3 ms·
What is the meaning of facts anyway? How relevant are the facts for post-industrial society? We, as a society, are separated from "hard" reality by too many deg
by anovikov 2y ago
What is the meaning of facts anyway? How relevant are the facts for post-industrial society? We, as a society, are separated from "hard" reality by too many degrees of separation for facts to be of any considerable importance. That is the price to pay for the superabundance and sky-high productivity.
And i understand where it's coming from. People want social networks to be balanced that is, reflect views of the general society/mass of users: balance between left and right. Any thoroughly fact-checked content is a content with left bias too evident to miss. It naturally makes people unhappy: they feel that they are being "pushed woke shit". Because biologically, people are, and ought to have, a significant right bias (insert famous squirrel vs tiger example).
- zfg 2y agoIf you have no facts, you have no history. If you have no history, you can have no future. If you have no future, then you are stuck in an eternal present. This is the ideal state for authoritarianism and autocracy.
- anovikov 2y agoThere are facts and history of course, just not on social networks. For people who call the shots - the elite and the intellectuals - things are just fine, but they don't spend days arguing with each other on Facebook.
- techfeathers 2y agoI think a big question is what outcomes do you want. Let’s say a vaccine is dangerous. How many people are you willing to sacrifice on the misinformation. What if it leads to social upheaval? You could ask similar questions about say, class consciousness, immigration etc. true or not, beliefs have consequences.
- anovikov 2y agoBut in any cases, it is not the facts, but narratives and manipulators who drive people's behaviour. There is competition between left and right propaganda machines, it happens among intellectuals working for the elite, not between the left vs right masses, masses are just that: masses, they have no conscious and no behaviour of their own, they are a product of manipulation.