Misinformation in our current political climate is essentially propaganda distributed by adversarial nations and organizations for the purpose of effecting political outcomes. As a citizen I get to do this through free speech and voting.
The Irony
The situation is that we want these nations to practice democracy and related principles but because they do not, they do not have the ear of our politicians, so they attempt to utilize our democracy through propaganda which can only be translated into action by the same freedoms of democracy they are not practicing themselves.
Utilizing democracy as a tool indirectly to prevent the implementation of it directly. 😂
Nothing New
Misinformation is nothing new. We have faced false advertising for a long time and through a variety of technologies, from your home phone, snail mail, email, websites, and television. Take a look at this article from the Justice Department for 2021. Though we are making a big deal out of it now, it is not new territory. It now has an impact on powerful people so now it matters to the talking heads, but it always mattered.
Freedom & Responsibility
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.