The real life effects of fake news part 2

NYT: Reading Fake News, Pakistani Minister Directs Nuclear Threat at Israel

A fake news article led to gunfire at a Washington pizzeria three weeks ago. Now it seems that another fake news story has prompted the defense minister of Pakistan to threaten to go nuclear.

The defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, wrote a saber-rattling Twitter post directed at Israel on Friday after a false report — which the minister apparently believed — that Israel had threatened Pakistan with nuclear weapons. Both countries have nuclear arsenals.

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CharminTide said:

NYT: Reading Fake News, Pakistani Minister Directs Nuclear Threat at Israel

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Someone in his position had better be smarter than that. Blaming fake news for a supposedly smart man's stupidity in believing anything and everything he reads does not absolve him of the responsibility to discern the truth. Please tellme though - who is going to police all this fake news and make it go away? The government? Facebook? Twitter? Or should maybe the people reading it who ought to have enough sense to consider the source and verify the "news" before acting stupidly? Because it we take the responsibility off ourselves and put it on someone else we end up with a police state regulating speech or we end up with media channels controlling what we are allowed to read. Neither of those options seem utopian to me, but rather dystopian. So everyone needs to man up for himself ( or woman up or whatever) and stop shirking their own responsibility. When you see a fake news story it seems right to call it out if you wish. It won't diminish until people diminish it and it's not the place of others to do it for you or me or anyone else.

NationalTitles16 said:

Someone in his position had better be smarter than that. Blaming fake news for a supposedly smart man's stupidity in believing anything and everything he reads does not absolve him of the responsibility to discern the truth. Please tellme though - who is going to police all this fake news and make it go away? The government? Facebook? Twitter? Or should maybe the people reading it who ought to have enough sense to consider the source and verify the "news" before acting stupidly? Because it we take the responsibility off ourselves and put it on someone else we end up with a police state regulating speech or we end up with media channels controlling what we are allowed to read. Neither of those options seem utopian to me, but rather dystopian. So everyone needs to man up for himself ( or woman up or whatever) and stop shirking their own responsibility. When you see a fake news story it seems right to call it out if you wish. It won't diminish until people diminish it and it's not the place of others to do it for you or me or anyone else.

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Absolutely. I tell my students that they need to check their sources, and that dictum applies triply to world leaders with nuclear launch codes. Unfortunately, this is the kind of devastating error I can easily see our president-elect making with a 3am tweet, which terrifies me.

For tonight, though, I'm thankful that reason prevailed and millions did not die on Christmas Eve.

CharminTide said:

Absolutely. I tell my students that they need to check their sources, and that dictum applies triply to world leaders with nuclear launch codes. Unfortunately, this is the kind of devastating error I can easily see our president-elect making with a 3am tweet, which terrifies me.

For tonight, though, I'm thankful that reason prevailed and millions did not die on Christmas Eve.

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What do you teach? You may have said at some point along the way, but I missed it.

Tide1986 said:

What do you teach? You may have said at some point along the way, but I missed it.

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Pathology and disease in medical school. Not full time, mind you, but that's true of nearly everyone involved in medical education.

Horrifying survey by the Economist. Can we please stop dismissing the role of fake news in the miseducation of Americans? It affects both sides of the political divide, although Trump voters do appear more vulnerable. Dialog is impossible if we're unable to agree on a basic set of facts.

Looks pretty even to me. Might want to focus on personal responsibility. Otherwise, what's the solution even if we agreed it is a major problem which is worse than in the past?

The obvious follow-up for question 1 was "Did reports of pedophilia, human trafficking and satanic ritual abuse make you more likely or less likely to vote for Hillary?"
and for Question 3, "To whom do you believe illegal votes went?"

How about asking Alabama and Auburn fans two questions and see which side seems more vulnerable. 1) True or Not true: Alabama cheats 2) True or Not true: Auburn cheats

Tidewater said:

The obvious follow-up for question 1 was "Did reports of pedophilia, human trafficking and satanic ritual abuse make you more likely or less likely to vote for Hillary?"
and for Question 3, "To whom do you believe illegal votes went?"

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A better follow-up for both would be, "since there is no evidence supporting either of these things, where did you hear about this and/or why do you believe it?"

day-day said:

How about asking Alabama and Auburn fans two questions and see which side seems more vulnerable. 1) True or Not true: Alabama cheats 2) True or Not true: Auburn cheats

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The tribalism surrounding politics is a huge problem, as your analogy illustrates well.

CharminTide said:

A better follow-up for both would be, "since there is no evidence supporting either of these things, where did you hear about this and/or why do you believe it?"

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The whole chart looks like fake news to me, beginning with the obviously cherry picked questions that measure known and established biases as much or more than they measure the impact of "fake news". I doubt seriously there is much scientific underpinning to this survey, wherever it comes from.

CharminTide said:

A better follow-up for both would be, "since there is no evidence supporting either of these things, where did you hear about this and/or why do you believe it?"

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I personally would be curious to see whether reports of pedophilia, and satanic ritual abuse would make Democrat voters more likely to support the Democrat party. I'd bet there are some who would be more likely to vote Democrat if they knew the party supported or tolerated pedophilia and satanic ritual abuse.

As for illegal immigrant voting, we have no idea how widespread that practice is. I cannot say for California, but in Virginia, the Democrat party moves heaven and earth to stop anyone from finding out how many illegal immigrants are voting.
When they have failed to crush such inquiries, it turns out that illegal immigrants have been voting in Virginia elections. With a heavily Democrat state like California, with a high number of Hispanic voters, I'd wager the number of illegal immigrants voting is a lot higher, and, being heavily Democrat, the party will quash any serious investigation into that question.

Tidewater said:

I personally would be curious to see whether reports of pedophilia, and satanic ritual abuse would make Democrat voters more likely to support the Democrat party. I'd bet there are some who would be more likely to vote Democrat if they knew the party supported or tolerated pedophilia and satanic ritual abuse.

As for illegal immigrant voting, we have no idea how widespread that practice is. I cannot say for California, but in Virginia, the Democrat party moves heaven and earth to stop anyone from finding out how many illegal immigrants are voting.
When they have failed to crush such inquiries, it turns out that illegal immigrants have been voting in Virginia elections. With a heavily Democrat state like California, with a high number of Hispanic voters, I'd wager the number of illegal immigrants voting is a lot higher, and, being heavily Democrat, the party will quash any serious investigation into that question.

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bless your heart

I notice while looking at the raw data for the poll there is not an answer choice of "not sure/don't know" for the conspiracy questions. There is for almost every other question.

92tide said:

bless your heart

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Needless to say, I do not hold the Democrat party in high regard.

NationalTitles16 said:

The whole chart looks like fake news to me, beginning with the obviously cherry picked questions that measure known and established biases as much or more than they measure the impact of "fake news". I doubt seriously there is much scientific underpinning to this survey, wherever it comes from.

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My feeling as well. It would have been fun to answer those questions in such a way as to stoke the outrage of the other side.