Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Onion buys Infowars

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

711–720 of 1001 posts

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#711

Post by elektrontamer »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #678
tailrecursion wrote: post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take it that left wingers feel that "community notes" isn't effective or sufficient to combat right wing beliefs that are wrong? The people on the right seem satisfied for now that they can "combat misinformation with more information". (That's a misquote by the way, I believe he said better information, not more. On second thought, he may have said it both ways.) Has anyone discussed why the right believes this ca…

Bullshit Asymmetry Principle[0] always applies. By the time Community Notes has appeared, tens or even hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of people will have seen the misinformation. Even once Community Notes have appeared, many won't read them. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_asymmetry_principle

Why are we so worried about adults reading incorrect information? Once they eventually find the info was wrong they'll be more sceptical of that source. We know policing speech doesn't work, whoever does the policing introduces their own biases, this was clear as day with the hunter laptop story and how the goverment put pressure on social media companies to supress it.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#712

Post by m463 »

ziddoap wrote: post #132
dmvdoug wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As for the vitamins and supplements, we are halting their sale immediately. Utilitarian logic dictates that if we can extend even one CEO’s life by 10 minutes, diluting these miracle elixirs for public consumption is an unethical waste. Instead, 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 w…

Funny, for sure, but does not explain what they will be doing in reality.

> On top of its journalistic pursuits, The Onion also owns and operates the majority of the world’s transoceanic shipping lanes, stands on the nation’s leading edge on matters of deforestation and strip mining, and proudly conducts tests on millions of animals daily.

https://theonion.com/about-us/

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#713

Post by ziddoap »

m463 wrote: post #712
ziddoap wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, for sure, but does not explain what they will be doing in reality.

> On top of its journalistic pursuits, The Onion also owns and operates the majority of the world’s transoceanic shipping lanes, stands on the nation’s leading edge on matters of deforestation and strip mining, and proudly conducts tests on millions of animals daily. https://theonion.com/about-us/

Ah, that explains it. They can test them on animals. Thanks!

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#714

Post by gchamonlive »

hotep99 wrote: post #707
russdpale wrote: post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a good idea, Alex Jones is a big reason for the hate against people like Anthony Fauci.

Anthony Fauci is a big reason for the hate against people like Anthony Fauci.

> His advice was frequently contradicted by Trump, and Trump's supporters alleged that Fauci was trying to politically undermine Trump's run for reelection

- Wikipedia

Seems like a nice fellow

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#715

Post by fsckboy »

rootusrootus wrote: post #668
fsckboy wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joe Rogan, live, has Jamie research outlandish claims Alex Jones makes, and it turns out there are citations providing the basis for his claims. If you don't get a kick out of that, yes, you don't get it.

There are citations for the Sandy Hook crisis actor accusations?

[flagged]

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#716

Post by petercooper »

int0x29 wrote: post #540
petercooper wrote: post #99

I'm watching his stream just to see how the drama goes down and a silly tech-adjacent bit popped up when he started ranting about Linux and how if "they" were trying to take Linus Torvalds down, they still couldn't ever own Linux!

Linus Torvalds political opinions, to the extent I've seen him express them, are hardly in line with Alex Jones. So this feels odd.

He was clutching at straws. He's famous for random tangents and non sequiturs. He was comparing himself to Colonel Travis at the Battle of the Alamo in the next breath. I just thought it was funny/weird that Linux, of all things, jumped into his mind as an example to use during his rant.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#717

Post by axoltl »

fsckboy wrote: post #692
axoltl wrote: post #655

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you implying that Alex Jones is just "doing a bit"? If so, could you explain to me what the comedic intent was behind the whole "denying a tragedy happened and encouraging the harassment of families mourning the loss of their children" episode?

watch the Joe Rogan episodes with Alex Jones, keep an open mind and you might see what I'm talking about. I have no problem with the Onion, I get the humor, but the crowds of people horse-laughing and slapping each other on the back because they get the joke so they must be "a club", them I have no affinity for, just like the pearl clutchers who think the Onion is a crime. There is no other implication.

I think I understand what you're trying to say, in that Infowars can be seen as a form of performance art or meta-humor. There might be some small number of people that enjoy the content as such, but the overwhelming majority of viewers do not and take Jones' words at face value regardless of whether there was humorous intent behind them. You can see this in the sales for his dubious-at-best supplements as these weren't bought as a gag, they were bought by people believing they would heal their ails.

This makes Jones' form of comedy (making the rather friendly assumption it was meant as such) irresponsible at best as it causes real-world harm and I doubt you'd disagree with me that comedy that negatively impacts people that did not make the decision to participate in it is not very good comedy at all.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#720

Post by savingsPossible »

zahlman wrote: post #676
josefresco wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The core idea of satire, which is often missed in supposedly satirical works is that you should not only make fun of the thing you don't believe, but you should also explain what you do believe under the cover of pretending to dismiss it. I often suggest that satire is a dangerous double edged sword and not a good primary vehicle for positive change. Part of your audience will understand it's satire, but a signific…

> I believe we ask and expect too much of satire which relies heavily on hypocrisy and shame, two concepts that no longer carry the same weight. Indeed. It's amazing to me how many people I encounter these days who don't appear to consider hypocrisy a moral failing.

been shamed too many times, man. Moral failing itself became just a button people try to press in my brain. Often very dishonest people. So, welcome to moral learned helplessness, and damn the moralizers.

ALSO: thinking means changing your mind, which often exposes you to being called a hypocrite

Post reply on HN