The problem with too much information

cawacko said:
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.
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I get no news from cable shows. I get all my news from traditional news agencies like AP, Reuters, BBC, Washington Post, NY Times.
 
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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MAGA isn't a person, Sybil. Go stuff your bigotry.
 
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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But people do, Chicom, even though you don't believe in it.

Those standards are theories of science, mathematics, logic, the Constitution of the United States, the constitutions of the various States, and even the Bible.
 
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).
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Both MSNBC and Fox News is owned and operated by leftists.
 
Concart said:
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?
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Inversion fallacy. You cannot blame your problem on anybody else.
 
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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You are describing yourself and other Democrats.
 
cawacko said:
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.
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Yes, arguing which one is worse doesn't help. What I want you to acknowledge is that there IS a meaningful difference, and that difference in this political climate makes one of them very dangerous. Hate is actively being peddled on the right, and what's also being peddled is that violence is the answer for that hate. Not both sides. Just one. I am just as disgusting by these cowardly pro-Palestinian protesters as I am by the Trump supporters. But here's what I don't see. I don't see Joe Biden going to Nancy Pelosi and demanding that Congress overturn Hunter Biden's verdict. And I don't see Nancy Pelosi saying 'I'm on it sir'.

As for Tik Tok, it will feed you what you want to see. If you stop on pro-Trump shit, it will feed you more of it. Did you know that Young Thugs attorney was held in contempt of court? I doubt it. You probably don't even know who Young Thug is. But my wife gets twenty videos talking about it, because she stopped and watched one. And if you don't think that the Chinese Government isn't going to manipulate that algorithm to help Trump get elected, then I've got some swampland in Florida I'd like to sell you.
 
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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Fiction is not news. That's why.
Attempted force of negative proof fallacy.
 
Concart said:
Yes, arguing which one is worse doesn't help. What I want you to acknowledge is that there IS a meaningful difference, and that difference in this political climate makes one of them very dangerous. Hate is actively being peddled on the right, and what's also being peddled is that violence is the answer for that hate. Not both sides. Just one. I am just as disgusting by these cowardly pro-Palestinian protesters as I am by the Trump supporters. But here's what I don't see. I don't see Joe Biden going to Nancy Pelosi and demanding that Congress overturn Hunter Biden's verdict. And I don't see Nancy Pelosi saying 'I'm on it sir'.

As for Tik Tok, it will feed you what you want to see. If you stop on pro-Trump shit, it will feed you more of it. Did you know that Young Thugs attorney was held in contempt of court? I doubt it. You probably don't even know who Young Thug is. But my wife gets twenty videos talking about it, because she stopped and watched one. And if you don't think that the Chinese Government isn't going to manipulate that algorithm to help Trump get elected, then I've got some swampland in Florida I'd like to sell you.
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Trump referred to any news story that made him look bad was "fake news."
You would never have Biden or a Democrat do that.
 
Concart said:
Yes, arguing which one is worse doesn't help. What I want you to acknowledge is that there IS a meaningful difference, and that difference in this political climate makes one of them very dangerous. Hate is actively being peddled on the right, and what's also being peddled is that violence is the answer for that hate. Not both sides. Just one. I am just as disgusting by these cowardly pro-Palestinian protesters as I am by the Trump supporters. But here's what I don't see. I don't see Joe Biden going to Nancy Pelosi and demanding that Congress overturn Hunter Biden's verdict. And I don't see Nancy Pelosi saying 'I'm on it sir'.

As for Tik Tok, it will feed you what you want to see. If you stop on pro-Trump shit, it will feed you more of it. Did you know that Young Thugs attorney was held in contempt of court? I doubt it. You probably don't even know who Young Thug is. But my wife gets twenty videos talking about it, because she stopped and watched one. And if you don't think that the Chinese Government isn't going to manipulate that algorithm to help Trump get elected, then I've got some swampland in Florida I'd like to sell you.
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I’m not a real tech guy but I thought all the social media sites just feed you more of what you look at? (For example, on Instagram I watched a few videos of Tiger Woods highlights and now my feed is full of them.). It’s how people go down these rabbit holes (no matter the subject).

I don’t keep up with hip hop like I did in my youth but I’m familiar a bit with Young Thug.

The one thing I’ll acknowledge about cable news is they play a big role in the polarization of our country. Yes I know it feels good to have our beliefs reaffirmed and that we are the “good people” so to speak. I’m not above desiring that. But I’m just calling it for what it is.
 
cawacko said:
The one thing I’ll acknowledge about cable news is they play a big role in the polarization of our country. Yes I know it feels good to have our beliefs reaffirmed and that we are the “good people” so to speak. I’m not above desiring that. But I’m just calling it for what it is.
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Trump polarizes the nation. Nothing to do with cable stations.
 
Cypress said:
The average age of MAGA morons is, what, 76 years old?
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MAGA is not a person or group of people.

But re: people who support Trump, ACTUALLY, Trump's support tends to come from younger people more-so than older people (say, people who are 45 and younger just to pick a number). His significant gains among black people who are now supporting him are coming from YOUNGER blacks. Older blacks are still supporting Demonkkkrats at usual levels, but younger blacks are fleeing the Demonkkkrat Party in droves. CNN is even now admitting this truth.

If you'd take a look at a Trump rally crowd, it actually tends to be people who are "middle-aged" and younger, of ALL "races"/backgrounds/creeds/etc.
 
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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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This from a consumer of CNN and msnbc
 
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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Growing up with the internet is a major part of the current generation's problem.

If you want to know who played left tackle for the 1968 New York Jets, the internet is fabulous.
It will tell you how many doubles Ted Williams hit in 1941.
If you need to know Britney Spears' birthday, you're golden.
It can even show you how to re-caulk your bathtub.

But it gives a forum to totally unqualified and unvetted news sources,
and young people respond to them as if they actually were Walter Cronkite.
 
cawacko said:
I’m not a real tech guy but I thought all the social media sites just feed you more of what you look at? (For example, on Instagram I watched a few videos of Tiger Woods highlights and now my feed is full of them.). It’s how people go down these rabbit holes (no matter the subject).

I don’t keep up with hip hop like I did in my youth but I’m familiar a bit with Young Thug.

The one thing I’ll acknowledge about cable news is they play a big role in the polarization of our country. Yes I know it feels good to have our beliefs reaffirmed and that we are the “good people” so to speak. I’m not above desiring that. But I’m just calling it for what it is.
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Yes, all the sites feed you what you want. But none of those algorithms are controlled by the government of an adversarial country. And that is. IMHO, incredibly dangerous, given how easily swayed it appears some people are. It is cult behavior. And reinforcing the beliefs of that cult is exactly what Russia, China, and the Trump campaign are hoping for.
 
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