The Onion buys Infowars • Hacker News Board

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#321

Post by burkaman » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 4:37 PM UTC

dmix wrote: post #191

reaperducer wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't you seen the DOGE department yet? How do you make government smaller? Step 1: Make government bigger by inventing a new department! (Strictly speaking, it's not a government department. It is a private entity that will operate outside the government, and influence the president. What could possibly go wrong?)

> It is a private entity that will operate outside the government, and influence the president. What could possibly go wrong? National Science Board is an external advisory board to the US gov. There's tons of examples of this sort of thing, especially in education and science.

The National Science Board was established by Congress, its activities are defined and governed by the law that created it, and it is clearly a part of the executive branch. Why do you consider it to be external to the government?

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#322

Post by astura » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 4:38 PM UTC

This is actually really good news.

The money they paid is going directly to Sandy Hook families

Nobody can use Infowars for evil.

Alex Jones looks like a fool.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#323

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 4:38 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#324

Post by ceejayoz » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 4:39 PM UTC

joezydeco wrote: post #262

sed_zeppelin wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a whim, I decided to peek at the InfoWars homepage. At this moment, I cannot determine which of the headlines are genuine InfoWars content and which are the product of Onion writers. (I assume it's genuine due to the recency of the sale closing?)

This seems like an incredible opportunity to see if it's possible to reprogram InfoWars readers away from the hate and the conspiracy theories. It would be a massive undertaking but wouldn't it be funny if the savior of modern media turned out to be a student newspaper from Madison, Wisconsin?

> This seems like an incredible opportunity to see if it's possible to reprogram InfoWars readers away from the hate and the conspiracy theories.

Not a chance; they just flee to other outlets. Even Fox News saw huge numbers of people jump to NewsMax and OANN and whatnot.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#325

Post by talldayo » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 4:40 PM UTC

avgDev wrote: post #310

reaperducer wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't you seen the DOGE department yet? How do you make government smaller? Step 1: Make government bigger by inventing a new department! (Strictly speaking, it's not a government department. It is a private entity that will operate outside the government, and influence the president. What could possibly go wrong?)

Nothing screams efficiency like 2 dept heads.

And let's be perfectly clear - given two weeks in office they will be screaming at us.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#326

Post by vixen99 » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 4:40 PM UTC

leptons wrote: post #299

hipadev23 wrote: post #246

Is Alex Jones the new Press Secretary yet?

The next 4 years are going to be an absolute farce in the US.

Looking from abroad some folk have the impression that the previous four years were. They were a triumph?

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#327

Post by jl6 » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 4:41 PM UTC

I worry that this might make The Onion a less credible news source.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#328

Post by joezydeco » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 4:42 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #324

joezydeco wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like an incredible opportunity to see if it's possible to reprogram InfoWars readers away from the hate and the conspiracy theories. It would be a massive undertaking but wouldn't it be funny if the savior of modern media turned out to be a student newspaper from Madison, Wisconsin?

> This seems like an incredible opportunity to see if it's possible to reprogram InfoWars readers away from the hate and the conspiracy theories. Not a chance; they just flee to other outlets. Even Fox News saw huge numbers of people jump to NewsMax and OANN and whatnot.

The trick is to do it without the readers noticing.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#329

Post by talldayo » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 4:42 PM UTC

sincerecook wrote: post #222

[flagged]

"Libel? What's libel?"

- Famous last words

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#330

Post by criddell » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 4:42 PM UTC

diggan wrote: post #206

tgv wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wonderful news. I'm glad their CEO recognizes the great value of CEOs. My only worry is that this acquisition makes Global Tetraeder so large that it attracts the attention of those pesky EU bureaucrats, who will want to split it up into multiple imperfect solids.

> My only worry is that this acquisition makes Global Tetraeder so large that it attracts the attention of those pesky EU bureaucrats, who will want to split it up into multiple imperfect solids. Based on what previous in-real-life examples is this a realistic worry? AFAIK, "EU bureaucrats" haven't broken up a single US-based company before so seems like a weird thing to be worried about.

Are you really criticizing The Onion's fact-checking?

Can you spot any problems with their plan for the supplement inventory?

> we plan to collect the entire stock of the InfoWars warehouses into a large vat and boil the contents down into a single candy bar–sized omnivitamin that one executive (I will not name names) may eat in order to increase his power and perhaps become immortal