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As far as the terminology goes, maybe. As far as people choosing to believe what is convenient, profitable, or flattering about the world around them, that's be
by JasonFruit 5y ago
As far as the terminology goes, maybe. As far as people choosing to believe what is convenient, profitable, or flattering about the world around them, that's been the case as far back as anyone can recall. I think we like to imagine that technology both makes us immune to the problems of our ancestors and makes our problems immune to historically-informed solutions.
- Forgeties79 5y agoOh most definitely - I'm talking about the meaning of "fake news." It used to be a very specific phenomenon: sites/articles designed to spread misinformation, usually by cloning actual news outlets in order to make it more convincing. These weren't just "overly-spun" opinions or something, it was stuff like "Ilhan Omar doesn't want you to see these photos of her training at an Al Qaeda camp" featuring doctored photos or just grainy photos of some woman with a gun (actually saw that posted by a cousin) and "Obama signs bill opening 100 abortion factories." Just absolutely ridiculous, completely fabricated stuff, designed to spread like wildfire for ad dollars by capitalizing on "just reading the headlines and sharing what looks right" culture. NPR did a great interview with a "fake news creator" back in 2016: https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbs https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/50...