People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds • Hacker News Board

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#301

Post by michaelchisari » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 7:55 PM UTC

ticmasta wrote: post #290

aswanson wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not ex military but I find Alex Jones legitimately hilarious and I'm astonished people take him seriously. Before I left fb I had an ex-Marine old friend from elementary school on my list and he shared conspiracy memes relentlessly, very much mirroring the stuff Russia used in the 2016 election meddling. He actually believed it. I gave up trying to debunk it and played along.

Check out Stephen Colbert's "Brain Fight with Tuck Buckford" - not sure who's more ridiculous him or Alex Jones. Stephen is funnier though...

I don't think mainstream comedy has really nailed the intensity and anger of the conspiracy theory alt-right. Their interpretation always has a certain snideness and lacks the sincerity of the real thing.

A little known comedian named Connor O'Malley had a series of comedy sketches about a fake website called truthhunters.com that I think captures it dangerously well.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=truth+hunters+c...

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#302

Post by mcbuilder » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 8:03 PM UTC

aero142 wrote: post #270

dkarl wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad was similar, but he thought it was all a joke. He thought sites like rense and infowars were today's equivalent of the counterculture political satire from when he was young. He knew there were people on those sites who weren't in on the joke, and people with mental illness, but I think he thought it was maybe 5% or 10%, and it just added to the fun for him. He got reverse-pwned by Poe's Law. Yet still he foun…

I'm pretty sure /r/the_donald started out as a joke and slowly turned real at some point. I still don't quite understand what happened. It would make an interesting investigation.

/r/T_D was such a strange mix of Russian bots, trolls, true believing incels, and meme spitting grandpas that I'm sure it could be studied for years by social scientists.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#303

Post by michaelchisari » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 8:04 PM UTC

JKCalhoun wrote: post #300

bonestamp2 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not surprising. That generation grew up as the conventions in media itself were being developed. Those are my parents and they have a much different view and trust in media than my generation, and my kids have even less trust in media. My dad flipped. My mom hasn't (yet) but I think that's because she's overly skeptical of everything. The part I fear most is that healthy dose of skepticism that most people used…

> The part I fear most is that healthy dose of skepticism that most people used to have is being turned against those people. That is my fear as well. "Believe nothing," would be the wrong takeaway from all this, but I'm afraid a cynical population of our youth might very well be following that course. Be skeptical of skepticism too I tell my daughters.

The New Sincerity and Meta-Modernist trends offer a refuge of sorts. The naiveté of modernism (and disastrous effects of grand narratives in the 20th century) led to post-modern deconstruction and questioning of what they considered truths which were too easily accepted.

Unfortunately, that led to cynicism, "analysis paralysis" and other forms of intellectual and (for lack of a better word) spiritual exhaustion.

It's hard to believe in anything that, when you really break it down and analyze it is wrong in so many ways. And that applies to virtually everything, in all honesty. There are no perfect answers.

It's important, though, to believe in something. You're right that we are seeing that cynicism turned from apathy to destruction and hate.

I think a great case study in how to ask questions while still believing in building something positive is the show, The Good Place. The specific episode, "Jeremy Bearimy" deals with how you pick up the pieces from realizing that nothing matters, everything is a mess and humanity is deeply flawed.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#304

Post by wbronitsky » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 8:05 PM UTC

tropo wrote: post #225

thecatspaw wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you aware that buzzfeed actually has a pretty good news section too? It doesnt pay well enough, so they also have the clickbait stuff

BuzzFeed is the site that spread the "piss dossier" nonsense. You can't get much more fake than that without invoking aliens and Elvis.

Are you referring to the dossier that a court found was in the public interest to publish because it had so much merit? The same dossier that two presidents were briefed on and was a subject of an active government investigation? That dossier is now, provably, not fake. It seems like you might be unintentionally spreading fake news yourself.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/12/20...

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#305

Post by NeedMoreTea » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 8:11 PM UTC

magduf wrote: post #72

btbuildem wrote: post #40

Having spent Christmas back home, I've come to the conclusion that people over 65 should not have the right to vote. You've had almost forty years of voting, you don't really have any future left, and your minds aren't what they used to be. Please stay out of it.

I'm not sure this is fair to all people over 65. It sounds like maybe your relatives are much like mine, and I agree, my relatives shouldn't be voting either. If we're going to put up a discriminatory barrier to voting, I think it'd be more effective if it was education-based. People with no education make poor voting choices, as we've seen in recent elections.

Great, then we can rule out the people with the wrong sort of education as they make poor voting choices, and the people from the wrong sort of colleges, and the wrong sort of courses...

People can be hugely educated and aware on some topics whilst being ignorant, blinkered and bigoted on others. You and me included. Plenty of highly educated people voted for the choice you didn't. Even in those recent "surprise" elections, be that Trump, Brexit or the more recent Brazilian election.

If you want to balance the ageing of society and the electorate, open up voting to the young by way of balance. Which may bring the added advantage of not yet being inculcated in the binary certainty of party tribes.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#306

Post by jcranberry » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 8:13 PM UTC

im3w1l wrote: post #264

8ytecoder wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

News == current happenings. It really never helps me with seeing the bigger picture. Unless I'm already aware of the big picture in which case News augments my understanding. Magazines == Get the big picture on a broad range of topics. Books == Get the full picture on specific topics. Looking at things this way I have come to realize that most news I used to read doesn't add any empirical value to me. Sure I can show…

> Books == Get the full picture on specific topics. No. You'll get a well informed point of view but it's still just a single persons point of view.

Not necessarily "well-informed". Plenty of books out there which peddle nonsense.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#307

Post by hnruss » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 8:14 PM UTC

Also from the article:

"Users who identified as conservative were more likely than users who identified as liberal to share fake news: 18 percent of Republicans shared links to fake news sites, compared to less than 4 percent of Democrats."

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#308

Post by nikkwong » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 8:15 PM UTC

marton78 wrote: post #276

dandare wrote: post #110

Anecdotal evidence: I remember how my 65 years old dad changed from a large-minded, world-traveling retired professor to an avid consumer of fake news in the span of fewer than two years. Yes, it was a shock, but most of all I am mortified that this could happen to me as well when I get to his age.

It could be beginning dementia / Alzheimer's. At least that is the case for my father. Similarly to believing fake news, also lost his humour, he just doesn't get jokes any more, he takes them at face value. I hope this is not the case for your dad and I'm sorry if I scared you, but you could consider having him checked.

What's the use in getting it checked? It's not like early cancer detection in which an early diagnosis might have some effect on the outcome of the disease. (?)

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#309

Post by rozap » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 8:16 PM UTC

tropo wrote: post #225

thecatspaw wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you aware that buzzfeed actually has a pretty good news section too? It doesnt pay well enough, so they also have the clickbait stuff

BuzzFeed is the site that spread the "piss dossier" nonsense. You can't get much more fake than that without invoking aliens and Elvis.

the pee tape is real.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#310

Post by beetwenty » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 8:17 PM UTC

dkarl wrote: post #148

dandare wrote: post #110

Anecdotal evidence: I remember how my 65 years old dad changed from a large-minded, world-traveling retired professor to an avid consumer of fake news in the span of fewer than two years. Yes, it was a shock, but most of all I am mortified that this could happen to me as well when I get to his age.

My dad was similar, but he thought it was all a joke. He thought sites like rense and infowars were today's equivalent of the counterculture political satire from when he was young. He knew there were people on those sites who weren't in on the joke, and people with mental illness, but I think he thought it was maybe 5% or 10%, and it just added to the fun for him. He got reverse-pwned by Poe's Law. Yet still he foun…

This is definitely where my mom has gone. She thinks Alex Jones is very funny, but then ends up buying the books of conspiracy theorists and interjecting paranoid right talking points into everyday conversations.

Given that it happens so commonly around retirement, I think this is a function of not wanting to struggle or achieve anything anymore, and therefore succumbing fully to a convenient view, one which gives you a thing to worry about apart from your age and declining health, something participatory without being difficult. "Never mind my hip! What about those DEMOCRATS!!!"