LaVey. The Wormwood Society is a group that seeks to stop the spreading of misinformation about absinthe, LaVey is a content creator who reviews and discusses absinthe. She is also on the front lines combatting the misinformation that is spread about absinthe and here she demonstrates the sheer power of that misinformation.

Of all the industries to target, why do you think the wine industry picked absinthe of all things? There were other alcohols popular in France at that time, so why that one?

“The whole reason absinthe became popular was because the vineyards were wiped out by a parasite, and the wine industry couldn’t stand to see absinthe named as the national drink of France, when that title had belonged to wine for centuries. Absinthe was a victim of its own popularity. When that happens, two things will occur. One: your competition will try to tear you down and depict you as an inferior (or in this case, harmful) product. Two: unscrupulous actors will make a cheap, toxic knock-off of your product (low-quality, adulterated alcohol peddled as absinthe) to turn a profit. With these two things happening, it created the perfect storm for the wine industry to point the finger and portray absinthe as harmful and inferior to wine.”

Thujone, the most polarizing aspect about absinthe. Consumers have long thought that lack of thujone=not real absinthe. How has this contributed to the misinformation about absinthe? (NOTE: Thujone is the main active compound in wormwood. It has been long-blamed for the hallucination myth of absinthe).

“What the consumer needs to understand is that “thujone free” by the standards of the United States does not mean “zero thujone”. It means that the thujone content of the absinthe in question has 10mg of thujone or less per liter of absinthe. People attribute thujone to just wormwood, and for a long while, a lot of “absinthe” produced in the US, France, and other countries had wormwood removed. So this has led to the belief that absinthe available or “allowed” in the US isn’t authentic, when in reality, much of the absinthe that was made in the pre-ban era would have been permitted by US standards. After the ban was lifted, absinthe with wormwood was allowed in the US again.

This has further been used as a selling point for inferior absinthe brands; they claim their product has the “maximum amount of thujone allowed by law”, hoping that you’re unaware enough about absinthe’s history that you’ll buy it, hoping you’ll “trip balls”, “hallucinate”, or “get high”. The truth is that thujone has no recreational value whatsoever. In high enough doses (doses that are only achievable in consuming absinthe if you die of alcohol poisoning many times over), it’ll cause renal failure, convulsions, seizures, and tunnel vision - not to mention death. Anyone trying to tell you that thujone makes you high or hallucinate is lying to you or doesn’t know enough about absinthe.”

Movies like FROM HELL and MOULIN ROUGE! contributed to several false ideas about absinthe. More modern media, such as Penny Dreadful and The Alienist seek to depict absinthe how it was consumed back then. How would you say the depiction of absinthe and absinthe drinkers in the media has evolved?

“It hasn’t helped that people still believe the misconception (begun by the anti-absinthe wine lobbyists) that absinthe caused Van Gogh to go crazy enough to cut his ear off. It’s incredibly discrediting - not to mention disrespectful - to chalk up that unfortunate occurrence to JUST absinthe when it’s well-known that Van Gogh suffered from mental health issues. It also doesn’t help that during the filming of From Hell, Johnny Depp commented “I can see why Van Gogh cut his ear off; I wanted to as well after drinking it”. People have this idea that absinthe-drinking creatives in the 19th century were just hiding in dark, seedy cafes and bars, drinking absinthe and hallucinating to inspire them to create their next work of art. Films like From Hell and Moulin Rouge further enforce that idea. Now it has changed to a drinking challenge because “omg, absinthe is so gross, and you might hallucinate!”

The perception is beginning to change, however, with absinthe lovers, historians, and experts telling people how it really was. Paintings and photographic evidence tends to help get across the idea that it was part of daily life. Closer to how it’s depicted in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Alienist.”

As one can see with this interview, misinformation can spread quickly and have a staying power that persists for a long time. FROM HELL came out in 2001 and MOULIN ROUGE! came out in the same year. The misinformation about absinthe led to its US and France bans in 1912 and 1915, respectively and that misinformation has persisted to the modern day. LaVey herself reports having to constantly educate and correct people on her YouTube page and her TikTok page, people who spread the misinformation about absinthe believing it is fact, thanks to the formula of Distortion+Perceived Credibility.

Presenting subtly distorted facts from a seemingly credible source is how a wide array of misinformation is spread, not just absinthe. Another example of the power of misinformation is the spreading of long-since debunked claims about voter fraud in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. Many sources, including Fox News and other news stations, spread false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. Claims that were rooted in either polling place mistakes or completely innocuous circumstances during the election were spread by, what were perceived as, credible news sources. These claims ended up having very real consequences, such as the passing of restrictive voting bills in several states. Distortion of facts (Innocuous circumstances in the election) plus perceived credibility (news stations seen as credible) equal results on a legislative level in many states. Another example of this formula is Ivermectin being used to treat COVID-19. Scientific studies were distorted to present the narrative of Ivermectin treating COVID, groups of physicians touting the drug as a “miracle cure” for COVID and what do you get? People taking the animal versions of Ivermectin, when a myriad of experts have come out against doing that. Distortion of facts and credibility, yet again.

Absinthe, voting and COVID, three major examples of the power and longevity of misinformation. Nowadays, misinformation is not so easy to find. Like a subtly-increased measure of vodka in a Cosmopolitan, it is not easy to detect, until it is too late, and you are either hurt by the misinformation, or spreading it yourself.