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How Lies Spread Online

nytimes.com

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Re: How Lies Spread Online

#111

Post by ryandrake »

shub wrote: post #84
ryandrake wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Certainly war hawks might have been happy, but the majority of Americans on both sides of the aisles dislike unnecessary wars. It doesn’t matter what they like or dislike, it matters who they vote for. For most of the USA’s history, Americans have consistently voted for national candidates who ended up starting or continuing unnecessary war. This is true for both major parties. The country has been involved in volu…

I'll go with twelve.

You'd be off by an order of magnitude.

Re: How Lies Spread Online

#112

Post by ajross »

growlist wrote: post #96
ajross wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the fact checkers conveniently ignore controversies that are open and shut bad behaviour on the left Could be true, I guess. Everyone has "perspective" about what is important. That still doesn't seem to be a reason to disbelieve a fact checker when they tell you that, say, POTUS is lying, though. > Though I have to say the whole concept of a single self-appointed authoritative source troubles me, what with its Min…

The problem I see is that unless these organisations are beyond criticism they can always be accused of bias and all their work dismissed, and then consider the context: 'It is impossible to overstate the degree of daily vituperation visited upon the president in the media. Comics and actors use their non-political programs to attack him, often to the implicit applause of the press. Virtually all coverage outside the…

You're conflating fact checkers with "the media", and sort of changing the subject.

Can you explain again why exactly you don't trust answers you get from Snopes or Politifact? Don't tell me what "many Trump supporters" think. Tell me why you don't trust them.

Re: How Lies Spread Online

#113

Post by growlist »

ajross wrote: post #112
growlist wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem I see is that unless these organisations are beyond criticism they can always be accused of bias and all their work dismissed, and then consider the context: 'It is impossible to overstate the degree of daily vituperation visited upon the president in the media. Comics and actors use their non-political programs to attack him, often to the implicit applause of the press. Virtually all coverage outside the…

You're conflating fact checkers with "the media", and sort of changing the subject. Can you explain again why exactly you don't trust answers you get from Snopes or Politifact? Don't tell me what "many Trump supporters" think. Tell me why you don't trust them.

That's a fairly aggressive tone of yours. I'm not going to respond.

Re: How Lies Spread Online

#114

Post by knightofmars »

ajross wrote: post #112
growlist wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem I see is that unless these organisations are beyond criticism they can always be accused of bias and all their work dismissed, and then consider the context: 'It is impossible to overstate the degree of daily vituperation visited upon the president in the media. Comics and actors use their non-political programs to attack him, often to the implicit applause of the press. Virtually all coverage outside the…

You're conflating fact checkers with "the media", and sort of changing the subject. Can you explain again why exactly you don't trust answers you get from Snopes or Politifact? Don't tell me what "many Trump supporters" think. Tell me why you don't trust them.

growlist, as someone who just stumbled upon this thread. There was nothing aggressive about the "tone" of this comment.

Re: How Lies Spread Online

#115

Post by IshKebab »

growlist wrote: post #110
IshKebab wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is pretty clear to anyone who pays any attention. The Brexit bus is an obvious recent example.

Because Remain were whiter than white eh? 'Publishing Treasury analysis, [George Osborne] said a Leave vote would cause an "immediate and profound" economic shock, with growth between 3% and 6% lower.' Versus: 'That Immediate Brexit Recession - UK GDP Growth 0.6%, Best In Developed World' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-3635556... https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2017/01/26/that-imm...

> predicts Gross Domestic Product would grow by 3.6% less than currently predicted. In such a scenario, it suggests sterling would fall by 12%, unemployment would rise by 520,000, average wages would fall by 2.8% and house prices would be hit by 10%.

Sterling fell by pretty much exactly 12% (that's got to be luck though - no way their models are that good).

All the others were wrong though, you're correct.

Re: How Lies Spread Online

#116

Post by growlist »

knightofmars wrote: post #114
ajross wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're conflating fact checkers with "the media", and sort of changing the subject. Can you explain again why exactly you don't trust answers you get from Snopes or Politifact? Don't tell me what "many Trump supporters" think. Tell me why you don't trust them.

growlist, as someone who just stumbled upon this thread. There was nothing aggressive about the "tone" of this comment.

In the first place the post puts words in my mouth, and second it then directs me to answer questions in a not particularly civil manner. And you are borderline gaslighting me by questioning my response!

Re: How Lies Spread Online

#117

Post by collyw »

growlist wrote: post #113
ajross wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're conflating fact checkers with "the media", and sort of changing the subject. Can you explain again why exactly you don't trust answers you get from Snopes or Politifact? Don't tell me what "many Trump supporters" think. Tell me why you don't trust them.

That's a fairly aggressive tone of yours. I'm not going to respond.

That sounds like a cop out to me.

Re: How Lies Spread Online

#118

Post by LUmBULtERA »

Bucephalus355 wrote: post #86
sien wrote: post #6

You hire Judith Miller to write about WMDs. Then get 'quality' news to publish it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller The cost of the NYT's 'disinformation' about Iraq was a war that cost hundreds of billions and thousands of lives.

Costs of those wars are going to be, at the final tally, around $6 billion. Most of it will be through deserved veterans benefits, as was/is the case with Vietnam. Trump has recently been claiming $7 billion, although I haven’t seen evidence for that. https://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-iraq-war-cost-2-tril...

Not that I like Business Insider as a source, but I think you're off from the article by about $5.94 trillion.

Re: How Lies Spread Online

#119

Post by andrewingram »

jibal wrote: post #105
andrewingram wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good to know, but my comment was on the assumption that the parent comment provided the correct percentage.

Well duh. But the point is that that assumption was both erroneous and unwarranted.

But the thrust of my message was about the misunderstanding of statistics, so the actual numbers (correct or otherwise) are irrelevant to the point I was making. Replace the numbers in my comment with the correct ones and the meaning remains the same.
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