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Dec. 7th, 2016 08:47 pm1. Probably only a reference that Buffy fans will appreciate, but our new President Elect reminds me a great deal of The Mayor from Buffy S3, he even looks a little bit like him. Except I think the Mayor was a bit more charming and easier to watch.
2. Been reading a lot of articles lately about fake news, and how to determine what is and is not fake. Mainly because I've become convinced that the US election was decided largely by "fake news" or the marketing and proliferation of misinformantion via biased sites by people on both sides of the political divide to support their own "populist" agendas. The far left and the far right were equally guilty of this and continue to be, now. I've seen fake news and misinformation from both - not just one side.
As a result of this, many people reached the point in which they didn't trust the media at all, and believed everything was fake news. People have a tendency to leap to broad generalizations and jump to extreme views.
In a way, I sort of miss the days before the internet or information explosion, when there was a bigger focus on print and it was harder to share information quickly. Not to mention more expensive, which meant there was a higher emphasis on fact checking. Although we've always had fake news aka tabloid journalism.
Anyhow, here's a few interesting links:
*. Fake or Real - How to Self Check the News and Get the Facts
if you see your friends sharing blatantly fake news, be a friend and kindly tell them it's not real. Don't shy away from these conversations even if they might be uncomfortable. As said, everyone has to help fix the fake news problem.
And...[the below is paraphrased]
* What's Fake or What's Real Can Depend on What You Want to Believe
All of this reminds me of a social pyschology course that I audited in the early part of this century, around 2005. In that course, we read a book that for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of, but it was similar in theme to Thomas Gladwell's Blink. What it said, was how people have a tendency to base decisions on generalizations, assumptions, and misperceptions. They often see what they want to see, or what reinforces their beliefs or attitudes. They don't perceive reality as it is, what they actually see is a reflection of their own internal dialogue or the story in their heads. And put into a social setting, if they are surrounded by like-minded individuals who support this view or reinforce it, it becomes factual. "Everybody thinks this, so it must be true." Mob mentality. "If everyone thinks that X is black, then obviously it is." Even if you personally believe X is green, or see X as green. Rod Sterling actually wrote several Twilight Zone episodes on this theme -- where the mob mentality dictated what was real. If Everybody thinks you should do A, then obviously you should do A, even if A would result in a horrible outcome. It's called "peer pressure" or "social pressure" -- where our reality, opinions, perceptions, and views are dictated by our peers or those around us and not by ourselves.
* Why We Are Hard Wired To Believe Lies --Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin podcast - which sort of supports the above.
3. This is Amazing - Veterans Ask for Forgiveness at Standing Rock
Veterans welcomed and requested not to engage in any violence and to be non-violent.
By the way? After they showed up, the Army Corps of Engineers backed off and denied the permit.
Oh and, Norways Top Banks Divest in Dakota Access Pipeline
Mind-blowing.
2. Been reading a lot of articles lately about fake news, and how to determine what is and is not fake. Mainly because I've become convinced that the US election was decided largely by "fake news" or the marketing and proliferation of misinformantion via biased sites by people on both sides of the political divide to support their own "populist" agendas. The far left and the far right were equally guilty of this and continue to be, now. I've seen fake news and misinformation from both - not just one side.
As a result of this, many people reached the point in which they didn't trust the media at all, and believed everything was fake news. People have a tendency to leap to broad generalizations and jump to extreme views.
In a way, I sort of miss the days before the internet or information explosion, when there was a bigger focus on print and it was harder to share information quickly. Not to mention more expensive, which meant there was a higher emphasis on fact checking. Although we've always had fake news aka tabloid journalism.
Anyhow, here's a few interesting links:
*. Fake or Real - How to Self Check the News and Get the Facts
if you see your friends sharing blatantly fake news, be a friend and kindly tell them it's not real. Don't shy away from these conversations even if they might be uncomfortable. As said, everyone has to help fix the fake news problem.
And...[the below is paraphrased]
* Pay attention to the domain and URL
* Read the "About Us" section (find out what the site's agenda is and if it has one)
* Look at the quotes in a story Or rather, look at the lack of quotes.
* Look at who said them Then, see who said the quotes, and what they said. Are they a reputable source with a title that you can verify through a quick Google search?
* Check the comments -- If a lot of these comments call out the article for being fake or misleading, it probably is.
* Reverse image search - A picture should be accurate in illustrating what the story is about. This often doesn't happen. If people who write these fake news stories don't even leave their homes or interview anyone for the stories, it's unlikely they take their own pictures. Do a little detective work and reverse search for the image on Google. You can do this by right-clicking on the image and choosing to search Google for it. If the image is appearing on a lot of stories about many different topics, there's a good chance it's not actually an image of what it says it was on the first story.
* What's Fake or What's Real Can Depend on What You Want to Believe
the proliferation of fake and hyperpartisan news that has flooded into Americans’ laptops and living rooms has prompted a national soul-searching, with liberals across the country asking how a nation of millions could be marching to such a suspect drumbeat. But while some Americans may take the stories literally — like the North Carolina man who fired his gun in a Washington pizzeria on Sunday trying to investigate a false story spread online of a child-abuse ring led by Hillary Clinton — many do not.
The larger problem, experts say, is less extreme but more insidious. Fake news, and the proliferation of raw opinion that passes for news, is creating confusion, punching holes in what is true, causing a kind of fun-house effect that leaves the reader doubting everything, including real news.
That has pushed up the political temperature and increased polarization. No longer burdened with wrestling with the possibility that they might be wrong, people on the right and the left have become more entrenched in their positions, experts say. In interviews, people said they felt more empowered, more attached to their own side and less inclined to listen to the other. Polarization is fun, like cheering a goal for the home team.
“There are an alarming number of people who tend to be credulous and form beliefs based on the latest thing they’ve read, but that’s not the wider problem,” said Michael Lynch, a professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut. “The wider problem is fake news has the effect of getting people not to believe real things.”
He described the thinking like this: “There’s no way for me to know what is objectively true, so we’ll stick to our guns and our own evidence. We’ll ignore the facts because nobody knows what’s really true anyway.”
All of this reminds me of a social pyschology course that I audited in the early part of this century, around 2005. In that course, we read a book that for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of, but it was similar in theme to Thomas Gladwell's Blink. What it said, was how people have a tendency to base decisions on generalizations, assumptions, and misperceptions. They often see what they want to see, or what reinforces their beliefs or attitudes. They don't perceive reality as it is, what they actually see is a reflection of their own internal dialogue or the story in their heads. And put into a social setting, if they are surrounded by like-minded individuals who support this view or reinforce it, it becomes factual. "Everybody thinks this, so it must be true." Mob mentality. "If everyone thinks that X is black, then obviously it is." Even if you personally believe X is green, or see X as green. Rod Sterling actually wrote several Twilight Zone episodes on this theme -- where the mob mentality dictated what was real. If Everybody thinks you should do A, then obviously you should do A, even if A would result in a horrible outcome. It's called "peer pressure" or "social pressure" -- where our reality, opinions, perceptions, and views are dictated by our peers or those around us and not by ourselves.
* Why We Are Hard Wired To Believe Lies --Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin podcast - which sort of supports the above.
3. This is Amazing - Veterans Ask for Forgiveness at Standing Rock
Veterans welcomed and requested not to engage in any violence and to be non-violent.
By the way? After they showed up, the Army Corps of Engineers backed off and denied the permit.
Oh and, Norways Top Banks Divest in Dakota Access Pipeline
Norway's biggest bank, DNB, announced on Thursday that it has sold its stakes in companies that are involved in the construction of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.
DNB had said last week that it was “concerned” about the North Dakota pipeline project and would reconsider its involvement.
On Thursday, DNB spokesman Even Westerveld told Aftenposten that the bank has now cut its funding because of the concerns raised by the Standing Rock Sioux, who say the project violates land treaties, desecrates sacred grounds and threatens the drinking water of millions of people who rely on the Missouri River.
Massive protests have been held at Standing Rock for weeks, sometimes resulting in violent clashes with law enforcement.
DNB's holdings were worth around $3 million (26 million kroner). Additionally, DNB is reconsidering three separate loans it has made to help finance the pipeline. The bank's total contributions amount to roughly ten percent of the project's total costs.
Mind-blowing.