4 ms·

Theres no way to get rid of "fake news". And nor would you want to as many times what people mean by fake news is dissenting news. The key is to educate peopl

Theres no way to get rid of "fake news". And nor would you want to as many times what people mean by fake news is dissenting news. The key is to educate people to think for themselves and question everything.

gnz11 2y ago
Highly educated people get hoodwinked by "fake news" and pseudoscience all the time though. I don't have a solution and education is certainly a step forward but the issue is much more complex.
dahart 2y ago
This article is about misinformation, not dissent. I don’t know how many times people think fake news means dissent rather than misinformation, but the term is defined to mean misinformation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news It is a pretty common tactic for the spreaders of true misinformation to claim their position is dissent rather than lying, that they are the underdog and being ostracized for dissenting… Getting you to question everything is part of what they want. The goal of misinformation is mistrust. It’s too difficult to question everything, see e.g., Brandolini’s Law. I don’t know what the solution is, but I personally know highly educated people myself who are stuck in the misinformation rabbit hole. The problem with mistrust and conspiracy theory is that once it takes hold, it breaks people’s ability to evaluate trustworthy and even scientific sources. Don’t assume education is the key. Fake news is very, very effective, which is why they are doing it.
- the_real_cher 2y ago
  > It is a pretty common tactic for the spreaders of true misinformation to claim their it's also a common tactic of people to label things they don't agree with as misinformation... > Getting you to question everything is part of what they want. What is the alternative you're proposing here? Blind belief? If you do respond can you try to keep it short and sweet and in a single paragraph.
  - dahart 2y ago
    Like I said, I don’t know what the solution is, because I think its a hard problem that we can’t just solve with education. I certainly didn’t propose blind belief. It’s true that doesn’t work. Blind disbelief also doesn’t work. I’m just pointing out that there’s evidence that “question everything” not only is not the solution, it may be feeding the trolls and serving their agenda, as is framing fake news as being suppressed dissent. I agree some people label dissent as misinformation. I suppose that’s another form of fake news. Maybe part of the solution is to stop discussing politics all the time, stop listening to it, and stop taking sides. We don’t need to decide whether every thing a politician said is true or not, we have better things to talk about. Yes it would be nice if we could teach people to have the right level of skepticism that fake news wouldn’t work, that’s a good goal to have. It would also be good to find a way to build some trust and stop the cycle of increasing polarization. We do have shared values. Figuring out how to talk about those again would be great. The trend has been in the opposite direction, maybe because gossip and drama and tribalism are easier. On the other hand, I do reserve a lot of optimism that most people are good and aren’t obsessed with politics. This article provides some evidence of that, if the majority of the talking points are spread by a tiny minority. Maybe there is a solution here that can address this tiny minority directly, maybe this isn’t a general populace education issue but one we have hope of fixing because the audience is rather small…

gnz11 2y ago

Highly educated people get hoodwinked by "fake news" and pseudoscience all the time though. I don't have a solution and education is certainly a step forward but the issue is much more complex.

dahart 2y ago

This article is about misinformation, not dissent. I don’t know how many times people think fake news means dissent rather than misinformation, but the term is defined to mean misinformation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news It is a pretty common tactic for the spreaders of true misinformation to claim their position is dissent rather than lying, that they are the underdog and being ostracized for dissenting… Getting you to question everything is part of what they want. The goal of misinformation is mistrust. It’s too difficult to question everything, see e.g., Brandolini’s Law. I don’t know what the solution is, but I personally know highly educated people myself who are stuck in the misinformation rabbit hole. The problem with mistrust and conspiracy theory is that once it takes hold, it breaks people’s ability to evaluate trustworthy and even scientific sources. Don’t assume education is the key. Fake news is very, very effective, which is why they are doing it.

the_real_cher 2y ago
> It is a pretty common tactic for the spreaders of true misinformation to claim their it's also a common tactic of people to label things they don't agree with as misinformation... > Getting you to question everything is part of what they want. What is the alternative you're proposing here? Blind belief? If you do respond can you try to keep it short and sweet and in a single paragraph.
- dahart 2y ago
  Like I said, I don’t know what the solution is, because I think its a hard problem that we can’t just solve with education. I certainly didn’t propose blind belief. It’s true that doesn’t work. Blind disbelief also doesn’t work. I’m just pointing out that there’s evidence that “question everything” not only is not the solution, it may be feeding the trolls and serving their agenda, as is framing fake news as being suppressed dissent. I agree some people label dissent as misinformation. I suppose that’s another form of fake news. Maybe part of the solution is to stop discussing politics all the time, stop listening to it, and stop taking sides. We don’t need to decide whether every thing a politician said is true or not, we have better things to talk about. Yes it would be nice if we could teach people to have the right level of skepticism that fake news wouldn’t work, that’s a good goal to have. It would also be good to find a way to build some trust and stop the cycle of increasing polarization. We do have shared values. Figuring out how to talk about those again would be great. The trend has been in the opposite direction, maybe because gossip and drama and tribalism are easier. On the other hand, I do reserve a lot of optimism that most people are good and aren’t obsessed with politics. This article provides some evidence of that, if the majority of the talking points are spread by a tiny minority. Maybe there is a solution here that can address this tiny minority directly, maybe this isn’t a general populace education issue but one we have hope of fixing because the audience is rather small…