How can we recognize fake news?

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Eduk
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Eduk »

I don't pretend to be perfect, far from it, but I don't personally lump myself in with ordinary people. The number one reason people do things is because they are told that is what everyone is doing. Personally when I hear statements like that it sets off alarm bells in my head and I have to double check it makes sense on its own merits. I'm the guy that when everyone is leaving a busy room through double doors, but only using one of the doors, I check the other door (by the way 99% of the time both doors open).
On the other hand if you hold up a gun to my and my families head and tell me to kill someone I find that a far more convincing argument.
Now like I said I don't think I'm super human or anything, I think it's just down to percentages. An average person may make unconscious decisions 99% of the time and I make unconscious decisions 98% of the time. Something along those lines. Doesn't mean that my conscious decisions are great by the way :)
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Eaglerising
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Eaglerising »

Whether we realize it or not, we are watching the decline of global-civilization which will affect the lives of 7.5 billion people. It will be vastly different from previous civilizations that have risen and fell. Things are going to get unimaginably worse and nothing is going to stop it.

Looking at it from another perspective, supporting 7.5 billion people on this planet is an unsustainable reality.
Steve3007
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Steve3007 »

Eaglerising:

I'm a big fan of the whole pessimistic "we're all doomed!" thing myself too, but when you say that things are going to get unimaginably worse and nothing is going to stop it, could you be more specific? Do you have a particular mechanism for this destruction in mind? Nuclear war? Climate change? Yellowstone volcano? Do you see this fall of civilisation as being a direct result of the change in the way that we receive and transmit information and views about the world that is being discussed in this thread?
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Sy Borg
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Sy Borg »

As regards what we may face in the future, it helps to consider whom "we" is (may the gods of grammar forgive me). I don't not think "we" will all share the same fate in the future any more than we all share the same fate today. Note that soon after the black death in Europe was over the survivors flourished in a way they never could in the pre-plague crowds and chaos, including greater creativity and innovation.

Reality is madly brutal but it somehow manages to produce ever greater wonders.
Eaglerising
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Eaglerising »

I agree with Greta, that there has always been an undetermined number of humans who have survived. Likewise, about 7% (525 million) will survive what lies ahead. Please keep in mind this information needs to be treated as a POSSIBILITY. Although I have access to this data, I am very reluctant to mention it for obvious reasons.

Regarding the word "we." I didn't mean to imply everyone. At the time I wrote that post, I couldn't think of an alternative word. Grammar has always been troubling for me because of various learning disabilities like dyslexia.

Steve3007 wanted specifics as to what is going to happen. All I can say, it will not be one, two or three things, but many. I feel it is important to allow events to unfold on their own. "Time is life's great tattle-tale."
Eduk
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Eduk »

If people can believe in a flat earth, homeopathy and celestial beings then I guess someone might believe you.
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Steve3007
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Steve3007 »

Eaglerising:
Although I have access to this data, I am very reluctant to mention it for obvious reasons.
Clearly saying something like that is just going to get us all more intrigued. It implies that you are privy to some terrible Sarah Connor style secret about which we are all blissfully ignorant. Go on, give us a hint. This is an anonymous forum so you're unlikely to get in trouble from your superiors at Cyberdyne Systems. What's the worst that could happen? You're not going to cause a mass panic and anarchy in the streets by posting it here because nobody except a few isolated wierdos like us reads this website. Nobody would believe us. They'd say it's just a bunch of crazy philosophers babbling about the end of the world again.
Eaglerising
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Eaglerising »

Steve3007, this isn't about the end of the world or humanity. Eduk, I don't want anyone to BELIEVE it, but to treat it as a possibility rather than a foregone conclusion or blindly rejecting it. Unfortunately, most people are unable to do that. It's neither wise to be fearful or to reject various possible dangers. Being fearful of crossing the street is just as bad as not looking both ways before you cross it.

Unlike the Oracle of Delphi, Nostradamus, and Edgar Cayce, I don't make predictions. I merely state what I read in the Akashic Records or the Book of Life. I cannot control how people will respond to anything I post. There will always be those who want proof, those who will reject it as nonsense, and those who chew on it so much they become fearful.

The daily network news has clearly shown how people respond differently to disasters such as Hurricane Katerina.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the consumption of Earth's resources by 7.5 billion people is unsustainable. Likewise, there has always been people such as Jacques Cousteau who warned the world about climate change, but view listened until recently. Likewise, thousands ignored the Oracle of Delphi's warning about Mount Vesuvius.

Steve3007, like I said earlier, I feel it is more important to let events unfold on their own. More often than not, knowledge makes things worse.
Eduk
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Eduk »

You've read the Akashic records? The ones encoded in a non-physical plane of existence? I'm impressed.
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Eaglerising
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Eaglerising »

Yes, I have had several unimaginable (some call spiritual) experiences. After each one, I developed various unusual abilities. The most profound was being able to read the Akashic Records.
Eduk
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Eduk »

I'm sorry, when I said I'm impressed I meant the opposite. I am the minimum amount of impressed. Like that time I got an email from a Nigerian Prince who wanted to give me tons of money.
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Sy Borg
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Sy Borg »

Eaglerising wrote:I agree with Greta, that there has always been an undetermined number of humans who have survived. Likewise, about 7% (525 million) will survive what lies ahead.
My guess has long been that, once the dust settles after the Holocene extinction event, the remaining human population will be under a billion. It's well reported that there is a major extinction event under way but the idea that it will also deeply affect human numbers seems too unpleasant for people to countenance. The one number I am prepared to bandy is that it's 100% certain that the human population will dive dramatically during this and the next centuries. The scale of this will naturally be as unprecedented as the human population growth that has created this situation.
Eaglerising wrote:Although I have access to this data, I am very reluctant to mention it for obvious reasons.
Looking at the reaction you received, I can see why lol.

While I am principally a science fan, I am cautiously open to mysticism. Science is simply the established baseline, representing the very most prosaic possible models of reality and, by their very nature, a gross underestimation of reality's workings because that's all we can be sure about at this stage. If humans were described as we describe the universe there would be much discussion about our various structures and energy flows and interactions between parts of the body, but not much else. Could that whole body/brain edifice have agendas, we might ask? Naww, silly idea, would be the reply.

In a sense, this comes down to the idea of how can we know what is true. How do we know that the information provided by organisations like Breitbart or the Socialist Alliance is unreliable? For me, the first sign is the making of a case. Polemic makes cases, true reporting presents the situation as objectively as possible and lets the reader decide. The use of passionate language and expression is simply emotional manipulation and should provoke suspicion whenever present. It suggests that someone is leading with their emotions, not their intellect. Aggression and insults against ideological enemies are also obvious red flags - that are routinely ignored. Propaganda is ultimately patronising, treating readers as gullible ingénues.

All the fighting and lying going on at present strikes me as being modelled on the legal approach to debate, which is inherently dishonest because each "side" will not fairly acknowledge any points that could undermine their positions. They throw the onus on the "opponent" to raise those points and, if they are not smart enough, the objections will never be raised. A scientific approach is far preferable - where opposing views are not only acknowledged, but treated as essential if one is to properly test contentious ideas. One approach seeks a result, the other seeks truth.

In short, if a piece is written "with attitude", then there is an agenda and the perspectives expressed are not to be relied upon. IMO.
Eaglerising wrote:Regarding the word "we." I didn't mean to imply everyone. At the time I wrote that post, I couldn't think of an alternative word. Grammar has always been troubling for me because of various learning disabilities like dyslexia.

Steve3007 wanted specifics as to what is going to happen. All I can say, it will not be one, two or three things, but many. I feel it is important to allow events to unfold on their own. "Time is life's great tattle-tale."
Yes, I was just making (labouring?) the point that humans don't have a shared destiny, that there is no "fate of humanity" as a whole.

It appears that what's going to happen will be war (hence the current propaganda wars), disease, famine, displacement and tremendous storms, floods, droughts and fires. Many parts of the equatorial zone will be rendered uninhabitable this century, with unprecedented death tolls. What future is there for the Middle East, South East Asia, Africa and the Pacific Island? Much less, so it seems, than for Scandinavia, Russia, northern China, Canada, Alaska and the Antarctic, which appear to be best placed to support at least some humans (no doubt largely fortified) in the re-forming world.
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Felix
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Felix »

It appears that what's going to happen will be war (hence the current propaganda wars), disease, famine, displacement and tremendous storms, floods, droughts and fires.


All of that is already well underway, several major wars raging, millions of Syrian refugees, about 18 million people starving in Yemen now, etc., etc. And unfortunately that ain't fake news....
"We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are." - Anaïs Nin
Eaglerising
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Eaglerising »

I agree with Felix, it is already happening. In fact it has been happening. The tsunami from the Indian ocean earthquake killed 280,000 in Indonesia, the 2010 earthquake in Hati killed 160,000. the Tohoku earthquake in Japan that destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant initially killed 18,000 and thousands have died since then because of it. The plant is still unstable and more will continue to die from it. The famine in Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen has affected more than 15 million since December.

Over 2.5 million died in the Second Congo War between 1998 to 2003. About 1.5 million died in Afganistan Ware and over 1 million in the civil war in Nigeria.

-- Updated April 1st, 2017, 8:00 am to add the following --

Then there all those who die of various diseases. Virus carrying misquittoes have killed thousands. The Zika virus is the newest one. Science doesn't have a clue to its long-term effect. The news media rarely does a follow up on a disaster and point out how many died years later because of the disaster.
Dissimulation
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Re: How can we recognize fake news?

Post by Dissimulation »

I apply the same methodology to access the validity of the news as I do in all areas of determination. observation, critical reasoning, appeals to valid empirical 'facts' and its relevance. Information is mediated second-hand through the news, subject to many influences (National, political, profit, restrictions, cultural values, context etc). If a relevant issue arises I do my research, however I must admit that I use it frequently for practical information like traffic, weather, local events & crimes. Generally the news (my observation) presents the information as well as an opinion of how it ought to be interpreted. Education and intelligence is seldom directed towards questioning the status quo and is deeply effected by the influences that shape early conceptual beliefs and understanding. It is essentially a lack of recognition and/or practical concern, a wound cant be treated until it is recognized.
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