Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts? – Facebook refuses to factcheck fake news, based on the discredited social theory of “backfire effects,” which claims that people dig in to false views when faced with contradictory evidence.
Facebook’s belief is based on a 2008 study, since discredited. In reality, when faced with contradictory evidence, people change their beliefs, just as you would like them to do.
So Facebook’s fake news policy is based on fake news.
How Facebook Could Use Giphy to Collect Your Data – Giphy already tracks users online behavior, and Facebook should not be allowed to buy it.
Also: In America, healthcare workers can’t find PPE, “essential workers” are pooping in alleyways, but Facebook can afford to drop $500M on animated GIFs.
Cory Doctorow: Social media isn’t particularly great at persuasion. But it is excellent at finding small, diffuse groups that are receptive to a message, and targeting those groups.
That’s great if you’re a refrigerator business looking to find people who are shopping for a refrigerator. It’s even better if you’re an LGBTQ kid in a small town, looking to find community.
It’s not so great for society if you’re looking to organize people who might be inclined to believe that a Presidential candidate is operating a child rape ring out of the basement of a popular Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant.
The reason people are inclined to believe in conspiracy theories is that so many of the trends destroying the US and planet are, in fact, conspiracies:
The opioid epidemic was a conspiracy between rich families like the Sacklers and regulators who rotate in and out of industry. The 737 crisis was caused by Boeing’s conspiracy to cut corners and aviation regulators' conspiracy to allow aerospace to regulate itself.
Senators conspire to liquidate their positions ahead of coronavirus lockdown, well-heeled multinationals conspire to get 94.5% of the “small business” PPP fund, Big Tech conspires to fix wages with illegal collusion while fast food franchises do the same with noncompetes.
And how different is Pizzagate from the real life of Richard Epstein? Also, Donald Trump may not technically be a serial rapist, but he’s certainly a serial sex abuser.
Additionally, conspiracies often make people feel at home, and provide them with status.
And now two points that are mine and by me:
The people profiled in the recent Atlantic piece about Qanon seem lovely. I don’t want any of them making public policy because Qanon is bonkers. But I’d be happy to have any of them as my neighbors and friends.
Also, as I’ve mentioned previously, I’m deeply immersed in ancient Rome now, and Qanon reminds me of the mystery cults that thrived in the first century One of those cults became Christianity. So maybe Qanon will go away soon, but don’t bet too much on it.
Also on Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic: Dr. Seuss coronavirus parodies, including “Oh, the Places You Won’t Go.”
And a Hong Kong ice cream shop is selling tear-gas flavored ice cream, which one customer says is far too tear-gas-like, which reminds me of the Monty Python “Crunchy Frog” sketch.
The New York Times: Rick Jackson, 54, was top editor of The Herald-Times, Bloomington, Indiana. He got laid off “in the parking lot next to the paper’s headquarters. He was also told he would have to vacate the apartment in the same building, where he had been living for 10 months.”
Unable to go to the newsroom, Mr. Jackson started a blog. He called it The Homeless Editor….
He’s living in a Motel 6 now.
Mr. Jackson, who has covered homelessness, said on his blog that most homeless people are not those “who sit on the streets of all our major cities.” Rather, he wrote, “the homeless crowd are much more like me — a person who doesn’t have a single address to call home.”
Jackson is now looking for work. He hopes to stay in journalism.
“There’s something about being in a newsroom where I feel like I’m wrapped in a warm quilt,” he said. “It’s where my home is.”
Hollywood Reporter : CBS All Access is doing a new Star Trek series, based on the adventures of the Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike, with Anson Mount returning as Pike, Ethan Peck as Spock and Rebecca Romjin as Number One.
Also in the pipeline: New seasons of Discovery and Picard, an animated series, “Lower Decks” – I think I read elsewhere that will be a comedy – another Discovery spinoff, Section 31, starting Michelle Yeoh, and a younger-skewing CG-animated series for Nickelodeon.
With all that and The Orville, it’s a good time to be a Trekkie
Stop what you’re doing and watch my weird dog fight a tree. pic.twitter.com/Tam5fBLZBc
— K.B. Spangler (@KBSpangler) May 14, 2020
Losers who use “loose” when they mean “lose.” Makes me lose my shit.
Excitement during the pandemic.
I like that it’s a professional model. Don’t want to use the AMATEUR equipment.
