The problem with too much information

C

Concart

Well-known member
Contributor
Food for thought. When I was growing up, we got out news from a half hour nightly news show and the daily paper. It was doled out with comment, and with a partisan agenda. Those things were reserved for the editorial page. But those sources were actual journalism. Just the facts. And because of that, Americans had a common understanding of what was objectively true. Walter Cronkite told us that 2+2=4. And so did the other anchors, and the daily newspapers. When they said something was factual, you could count on the fact that they had applied journalistic standards in determining the veracity of what they reported. While those sources still exist, they are now being drowned out by sloppy, lazy, partisan news sources. People actually believe what they hear on Tik Tok, or facebook, or Newsmax, or OAN. Someone here suggested that his go to news portal was where the truth could be found, and yet they referred to the President of the United States as a pedophile. It's lazy confirmation bias, but that's where we are today. Do you know that Jason Aldean turned down a half a billion dollars to collaborate with Taylor Swift, because she's 'too woke'. Or that Jimmy Kimmel and Steven Colbert have been fired by ABC. The fact that Steven Colbert doesn't even work for ABC seems not to matter to the tens of thousands of people who commented praising ABC for their decision.

We live in a time where we feel entitled to be lazy and stupid. And the people who have most fallen into this trap are people who now want an authoritarian dictator to run the country, because it is easier for them. It's embarrassing. But this is where we have arrived. We no longer have a common reality, and there is no chance that we can ever come up with solutions, because so many people have invented problems that do not exist.


Discuss.
 
I've read that old people are more susceptible to being duped by spoofs, memes, deceptions, and propaganda on social media.

While young people, who grew up with computers and the internet, are more sophisticated at being able to discriminate bullshit from reality on social media.

The average age of MAGA morons is, what, 76 years old?
 
Concart said:
Food for thought. When I was growing up, we got out news from a half hour nightly news show and the daily paper. It was doled out with comment, and with a partisan agenda. Those things were reserved for the editorial page. But those sources were actual journalism. Just the facts. And because of that, Americans had a common understanding of what was objectively true. Walter Cronkite told us that 2+2=4. And so did the other anchors, and the daily newspapers. When they said something was factual, you could count on the fact that they had applied journalistic standards in determining the veracity of what they reported. While those sources still exist, they are now being drowned out by sloppy, lazy, partisan news sources. People actually believe what they hear on Tik Tok, or facebook, or Newsmax, or OAN. Someone here suggested that his go to news portal was where the truth could be found, and yet they referred to the President of the United States as a pedophile. It's lazy confirmation bias, but that's where we are today. Do you know that Jason Aldean turned down a half a billion dollars to collaborate with Taylor Swift, because she's 'too woke'. Or that Jimmy Kimmel and Steven Colbert have been fired by ABC. The fact that Steven Colbert doesn't even work for ABC seems not to matter to the tens of thousands of people who commented praising ABC for their decision.

We live in a time where we feel entitled to be lazy and stupid. And the people who have most fallen into this trap are people who now want an authoritarian dictator to run the country, because it is easier for them. It's embarrassing. But this is where we have arrived. We no longer have a common reality, and there is no chance that we can ever come up with solutions, because so many people have invented problems that do not exist.


Discuss.
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The problem is that many do not evaluate the information. They do not have a standard to judge truth.
 
I could give a long list of misinformation that liberals spout that they get from liberal sites but in reality what would that accomplish? It would simply turn into another partisan pissing match, like almost all discussions.

Misinformation isn’t new but yes, with the internet and now social media we have much easier access to it. And yes, many people live in their partisan echo chambers.

There’s no turning back the clock to where we had basically three channels and we all watched the same news and TV shows.

A majority of young people get their political info from TikTok. Not sure if that’s better or worse than the many who get it from MSNBC or Fox News. (there is no winner in either scenario).
 
Concart said:
We live in a time where we feel entitled to be lazy and stupid. And the people who have most fallen into this trap are people who now want an authoritarian dictator to run the country, because it is easier for them. It's embarrassing. But this is where we have arrived. We no longer have a common reality, and there is no chance that we can ever come up with solutions, because so many people have invented problems that do not exist.

Discuss.
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Unless you're including both left AND right voting base participants in that bolded statement, then you're a HUGE part of that problem.
 
SmarterthanYou said:
Unless you're including both left AND right voting base participants in that bolded statement, then you're a HUGE part of that problem.
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Never said it didn't. But it is a far greater problem on the right. There is no equivalent of OAN on the left. There is no equivalent of Newsmax on the left. Or gateway pundit, or american thinker, or .....

It is what it is Are you voting libertarian? They have their candidate now. Are you supporting him or writing yourself in again this year?
 
Hume said:
The problem is that many do not evaluate the information. They do not have a standard to judge truth.
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Nail on the head. It is laziness. They don't bother to do even a 30 second search. Especially when they would love the information to be true. It is head in the sand behavior. What bothers me the most is the arrogance with which they spread information that is objectively false and easily disproven. And yet they are ENRAGED by it and it makes them angry. I cannot empathize with cult behavior. It's just too foreign for me to understand.
 
Concart said:
Nail on the head. It is laziness. They don't bother to do even a 30 second search. Especially when they would love the information to be true. It is head in the sand behavior. What bothers me the most is the arrogance with which they spread information that is objectively false and easily disproven. And yet they are ENRAGED by it and it makes them angry. I cannot empathize with cult behavior. It's just too foreign for me to understand.
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Trump encourages his supporters to lie.
 
cawacko said:
I could give a long list of misinformation that liberals spout that they get from liberal sites but in reality what would that accomplish? It would simply turn into another partisan pissing match, like almost all discussions.

Misinformation isn’t new but yes, with the internet and now social media we have much easier access to it. And yes, many people live in their partisan echo chambers.

There’s no turning back the clock to where we had basically three channels and we all watched the same news and TV shows.

A majority of young people get their political info from TikTok. Not sure if that’s better or worse than the many who get it from MSNBC or Fox News. (there is no winner in either scenario).
Click to expand...
What I would like you to admit is that there is not an equivalency. Because there isn't. And I would challenge your statement that Tik Tok is no worse than Fox News or MSNBC. It is far worse than either. And I would challenge your assertion that those two sources are equivalent. MSNBC has not been slapped with defamation lawsuits. So I'm not buying. MSNBC is news commentary with a left slant, but they don't lie about things that are objectively true.
 
Concart said:
What I would like you to admit is that there is not an equivalency. Because there isn't. And I would challenge your statement that Tik Tok is no worse than Fox News or MSNBC. It is far worse than either. And I would challenge your assertion that those two sources are equivalent. MSNBC has not been slapped with defamation lawsuits. So I'm not buying. MSNBC is news commentary with a left slant, but they don't lie about things that are objectively true.
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MSNBC does not pretend to be a news agency. Most of their programming is political commentary.
 
Cypress said:
I've read that old people are more susceptible to being duped by spoofs, memes, deceptions, and propaganda on social media.

While young people, who grew up with computers and the internet, are more sophisticated at being able to discriminate bullshit from reality on social media.

The average age of MAGA morons is, what, 76 years old?
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Actually, I think YOUNG people are far worse. My wife watches Tik Tok. The abject stupidity and outright lies that propagate that app would be laughable if it was parody. Sadly, it isn't. I think too many young people think there is no difference between the New York Times and Gateway Pundit. It's frightening.
 
Hume said:
I frequently post stories from NYTimes and Washington Post.
Typical reply from right wingers--Left wing garbage!

Not, the story is false and here is why. Just, NYTimes sucks!
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They would claim that the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite was far left propaganda. And they would consider Reagan a RINO. This is the climate we are in now.
 
Concart said:
They would claim that the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite was far left propaganda. And they would consider Reagan a RINO. This is the climate we are in now.
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A dangerous moment in world history. EU elections favored the far right.
 
Hume said:
A dangerous moment in world history. EU elections favored the far right.
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And there is no good guy to stop them. Had it not been for the United States, Hitler would have taken all of Europe. Now we are isolating ourselves and just standing by and letting it happen. Apparently, a 100 year old lesson will not stick. I don't get it. The world doesn't seem to be a very enlightened place right now. Sometimes I feel like just saying 'fuck it, I've got mine, to hell with you'. Empathy isn't easy.
 
Concart said:
And there is no good guy to stop them. Had it not been for the United States, Hitler would have taken all of Europe. Now we are isolating ourselves and just standing by and letting it happen. Apparently, a 100 year old lesson will not stick. I don't get it. The world doesn't seem to be a very enlightened place right now. Sometimes I feel like just saying 'fuck it, I've got mine, to hell with you'. Empathy isn't easy.
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A moment of decline.

The US went from wondering how Germany fell for Hitler to having our own Hitler in Trump.
 
Hume said:
MSNBC does not pretend to be a news agency. Most of their programming is political commentary.
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Almost all of it is. I watch a few of the shows because there are some very intelligent people on the network. Nicole Wallace, Ari Melber and Chris Hayes are the only ones I really pay attention to. Joy Reid is a nut.
 
Concart said:
Almost all of it is. I watch a few of the shows because there are some very intelligent people on the network. Nicole Wallace, Ari Melber and Chris Hayes are the only ones I really pay attention to. Joy Reid is a nut.
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Agree. Wallace, Hayes, and Melber are direct and present their arguments very clearly.
 
Concart said:
What I would like you to admit is that there is not an equivalency. Because there isn't. And I would challenge your statement that Tik Tok is no worse than Fox News or MSNBC. It is far worse than either. And I would challenge your assertion that those two sources are equivalent. MSNBC has not been slapped with defamation lawsuits. So I'm not buying. MSNBC is news commentary with a left slant, but they don't lie about things that are objectively true.
Click to expand...
I said I don’t know if TikTok is as bad as cable news because I don’t have an account so I don’t know what they show politically. (I do have friends my age sending me videos, non political, from TikTok so I guess it’s not just kids using it.)

Cable news channels exist to get the highest ratings possible by giving red meat to political partisans. As a capitalist I won’t argue that they shouldn’t exist but I will say on the whole they are not good for the country. To me, arguing which cable news station is least worse is missing the forest for the trees.
 
Concart said:
Food for thought. When I was growing up, we got out news from a half hour nightly news show and the daily paper. It was doled out with comment, and with a partisan agenda. Those things were reserved for the editorial page. But those sources were actual journalism. Just the facts. And because of that, Americans had a common understanding of what was objectively true. Walter Cronkite told us that 2+2=4. And so did the other anchors, and the daily newspapers. When they said something was factual, you could count on the fact that they had applied journalistic standards in determining the veracity of what they reported. While those sources still exist, they are now being drowned out by sloppy, lazy, partisan news sources. People actually believe what they hear on Tik Tok, or facebook, or Newsmax, or OAN. Someone here suggested that his go to news portal was where the truth could be found, and yet they referred to the President of the United States as a pedophile. It's lazy confirmation bias, but that's where we are today. Do you know that Jason Aldean turned down a half a billion dollars to collaborate with Taylor Swift, because she's 'too woke'. Or that Jimmy Kimmel and Steven Colbert have been fired by ABC. The fact that Steven Colbert doesn't even work for ABC seems not to matter to the tens of thousands of people who commented praising ABC for their decision.

We live in a time where we feel entitled to be lazy and stupid. And the people who have most fallen into this trap are people who now want an authoritarian dictator to run the country, because it is easier for them. It's embarrassing. But this is where we have arrived. We no longer have a common reality, and there is no chance that we can ever come up with solutions, because so many people have invented problems that do not exist.


Discuss.
Click to expand...
You are describing yourself and other Democrats.
 
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