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Snowden: Stop Relying on Facebook for Your News

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Re: Snowden: Stop Relying on Facebook for Your News

#131

Post by aswanson »

pixelcloud wrote: post #127
JacobJans wrote: post #66

I have interacted with several people on Facebook who rely on fake news sources. I pointed out fake news articles several times on one person's Facebook page. She agreed the articles were not true. However, she added "I don't have time to figure out if they're true. People can read your comments." I asked her what she thought of the fact that this particular article, which was blatantly false, was shared 16,000 times…

You assume people ever cared about facts. People are more emotional than they are rational when it comes to things that are outside of their control. While someone might be perfectly rational and logical in their life (e.g. they pay their taxes, they go to work, they make smart choices in their day to day lives), when it comes to things that are outside of our control (politics, economy, death, etc). We have always b…

Feelings don't care about your facts. It's actually amazing that a breed of primates made it this far when you consider how irrational we really are with regard to so many things: who we cede power to, how we judge truth and falsity, etc.

Re: Snowden: Stop Relying on Facebook for Your News

#132

Post by matwood »

hdctambien wrote: post #77
CalChris wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Romney lost 51-47 in the popular vote.

Of those that voted. I think fixxer is saying that there are alot of people that don't vote (about half of the voting population) because they are an X in a Y state so they don't think their vote will change that. But if the electoral college went poof, a lot more of the missing 50% would vote and that could change the expected value of a popular vote.

Exactly. As long as we are in an electoral system, discussing the popular vote as anything more than a novelty is a waste of time.

Re: Snowden: Stop Relying on Facebook for Your News

#133

Post by igivanov »

ochoseis wrote: post #52
gnuvince wrote: post #22

Back in late August when I started my new job, my first purchase with my first paycheck was to get a subscription to Le Devoir, Montreal's independent newspaper. It's amazing how much more informed I feel now: because the content only changes every 24 hours, I have the opportunity to get to the less sexy stories, stories that would be buried on a fast moving website because they don't generate clicks, but which still…

The economist is another good option. They have decent digital versions, including a daily edition that's just enough news for me.

I don't know if anyone should trust such a Russophobic outlet.

https://medium.com/@dominicbasulto/russophobia-and-the-dark-...

Re: Snowden: Stop Relying on Facebook for Your News

#134

Post by prawn »

JacobJans wrote: post #66

I have interacted with several people on Facebook who rely on fake news sources. I pointed out fake news articles several times on one person's Facebook page. She agreed the articles were not true. However, she added "I don't have time to figure out if they're true. People can read your comments." I asked her what she thought of the fact that this particular article, which was blatantly false, was shared 16,000 times…

It's come down to "the end justifies the means". And I'm not sure there's a way to stop it given the core buttons being pushed: confirming bias, bringing audiences to companies, giving people attention.

Facebook could probably give people a public rating based on the accuracy of the information they shared, and shame the worst offenders, but neither they nor their users would have an interest in this being established.

I don't like the idea that you can play a straight bat but be overrun by hustlers.

Re: Snowden: Stop Relying on Facebook for Your News

#136

Post by cm127 »

joshmn wrote: post #119

The last 12 months I have visited Snopes more times than not in order to disprove some of the articles my Facebook friends choose to share. It's slightly alarming that people don't think they need to fact check. You know it's bad when the President-elect opens up about his internet fact checking[0]. It sets a dangerous precedent. There are less intelligent people in this world who read deeply into these "articles" an…

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."

~ William Casey, CIA Director

Re: Snowden: Stop Relying on Facebook for Your News

#137

Post by weaksauce »

eric_h wrote: post #124
edgyswingset wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has me deeply, deeply concerned. The election is one thing, but what happens if/when elected officials start screwing with something like Social Security, resulting in a generation of people who had their tax dollars deferred, but saw no benefit when they retired? In a post-fact world, I'm not convinced that the people will take action against such a thing.

The fact that "post-fact world" is even a thing is frightening.

The fact that "post-truth" was picked as the word of the year for 2016 is very frightening.

Re: Snowden: Stop Relying on Facebook for Your News

#138

Post by grzm »

cm127 wrote: post #136
joshmn wrote: post #119

The last 12 months I have visited Snopes more times than not in order to disprove some of the articles my Facebook friends choose to share. It's slightly alarming that people don't think they need to fact check. You know it's bad when the President-elect opens up about his internet fact checking[0]. It sets a dangerous precedent. There are less intelligent people in this world who read deeply into these "articles" an…

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ~ William Casey, CIA Director

Link? Or is this 78.3% of statistics on internet quotes are made up?

Re: Snowden: Stop Relying on Facebook for Your News

#140

Post by fixxer »

duaneb wrote: post #114
fixxer wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Independent white men are generally Republican voters, for example. Big difference between being independent and not identifying with a party. Hence, they are hard to herd because they are actually already decided. This isn't conjecture. I've seen the base files.

I'm gonna need a massive citation here. > This isn't conjecture. I've seen the base files. Until you share, it's conjecture.

DNC base files (back when I worked for that side), but based on how shit their polls were, feel free to question my claim.

The name of the game isn't changing hearts and minds (generally), but turnout. 2016 isnt an outlier. Look at county level returns.

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