I think this partially a myopic view from young people.
I remember being a little kid and watching a week long show about the JFK conspiracy on either one of the big 3 networks or PBS. Area 51 alien conspiracy is so ubiquitous I don't even know how you would track it 30 years ago.
Alex Jones that is banned from youtube for all these crazy conspiracy theories he puts out use to be on practically nationally on AM radio stations for hours a day. The Art Bell show was broadcast nightly for decades and was maybe even more insane than Alex Jones.
It is telling that the people who are weaponizing this concept of "misinformation" do not point it at all at Bigfoot researchers. What is more "misinformation" than the idea of giant apes running around the US forest? Of course, that doesn't count because there is no political gain to be had.
The whole process is so transparent.
We basically have epistemological certainty as long as their is political gain to be had from the certainty. JFK assassination is probably the best example. The theta/time decay has all evaporated on the political gain from the conspiracy so that no longer matters.
> It is telling that the people who are weaponizing this concept of "misinformation" do not point it at all at Bigfoot researchers. What is more "misinformation" than the idea of giant apes running around the US forest? Of course, that doesn't count because there is no political gain to be had.
There's no political gain to be had on either side of the Bigfoot-in-the-forest argument, in fact. Or financial gain, or notoriety, or kudos. Which is why it's really not particularly telling.
It's just a fringe belief.
Misinformation matters when its intent is to undermine democracy or governance in the public good, undermine civic or civil society, create an "other" that can be attacked, create a pretext for war or social unrest or vigilantism etc.
I don't think people who believe in Bigfoot really fit the pattern. Nor do Flat-Earthers. Though this kind of belief is an indicator of the kind of credulity that led to the huge traction gained by the Comet Ping Pong Pizzagate story and the current omniconspiracy of antivax/QAnon/stolen election/5G/Great Reset/Schwab/Soros/Gates Foundation etc.
I think he's always been a problem (his Sandy Hook crisis actor lies got him into at least a little difficulty with the platforms) but his problematic nature has always fit within free speech, because he generally knows how to dial it back just inside those boundaries.
Likewise with David Icke or the more self-limiting lunacy of Kate Shemirani; these people it's better not to worry about.
Rudy Giuliani or MTG? Maybe worth worrying about because they can tip things over into riots.
If we follow the science then what does "misinformation" mean in an information theory context?
It has no meaning at all. Since it basically has no meaning it does make it quite a good word in a propaganda context. We can make this word mean whatever we want.
It is a shame we don't use the concept of noise or a noisy channel in a wider context.
I suspect in reality all these narratives are basically fiction.
We know we are really bad at tracking knowledge work productivity but we will make up narratives based off bad data.
I imagine the real story is that the productive people are just as but not more productive at home vs the office and the slackers are walking their dog more instead of walking around the office.
"Office slackers waste time in different ways working from home, everything else basically the same"
I feel like any nytimes article I read is practically written by an algorithm.
"Since the pandemic began, Americans’ happiness has cratered"
As if this isn't mostly because of the disruption to normal life caused by the pandemic?
To me, there is this small group of very loud social media addicts/writers that would be perfectly happy for this pandemic experience to go on forever since it always provides content to write/post about while basically everyone I know in person is utterly burnt out on the whole experience.
> "Since the pandemic began, Americans’ happiness has cratered"
As if this isn't mostly because of the disruption to normal life caused by the pandemic?
I don't think that paints an accurate picture of the situation. Many people (I would say generations) are coming to terms with an increasingly bleak outlook on their future prospects - and that flies in the face with the sort of American exceptionalism & exponential economic growth that characterized the mid-20th century. People have been sold a tale and that just isn't coming true, and what's worse is that these same demographics often feel overshadowed by previous generations, such as the Baby Boomers. Look at the overall makeup of our government these days - the Speaker of the House & our President are the oldest they _have ever been_. It doesn't feel representative. Rent and real estate prices have sky rocketed almost everywhere, and many people (myself included) are giving up hope of ever owning a home. Climate change also looms large.
The pandemic gave many people an opportunity to pause and reevaluate their life and priorities. I'm part of the demographic that entered the workforce during the Recession of 07/08, where I worked shitty fastfood jobs to survive, and I parlayed it into a career in the restaurant business that I aggressively pursued for a decade+. I would rather put a bullet in my head than go work in a kitchen again. Especially running one. I then started a career in the trades because that seemed like the best economic opportunity for someone with limited education, and I got to work through all of 2020 + 2021 because I was 'essential', but yeah, like the article mentioned, it strongly reinforced my status as disposable and meaningless.
The issues are deeper than 'the disruption [of] normal life.'
> As if this isn't mostly because of the disruption to normal life caused by the pandemic?
If you're talking about NYT writers, or HN commenters, probably accurate on average yes but I wouldn't make too many assumptions.
It is a lot of deaths though. I personally am still carrying grief for people lost in that first year, and I know about a million other american families are too.
I don't know if you're lumping those deaths in with "disruption to normal life" because yes sure they are but they are definitely still impacting my happiness a lot more than wearing a mask at the gym or whatever!
Totally agree. At least on KDE I really don't notice any difference in performance and always have both installed.
I use Firefox 99% of the time though. I think it is something about the tabs that I like better but it is a minor difference and purely based on personal taste.
So he is basically going to get bored and binge watch shows on Netflix for 3 days.
The irony to me is I would think curating a website like that is as big a problem as anything. That is going to take up way too much time and space in your brain.
Get rid of the blog, Netflix and social media then most the problems will go away.
> The irony to me is I would think curating a website like that is as big a problem as anything. That is going to take up way too much time and space in your brain.
I find the opposite, actually. I use my blog to offload projects from my brain, knowing that if there was anything weird about whatever project I'm doing, I would have documented it in the writeup. So it's a public presence, but also an external storage for projects. I frequently use it for my own reference later, and at least some other people read it too.
Exactly and the vast majority of people were racists at the time who I am sure did not agree with the protests.
Something has gone wrong though with this trucker protest because people should have already been arrested. LBJ wasn't granting himself power to deal with civil rights protests.
IMO now it is going to turn into some kind of Canadian Reichstag fire.
Some headline like 2/3rds of Canadians want the government to make sure there is never another Reichstag fire is just a matter of time.
The irony is this is exactly why the US is a republic and not a democracy.
Direct democracy is 100% mob rule but no one really cares to read the Federalist Papers or the mountain of thought that was put into this at the start of the US.
These truckers did nothing other than grease the wheels of authoritarianism anyway.
This is the last real protest in Canada. Next time, these "emergency" powers will either be immediate or these new powers are just new permanent government powers.
2/3rds the citizens will practically be demanding that this never happens again.
A lesson in why Ben Franklin said that democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Greasing the wheels of authoritarianism by peacefully protesting—that seems a lot like victim blaming to me. Something is really wrong if our democracies can’t handle peaceful protest.
I remember being a little kid and watching a week long show about the JFK conspiracy on either one of the big 3 networks or PBS. Area 51 alien conspiracy is so ubiquitous I don't even know how you would track it 30 years ago.
Alex Jones that is banned from youtube for all these crazy conspiracy theories he puts out use to be on practically nationally on AM radio stations for hours a day. The Art Bell show was broadcast nightly for decades and was maybe even more insane than Alex Jones.
It is telling that the people who are weaponizing this concept of "misinformation" do not point it at all at Bigfoot researchers. What is more "misinformation" than the idea of giant apes running around the US forest? Of course, that doesn't count because there is no political gain to be had.
The whole process is so transparent.
We basically have epistemological certainty as long as their is political gain to be had from the certainty. JFK assassination is probably the best example. The theta/time decay has all evaporated on the political gain from the conspiracy so that no longer matters.