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[Max™]

Who gets to decide what is fake news?

Reality does.

When people are saying that Obama is a secret muslim terrorist and Trump is the pre-incarnation of the WH40K God Emperor and Hillary likes to eat baby satanists and so forth, there is a thing you can check called facts, and a general sort of consistency to the real world.

Fake news sites are a problem, yes, but a lack of skepticism and ready acceptance of anything which fits preconceived ideas, along with the walled garden of viewpoints emerging within more and more social media platforms that only acts to reinforce those ideas is why they're worth discussing now while tabloids weren't.

Tabloids didn't change the outcome of an election, but it is, let's call it incredibly unlikely that the election would have played out the same way if not for the electorate winding up caught in little bubbles of like-minded ideas which people specifically flooded with fake news to get ad revenue on top of the various campaign groups pushing whichever narratives they were pushing, and just for a cherry on top we got a big bundle of memes and trolling mixed in.

Is this the future you're comfortable with? We can't undo it, but we would be remiss if we didn't try to improve it, rather than just letting memes, liars, and profit determine the outcome of elections from now on.

[Sergarr]

After all, in dictatorships, "suggesting" is an euphemism for "do it, or suffer my wrath"...

The US has never had a dictator, unless you count Abraham Lincoln, which would be a stretch. There's nothing about Trump's presidency that suggests that will change. Bush II had Republican control of both houses of Congress for most of his tenure, after all. I suspect that the history of your own country is coloring your perceptions.

Trump has said, and I know that it doesn't have much weight, coming from Trump, but he said that "We're going to 'open up' libel laws", so that he could have an easier time suing news organizations.

It's entirely consistent with his pre-election rhetoric to start pushing for real censorship.

And there's a first time for anything. Germany didn't elect Hitler until 1936, too, did it mean that Jews should not have been fearing extermination? There was no precedent for a state executing mass industrialized genocide before Holocaust happened, after all...

[Lord Shonus]

After all, in dictatorships, "suggesting" is an euphemism for "do it, or suffer my wrath"...

The US has never had a dictator, unless you count Abraham Lincoln, which would be a stretch. There's nothing about Trump's presidency that suggests that will change. Bush II had Republican control of both houses of Congress for most of his tenure, after all. I suspect that the history of your own country is coloring your perceptions.

Trump has said, and I know that it doesn't have much weight, coming from Trump, but he said that "We're going to 'open up' libel laws", so that he could have an easier time suing news organizations.

It's entirely consistent with his pre-election rhetoric to start pushing for real censorship.

And there's a first time for anything. Germany didn't elect Hitler until 1936, too, did it mean that Jews should not have been fearing extermination? There was no precedent for a state executing mass industrialized genocide before Holocaust happened, after all...

Germany had a long Imperial tradition dating back to the East-Roman Empire, hence why the Nazi regime was the Third Reich. Hitler's exact policies may have been unprecedented, but him becoming supreme ruler was essentially just discarding the aberration of the Weimar Republic and going back to the way things had always been. There was plenty of precedent for Germany to have a dictator. There's none here.

[smjjames]

Hitler wasn't so much elected than coerced into being elected and then made a coup on the German Parliament.

And like Lord Shonus said, we have never had anything close to a dictator. Yes, parties have railed at the president and claimed they were a dictator, they did the same thing to Andrew Jackson for example, and before Trump, he was the closest thing we had to a populist president.

[Max™]

I mean, it would be nice if there was something like the FDA except instead of determining what is fit to consume, a dangerous route I think nobody wants to go down, perhaps they could simply provide a cross-checking framework like wikipedia does.

^{[unverified][dubious][citation needed][limited sources][verified sources]}

[smjjames]

I mean, it would be nice if there was something like the FDA except instead of determining what is fit to consume, a dangerous route I think nobody wants to go down, perhaps they could simply provide a cross-checking framework like wikipedia does.

^{[unverified][dubious][citation needed][limited sources][verified sources]}

Wouldn't that be the FCC?

[TheBiggerFish]

I mean, it would be nice if there was something like the FDA except instead of determining what is fit to consume, a dangerous route I think nobody wants to go down, perhaps they could simply provide a cross-checking framework like wikipedia does.

^{[unverified][dubious][citation needed][limited sources][verified sources]}

Wouldn't that be the FCC?

No.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

OH MY GOD IT'S STILL PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND

Now imagine it playing in the background pretty much non-stop. More or less the entire day. Sometimes literally the entire day, with people leaving it on while they sleep. Something approaching that isn't terribly uncommon among conservative households.

And from what you mentioned it sounds like you tuned in for one of the less out there bits. It gets worse :V

_{^{and then realize that talk radio can go an order or two of magnitude beyond fox's average worst
welcome to entertainment news, american right-wing edition}}

What. The. Fuck.

People listen to that stuff as they sleep? They leave the propaganda machine on, and give it a direct connection to their subconscious? That's straight out of Brave New World! What the hell?!

WAKE UP SHEEPLE! Like, actually wake up. Stop sleeping. The machine is bad for you.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

I mean, it would be nice if there was something like the FDA except instead of determining what is fit to consume, a dangerous route I think nobody wants to go down, perhaps they could simply provide a cross-checking framework like wikipedia does.

^{[unverified][dubious][citation needed][limited sources][verified sources]}

"Ooh, look! The establishment doesn't want me to read this! It must be super-edgy!"

[smjjames]

Some kind of cross-checking/cross-referencing framework like the way wikipedia does seems like a good idea, but even wikipedia isn't completely unbiased (especially when it comes to controversial topics) simply because people are writing the articles.

OH MY GOD IT'S STILL PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND

Now imagine it playing in the background pretty much non-stop. More or less the entire day. Sometimes literally the entire day, with people leaving it on while they sleep. Something approaching that isn't terribly uncommon among conservative households.

And from what you mentioned it sounds like you tuned in for one of the less out there bits. It gets worse :V

_{^{and then realize that talk radio can go an order or two of magnitude beyond fox's average worst
welcome to entertainment news, american right-wing edition}}

What. The. Fuck.

People listen to that stuff as they sleep? They leave the propaganda machine on, and give it a direct connection to their subconscious? That's straight out of Brave New World! What the hell?!

WAKE UP SHEEPLE! Like, actually wake up. Stop sleeping. The machine is bad for you.

I was a bit surprised they even got Fox News outside the US.

[Frumple]

Yeah... some folks just kinda' never turn the TV off. Some of those default to fox, and so...

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Yeah... some folks just kinda' never turn the TV off. Some of those default to fox, and so...

I have an idea: in high school, BNW should be required reading.

Wait, maybe it already is. You can lead a moron to knowledge, but you can't make him drink...

[smjjames]

Also, as far as the fake news stuff, some of them are actually satire, a la the respected and well known The Onion, so, it's also an inability to discern satire from real news. And some of it is probably trolling.

Yeah... some folks just kinda' never turn the TV off. Some of those default to fox, and so...

I have an idea: in high school, BNW should be required reading.

Wait, maybe it already is. You can lead a moron to knowledge, but you can't make him drink...

What's BNW?

edit: Oh, Brave New World.

[Max™]

Yup, the FCC doesn't give a damn about that. Federal Agency of Citing Theoretical, Hypothetical, Experimental, and Common Knowledge, FACTCHECK. :p

I mean, it would be nice if there was something like the FDA except instead of determining what is fit to consume, a dangerous route I think nobody wants to go down, perhaps they could simply provide a cross-checking framework like wikipedia does.

^{[unverified][dubious][citation needed][limited sources][verified sources]}

"Ooh, look! The establishment doesn't want me to read this! It must be super-edgy!"

Not even remotely what I was saying. "Ooh, look, the establishment can't confirm the accuracy of this statement, I should ignore it because I would rather be super-edgy AND ignorant and go along with it anyways!"

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Yup, the FCC doesn't give a damn about that. Federal Agency of Citing Theoretical, Hypothetical, Experimental, and Common Knowledge, FACTCHECK. :p

I mean, it would be nice if there was something like the FDA except instead of determining what is fit to consume, a dangerous route I think nobody wants to go down, perhaps they could simply provide a cross-checking framework like wikipedia does.

^{[unverified][dubious][citation needed][limited sources][verified sources]}

"Ooh, look! The establishment doesn't want me to read this! It must be super-edgy!"

Not even remotely what I was saying. "Ooh, look, the establishment can't confirm the accuracy of this statement, I should ignore it because I would rather be super-edgy AND ignorant and go along with it anyways!"

I was listing a failure-possibility for your plan. Saying "the establishment has established that this is FALSE" will only make some people read it more. Negative publicity and that shit.