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Show HN: Stop the Bullshit

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101–110 of 117 posts

Re: Show HN: Stop the Bullshit

#101
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Blocking sites doesn't solve the issues, if anything it makes things worse. We need to be able to respectfully debate people we disagree with, not shut them out. This video pretty much outlines what I think about the recent US election and how I think we should look to move on from it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GLG9g7BcjKs

There's no "debate" involved with these sites. They're webspam. When someone sends you cialis spam, do you reply with an email attempting to persuade them to stop sending unsolicited commercial email? Yours is yet another comment arguing from the faulty premise that "fakenews" describes sites like Breitbart. Breitbart is a horrible site, but it's not webspam fakenews.

> "Yours is yet another comment arguing from the faulty premise that "fakenews" describes sites like Breitbart."

No, that's not my argument. My argument is that what can start with filtering out spammy clickbait can easily evolve into filtering out sites that other people take seriously.

For example, Huffington Post is a news site that uses a lot of the same tactics as clickbait spammers, and tends to be fairly one sided in their worldview. To someone who disagrees with the worldview of the Huffington Post, why would they be less inclined to block it once the tools are in place?

In other words, once the tools are in place to block content everyone agrees is spammy, I can pretty much guarantee that those same tools will be used for semi-spammy content that some people treat as real news. This will almost certainly lead to increased political polarisation.

There's an alternative tool that works fairly well... if you see clickbait, remember that's what it is. We should aim to rise above low-information sites by providing better-thought-out counter-arguments.

As for your cialis example, if it was posted in a public forum like Facebook then responding to the article might not change the habits of those trying to sell you something, but it might make other people who read your comment think twice about signing up.

Re: Show HN: Stop the Bullshit

#103
Hey everyone you can also just ask me.

If you're every curious if something is true or not, just ask me. I know what is true and what's not, and I'll always tell you the truth about what is true, don't think about any of it, let me do that.

Happy news reading everyone, remember, don't do your own thinkin.

Re: Show HN: Stop the Bullshit

#104
post #6

How does it work? Is it just a blacklist? > "Also includes a clustering analysis that could lead to an algorithm to automatically detect Fake News." This implies that they want to do automatic fake news detection, but aren't quite there yet. Is that correct?

Looks like it's currently using a hard coded list of urls that are considered to be bad. For general requests: https://github.com/jacquerie/stop-the-bullshit/blob/master/s... For facebook: https://github.com/jacquerie/stop-the-bullshit/blob/master/s...

I'm amused that long-running British newspaper the Daily Star has made the list. I mean, it's probably accurate as they do have a bit of a reputation, but still - surprising.

Re: Show HN: Stop the Bullshit

#105
if anyone doesn't want to use a clunky browser addon, you can just ask me. Like the author of the app, I too know what is true and what is not and I will guide you on what news is safe for you to read.

Please, let me do your thinking for you.

Re: Show HN: Stop the Bullshit

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd challenge you to name one news site that doesn't have a political agenda. Everything is "propaganda", including your comment, and mine.

"The sky is blue." That statement isn't untrue, it is objectively observation with one's eyes or using spectrometers in the case of an individual who is colorblind. It isn't binary, statements can be rated on a range of truthfulness from false propaganda to very objective...and, arguments that are isomorphisms of "all sides do it" are harmful because they essentially justify parties who benefit from such propaganda.

That the Earth's average temperature has been rising is also not untrue and can also be observed and measured. Yet it is often denied in political context, e.g. Sen. Jim Inhofe brought a snowball into the Senate as evidence to the contrary.

"The sky is blue" is a non-political statement only because no one stands to make money convincing people otherwise.

Re: Show HN: Stop the Bullshit

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is the target audience so judgement-impaired As we've seen this last election, yes, they are. How else do you explain millions of shares on "news" stories that are immediately, obviously false to anyone looking past the headlines?

are we really pretending that those people would've changed their vote had they not seen the "fake" news? I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of these shares were by people who wanted the news to be true anyway. I have friends who shared some stuff like that. they were never gonna change their vote/view. everyone else would just roll their eyes. I'm with Zuckerberg on this one. fake news did not affect the elec…

You seem to enjoy pretending that Hillary lost because of fake news and "clearly everyone else is just plain stupid" and not because she's the most corrupt politician possibly in our country's history, so why not pretend about more stuff?

Re: Show HN: Stop the Bullshit

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The sky is blue." That statement isn't untrue, it is objectively observation with one's eyes or using spectrometers in the case of an individual who is colorblind. It isn't binary, statements can be rated on a range of truthfulness from false propaganda to very objective...and, arguments that are isomorphisms of "all sides do it" are harmful because they essentially justify parties who benefit from such propaganda.

That the Earth's average temperature has been rising is also not untrue and can also be observed and measured. Yet it is often denied in political context, e.g. Sen. Jim Inhofe brought a snowball into the Senate as evidence to the contrary. "The sky is blue" is a non-political statement only because no one stands to make money convincing people otherwise.

I kind of lumped "non-propaganda" with "demonstrably true" which you are right about. A true statement becomes propaganda when spoken at certain times especially when communicated while omitting related details. I think the general point still applies, it isn't binary, some statements aren't propaganda at all, while some have some mixed in, and some are fully propaganda. On the continuum, I'd rate the statements under consideration from least propaganda-ish to most as

   "sky is blue" 
Is is fair to put "${random_comments_on_HN}" in the same category as "${fake_news_articles}" because they are both "propaganda?" No.

Re: Show HN: Stop the Bullshit

#110
My feeling is that people with good critical thinking skills wouldn't buy into fake news anyway so wouldn't need an app to help them and people that buy into fake news don't want to improve their critical thinking skills so wouldn't use an app to help them either. People like being surrounded by other people that agree with them.

Are there any examples of subtle fake news stories? My feeling is they're really obvious especially if not being covered by major news sites.

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