[The Atlantic] I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is: What’s happening in America today is something darker than a misinformation crisis.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/10/hurricane-milton-conspiracies-misinformation/680221/
16 Comments
Unfortunately, the ones checked out are not the ones reading anything. They’re listening to their preferred sycophants. Blame religion for planting the seeds of unquestioning belief.
This really hits home! I just hope we can find ways to come together and foster genuine understanding amidst all the noise
The problem is that social media platforms face 0 consequences for spreading disinformation and shoveling shit into people’s feeds while making billions in ad revenue. the most emotive outrageous stupid shit generates the most “engagement” and gets promoted by the platforms. we are in the middle of information crisis it isn’t going to get better until people have better things to do with their lives then stare at screens all day.
I deleted my FB account in 2016 because of this and my Twitter account when Musk took over. People need to tell the papers they read that have ‘X’ and FB links that they object to it. They need to delete accounts on platforms causing harm. Spoutible is well monitored. Reddit does pretty well.
Maybe if the average age of congress wasn’t almost 70 then we could enact some more dynamic laws regulating this. Oh, and the media companies have bought and paid for most of the senators anyway.
Yeah it’s really really bad.
It’s all about the unscrupulous making money. There are literally thousands and thousands of Alex Jones types on Twitter/X and other social media platforms, trying to make an immoral living. Whoring would be more respectable by comparison. So-called social influencers without a moral compass.
Musk literally encourages it by the way he promotes earning opportunities on X. As far as he himself is concerned he’s become a Trump-loving crack-head in a desperate effort to save his $44bn investment that he should never have so impetuously made.
It’s so toxic in terms of its on-going effect on society that the English language isn’t really capable of describing it. And if politicians were to step in to stop it, the only people empowered to do so, the conspiracy responses will be monumental.
One has to wonder whether society is already so fucked up by it, is it already too late to do anything about it.
Seizing Twitter and fucking Elongated Muskrat in the ass wouldn’t hurt
It blows my mind that FEMA had to have a misinformation alert on their splash page.
Why is this phenomenon peculiar to the US? Every other country in the world has internet. Even China has internet, and an exponentially greater sized population than the US.
It’s not misinformation, it’s psychological warfare, and functional humans are losing, badly.
The common denominator of all problems is people. People suck. Except you reading this. You’re cool.
I’ll resort to a vulgar analogy.
There you are, casually walking down the digital street in your digital community. You see a giant, steaming pile of dog shit in your path. Instead of walking around it and going about your business, you pick it up and take it with you.
Every friend you meet along the way, you pull out the dog shit, rub it in your friend’s face, and say, “Can you BELIEVE this dog shit was just sitting there! Isn’t it OUTRAGEOUS! Something must be done!” You’ve got to spread the word! We’ve gotta stop this dog shit from appearing in the street. We’ve got to raise awareness!
Soon, everyone has dog shit on them. Everyone is very aware that dog shit exists, and nobody remembers when people didn’t smell like dog shit. Everyone is aware of dog shit, but dog shit is the new normal. People even took the shit into their homes.
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More vile ideas and general Tom Fuckery are disseminated by people who oppose them than by those who proselytize them.
We’re each of us, on occasion, a useful idiot.
Community notes works great and should be the default on every social media platform.
Let the people judge trustworthiness and not nameless corporations trying to manipulate public discourse.
When viral stupidity meets the perfect carrier….the internet. 🙂
The greatest thing about the internet is that everybody can post whatever they like.
The worst thing about the internet is that everybody can post whatever they like.