“Fake news” is a recent term some people like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame have coined. There is now a great effort underway to study and stop “fake news.” Some of it is very interesting, like foreign teenagers dwelling in their parent’s basement basically hacking into the American psyche, engaging in a bit of mischievous social engineering…..or deliberate and far more diabolical if you are actually a paid provocateur trying to influence something like an election.
By the way, I’m always looking for good work……
I’ve been studying social engineering for a long time, the influence of advertising, the power of rhetoric, how those stories play off our emotions and exploit what I call our biological bliss hits. The internet is an absolute treasure trove if you like to study social engineering and human behavior. It’s also a treasure trove of false information, propaganda, and outright fiction. I jest a bit here, but dating sites are a great example of this.
Angela Merkel the German chancellor said something about the dangers of the internet and fake news, as did Mark Zuckerberg, and while neither one of them actually had the good graces to ask for my opinion, I’m going to offer it to them anyway.
So my first question is like, “where the heck have you two been for the past 20 years?” I was sucking down the news about mutant giant chickens back in the days of dial-up and huge computers. The first time I turned on a computer I thought, oh man, we’ve entered a whole new frontier here. Ha, and I thought television had the power to brainwash us! The internet is interactive entertainment and the potential to manipulate public opinion there is just delicious. Honestly I didn’t know whether to be horrified or full of deep admiration.
My second question is like, “have either of you ever watched the mainstream news?” Call me crazy, but those who call themselves journalists have a special responsibility to have some journalistic integrity, to be worthy of the public’s trust. The reason why fake news flourishes so well on the internet is because it has become the alternative media. Why? because no one trusts the mainstream media anymore.
It’s a bit odd to me to listen to Zuckerberg and Merkel complain about something like the guy on the street recently who’s somewhat hysterical tweet about busing in protesters went viral and to than accuse him of propagating fake news. I mean yes, he’s a lunkhead, but still. If someone hires a plumber they have the right to expect him to act like a plumber, but you can’t just pick some guy off the street and then complain that he lacks the skills and integrity of a professional journalist.
There is also this little thing called personal responsibility. We are all required to think critically now, to question the source, to investigate. “It must be true, I saw it on the internet,” is a lame excuse indeed. In small towns we call this gossip, as in just because someone said it, doesn’t make it true. You shouldn’t say things that aren’t true, but I’m always amazed by the 15 or so people who think they’re off the hook for passively ingesting it all and passing it along. Or in the case of the internet,the 250,000 people who passed it along.
Lastly, I’m reminded that when the printing press was first invented it was actually banned in many places. It was illegal to have one because the powers that be could no longer control the entire conversation. If people can share information with one another we become unstoppable, uncontrollable, and encouraged to think for ourselves.
Not that either Merkel or Zuckerberg will listen to me, but the cure for these things is not censorship, bans, and restrictions, it is insisting that everyone be empowered to take responsibility for the information they consume and pass along, and to learn to think critically about what they are ingesting.
Mark Zuckerberg’s sudden virtue signalling and concern is downright comical in light of the revelations from a few years back, “Facebook apologizes for psychological experiments on users.” I believe the words used there were all about introducing an “emotional contagion,”and manipulating people’s news feeds.
christinewjc said:
IB, you nail down the truth about hypocrites like Zuckerberg like no one else can…and with humor, too!
Did I hear that Merkel got some kind of “woman of the year” award? Nah – can’t be true! Must be some of that fake news out there. Her country is overridden with nasty migrants intent on destroying her nation and the Germans are suffering with the consequences.
I’m just one of those typical, uninformed deplorable Islamophobes! / sarc off
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insanitybytes22 said:
Thanks for your kind words. It’s a bit disconcerting to be viewed as a deplorable, and ignorant too, as if we must be spoon fed our news. I think I’ve read this script in a dozen sci/fi novels and they never end well. I think I’ll pass on the dystopian vision some people seem to have:-)
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Lorra B. said:
From one Deplorable to another, you are correct…IB nailed it! Nothing like good censorship to bring the community together huh? Just gets my blood pumping! Feeling inspired to write some fake-news. LOL!
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christinewjc said:
Really! Isn’t it weird that those calling us “deplorables” and making the false claim that we are guilty of spreading fake news are the ones who are actually doing it?
The great news is that most of the public is on to them. The others, who want to believe the “holodeck” version of what is going on are not going to be convinced anyway.
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Lorra B. said:
What would it take for any of them to actually do a little research to confirm or deny an issue before they jumped on the Fake-News bandwagon?! But, what do we expect? The vote in the same manor, blindly pulling the lever for a candidate they learned about in commercials and bias news sources! Let’s face it, they are just cranky Hildabeast didn’t get elected! 😂🤓😇
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christinewjc said:
One more thing. I ran across a great article on this subject and thought I’d share it here.
Daniel Greenfield: “You Are Being Lied To.” His essay is so spot on and amazingly educational about what is happening via the media-of-mass-deception!
Any Star Trek fans? Greenfield’s article is where I got the “holodeck” idea of description where many people are being fooled into thinking they are getting the truth, but are actually living in an “unparalleled level of propaganda that creates and inhabits its own virtual reality.”
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Lorra B. said:
Thanks! I’ll check it out!! 👍🏻😁
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KIA said:
And guess who will be the one determining what is and is not Real News ™? Have you read about Winston in the office of information called the Ministry of Truth?
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insanitybytes22 said:
Yes, apparently George Orwell lives and the ministry of truth is alive and well. It would lovely if we just kept our science fiction in the realm of fiction.
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newenglandsun said:
I’m currently now a regular reader of TheOnion. Not only is there actual stories, but it’s the only non-fake news source out there nowadays.
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insanitybytes22 said:
LOL! The Onion, the Babylon Bee, now those guys really are to be trusted! They’re about the only media source being honest about it and they often make me laugh, which covers a multitude of sins. 🙂
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newenglandsun said:
https://www.rt.com/usa/367557-ron-paul-fake-news/
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patrickhawthorne01 said:
You mean the giant chickens weren’t real?
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insanitybytes22 said:
I know, right? The giant chickens were fake.
Giant rabbits however, are real and a bit frightening, actually. I had no idea such critters existed but I’ve now seen them in real life. I’m really not sure if I’m better off from having experienced that. Bunnies are meant to be small, cute, and cuddly. When they are big enough to tackle you, I find it a bit disturbing.
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Salvageable said:
I remember the mimeographed sheets that got passed around among teachers and parents warning that Proctor Gamble was Satanic, Congress was about to vote to prohibit religious broadcasts on radio and television, and rock music had subliminal messages that could be heard only when the recording was played backwards. Technology has made it easier to share fake news, but the concept has been around for a good long time. J.
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Julie (aka Cookie) said:
it is all so George Orwellish, who I keep saying must be doing the twist in that grave of his…
Frau Merkel simply has her lederhosen in a dither these days over her dread of having to work with Mr Trump…her position as the most powerful image of the EU may soon be rankled a bit…and as for Mr Millennial…responsibility for creating a Frankenstein has yet to reach the cognizant portion of his brain….which is the same malady that most millennials seem to be suffering from…the ownership of responsibility…as in the bottom line and the buck stops…where most of them along with their fearful leaders of all things biased play hot potato with the reality of truth as no one wants to be the one to catch such and have to live up to it….
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insanitybytes22 said:
LOL, amen! Well said. It’s a bad thing when you allow your lederhosen to get in a dither. 🙂
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Julie (aka Cookie) said:
😜
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Shattered in Him said:
Preach!! 😀
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MJThompson said:
I truly appreciate your candor, and fully agree with you about the ease at which too many people parrot an idea without investigating its validity.
I found a bit of irony when considering your phrase – “If people can share information with one another we become unstoppable, uncontrollable, and encouraged to think for ourselves.” Compare it to this Scripture: “And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” – Gen. 11:6,7.
To add to the irony, I watched an ‘old’ movie (made in ’92) about ‘”Wild Bill” Hickok late last night. In it the narrator likened the 1876 town of Deadwood where Bill was murdered to Sodom & Gomorrah, in which ‘modern’ communication had bred only increased sin! History merely repeats itself when the moral to its story is never rightly understood and aptly applied.
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PARTNERING WITH EAGLES said:
That quote from Genesis was because of the Tower of Babel. God made us speak different languages to halt our rebellion. In essence creating Nation States. The U.N. precursor to a one world government, (AKA “new world order”) is trying to dissolve national identity, impose a single “world court” rule; the ultimate fascist state.
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PARTNERING WITH EAGLES said:
Wham – Bullseye. Yes. Amen. “There is also this little thing called personal responsibility. We are all required to think critically now, to question the source, to investigate.” From the Biblical perspective: 1 John 4:1
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
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TT said:
http://www.thewellnessxfactor.isagenix.com
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