3 ms·

The fake news thing is really starting to dampen my faith in democracy. There's just no way to counteract it in the age of viral media. It's the DDoS of the pol

by guelo 10y ago

The fake news thing is really starting to dampen my faith in democracy. There's just no way to counteract it in the age of viral media. It's the DDoS of the political sphere. And it's a national security threat since countries can use it to undermine each other's elections. If democracy doesn't work maybe the best we can hope for is a competent benevolent autocratic state. Maybe China is the right model after all.

gremlinsinc 10y ago
It's dampening my faith in humanity and education in America.. First thing you learn in any college English class: verify your sources -- when doing projects/reports you don't use wikipedia, you use peer reviewed articles/etc.. We can't always do that on the web, but some sites def. are more trustworthy than others... I generally don't trust CNN/Fox/MSNBC either as they are so tempered by opinions lately... and I use aggregators to get equal sides of an argument. Seems to me American's were a lot more intelligent when the news was required to play opinions from both sides of an issue... Sad that Reagan killed that little law.
matt_wulfeck 10y ago
Sounds a bit melodramatic. Maybe you're having a hard time understanding why your country voted for someone with whom you have fundamental disagreements? I'm perfectly capapable of considering the pros and cons of a candidate and making a judgement about their ability to lead the country in a direction I think is desired thank you. It's amazing to me that everyone living in a "coastal citidel" is still so absolutely flabbergasted that 2016 went to the Republicans. The people that voted for Trump are not like you. If everyone wants to hold on to the narrative that they were a bunch of racicists motivated by fake Facebook posts or Russia then so be it. That type of thinking lost 2016 and it will lose 2020 also.
- guelo 10y ago
  It's not a partisan complaint. I've seen plenty of fake stories circulating on the left too. Though the conspiracy theories seem much more elaborate on the right.
defgeneric 10y ago
It's not that bad, the media is just complaining about it because their own credibility is being threatened.

by guelo 10y ago

gremlinsinc 10y ago

It's dampening my faith in humanity and education in America.. First thing you learn in any college English class: verify your sources -- when doing projects/reports you don't use wikipedia, you use peer reviewed articles/etc.. We can't always do that on the web, but some sites def. are more trustworthy than others... I generally don't trust CNN/Fox/MSNBC either as they are so tempered by opinions lately... and I use aggregators to get equal sides of an argument. Seems to me American's were a lot more intelligent when the news was required to play opinions from both sides of an issue... Sad that Reagan killed that little law.

matt_wulfeck 10y ago

Sounds a bit melodramatic. Maybe you're having a hard time understanding why your country voted for someone with whom you have fundamental disagreements? I'm perfectly capapable of considering the pros and cons of a candidate and making a judgement about their ability to lead the country in a direction I think is desired thank you. It's amazing to me that everyone living in a "coastal citidel" is still so absolutely flabbergasted that 2016 went to the Republicans. The people that voted for Trump are not like you. If everyone wants to hold on to the narrative that they were a bunch of racicists motivated by fake Facebook posts or Russia then so be it. That type of thinking lost 2016 and it will lose 2020 also.

guelo 10y ago
It's not a partisan complaint. I've seen plenty of fake stories circulating on the left too. Though the conspiracy theories seem much more elaborate on the right.

defgeneric 10y ago

It's not that bad, the media is just complaining about it because their own credibility is being threatened.