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There actually was another Information Revolution we can draw historical comparisons to - the printing press. The Lutheran Church is a direct outcome from that,

There actually was another Information Revolution we can draw historical comparisons to - the printing press. The Lutheran Church is a direct outcome from that, as were some much more interesting and exciting events - check out Dan Carlin's Hardcore History for an entertaining overview. https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-48-prophets-of-doom/ https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-48-prophe...

Floegipoky 4y ago
This is actually a great comparison, and we can look at the proliferation of anti-witchcraft propaganda leading to the brutal murders of thousands of women and queer people for a prototypical example of the very real damage caused by disinformation.
- Thorentis 4y ago
  > and queer people Got a source for this?
  - dylan604 4y ago
    persecution of non-straight people is not new. are you wanting a source for linking queer and witchcraft specifically as one, as I'm not sure that's what the GP was intended even if the wording leans that way.
    - MonkeyClub 4y ago
      IMHO queer there meant non-conforming (“weird”), which would make sense: eccentric-looking people would draw the label of witchcraft.
    - CWuestefeld 4y ago
      It's hard to see what else might have been intended, since this phrase seems to be linked to the "anti-witchcraft propaganda" phrase, with nothing else dangling there to apply it to.
    - bheadmaster 4y ago
    - Thorentis 4y ago
      This was the first time I'd seen queer people associated with witch-hunts, witch burning etc. so was wondering what the source for this was.
dendrite9 4y ago
I listened to a discussion last winter about misinformation, rumors, and figuring out how to deal with them as a society. One of the people involved made a comment along the lines of "when he thinks about the internet he remembers that the invention of the printing press was followed by 200 years of religious upheaval and wars." That made an impression on me, it seems like such a hard problem to think about well. I've seen that moderation is something that is very difficult to scale beyond a relatively small group of both consumers and moderators.
- akolbe 4y ago
  Here is some public documentation of Wikipedia "Disinformation" projects, the first one specifically related to the election: Biden Campaign Disinformation Retrospective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biden_Campaign_Disinformation_Retrospective.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biden_Campaign_Disinforma... Disinformation at the Wikimedia Foundation: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Disinformation_at_the_Wikimedia_Foundation_-_en.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Disinformati... These are public, as was the fact that there were multiple "Disinformation" hires. However, the meetings between the Wikimedia Foundation and the DHS specifically (as opposed to government agencies generally) were not mentioned in public communications, to my knowledge.
  - ls15 4y ago
    > These are public, as was the fact that there were multiple "Disinformation" hires. However, the meetings between the Wikimedia Foundation and the DHS specifically (as opposed to government agencies generally) were not mentioned in public communications, to my knowledge. Embezzling information is a form of disinformation too.
lackbeard 4y ago
Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses, but they were removed by the Roman Catholic Church because they determined it violated their community guidelines.
- BoorishBears 4y ago
  Yeah as opposed to the reality were they were suppressed by the Church and there were calls for Luther himself to be burned alive for writing them. This comment is a lot more pithy if you're just absolutely clueless about history...

Floegipoky 4y ago

This is actually a great comparison, and we can look at the proliferation of anti-witchcraft propaganda leading to the brutal murders of thousands of women and queer people for a prototypical example of the very real damage caused by disinformation.

Thorentis 4y ago
> and queer people Got a source for this?
- dylan604 4y ago
  persecution of non-straight people is not new. are you wanting a source for linking queer and witchcraft specifically as one, as I'm not sure that's what the GP was intended even if the wording leans that way.
  - MonkeyClub 4y ago
    IMHO queer there meant non-conforming (“weird”), which would make sense: eccentric-looking people would draw the label of witchcraft.
  - CWuestefeld 4y ago
    It's hard to see what else might have been intended, since this phrase seems to be linked to the "anti-witchcraft propaganda" phrase, with nothing else dangling there to apply it to.
  - bheadmaster 4y ago
  - Thorentis 4y ago
    This was the first time I'd seen queer people associated with witch-hunts, witch burning etc. so was wondering what the source for this was.

dendrite9 4y ago

I listened to a discussion last winter about misinformation, rumors, and figuring out how to deal with them as a society. One of the people involved made a comment along the lines of "when he thinks about the internet he remembers that the invention of the printing press was followed by 200 years of religious upheaval and wars." That made an impression on me, it seems like such a hard problem to think about well. I've seen that moderation is something that is very difficult to scale beyond a relatively small group of both consumers and moderators.

akolbe 4y ago
Here is some public documentation of Wikipedia "Disinformation" projects, the first one specifically related to the election: Biden Campaign Disinformation Retrospective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biden_Campaign_Disinformation_Retrospective.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biden_Campaign_Disinforma... Disinformation at the Wikimedia Foundation: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Disinformation_at_the_Wikimedia_Foundation_-_en.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Disinformati... These are public, as was the fact that there were multiple "Disinformation" hires. However, the meetings between the Wikimedia Foundation and the DHS specifically (as opposed to government agencies generally) were not mentioned in public communications, to my knowledge.
- ls15 4y ago
  > These are public, as was the fact that there were multiple "Disinformation" hires. However, the meetings between the Wikimedia Foundation and the DHS specifically (as opposed to government agencies generally) were not mentioned in public communications, to my knowledge. Embezzling information is a form of disinformation too.

lackbeard 4y ago

Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses, but they were removed by the Roman Catholic Church because they determined it violated their community guidelines.

BoorishBears 4y ago
Yeah as opposed to the reality were they were suppressed by the Church and there were calls for Luther himself to be burned alive for writing them. This comment is a lot more pithy if you're just absolutely clueless about history...