The one thing I like with Lemmy and Mastodon (and decentralized in general) is that there’s no economic incentive to push echo chamber/inflammatory stuff. Doesn’t mean it can’t be there, of course, but at least there’s no one making more money by pushing it in my face. My feeds are tame and boring compared to those on “algorithmic” social media. And that’s how I like it. :)
Comment on America’s Right-Wing Propaganda Problem Might Be Terminal -- [Opinion]
thejml@lemm.ee 3 days ago
I like how now is referred to as the “post-truth era” as if there were pre-truth and truth eras as well… the internet and newspapers in general have never been infallible. Journalistic Integrity was a bigger deal, but it was pretty easy to find false, dubious and inflammatory statements in printed papers and news programs. As someone who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, I remember having to site multiple sources in papers due to inconsistencies and straight up lies and opinions being wide spread.
What we’re seeing here is less about truth, and more about the speed of information spread, truth or not. Coupled with the lack of questioning from the general public and the acceptance of marginal information by the masses. Anything that fits someone’s personal narrative is championed and distributed as truth. I feel that it’s partly due to the online bubbles that promote such community echo chambers, but we had those in the past as well. Perhaps they just didn’t work quite as well as those that can be both world wide and easily influenced by outside actors.
I’d agree that some of the perceived lack of journalistic integrity could be exaggerated by the AI and click bait tactics to drive views and revenue.
I’m all about decentralized social media, but I don’t think it’s a panacea as Lemmy has plenty of echo chambers and questionable information just as any other social media network.
beejjorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org 3 days ago
cygnus@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
This is the much bigger issue IMO. The quantity of disinformation is irrelevant if people don’t fall for it, and Americans fall for it in far greater numbers that other western countries. That points to a failure of education and perspicacity at the individual level.
LoamImprovement@beehaw.org 3 days ago
Which is entirely intentional on the part of the people who actually run this country. Uneducated citizens who don’t or can’t think critically are very easy to spoon-feed bullshit against their best interests. Republicans have been openly attacking public education for decades, and at the same time parents have been foisting the rearing of their children off on educators because they work two or more jobs to support the household. The community mentality has entirely eroded as a result - nobody will step up to take care of neglected children because everyone’s too busy working, educators come under attack from both parents and administration for trying to be anything more than state-sanctioned babysitters, leading to mass resignations, reinforcing the idea that education should be privatized and/or run off of a bullshit voucher system.
America failed a long time ago, it’s just a question of who realizes it and who doesn’t. If you want to live through the next couple of decades, start building your communities ASAP. Mutual funds, community gardens, canning and other food preservation. Unionize, coordinate, run for office if you think you can hack it.
Gaywallet@beehaw.org 2 days ago
I don’t know about you, but I find it increasingly difficult to find unbiased takes and find myself spending more time digging than I previously did. Because of this I find myself increasingly mislead about things, because the real truth might be so obscured that I need to find an actual academic to parse what information is out there and separate primary source from other mislead individuals.
Not to say I don’t disagree with your point, I think you make a fair one, but I do believe that the quantity of disinformation is absolutely relevant, especially in an age where not only anyone can share their misinformed belief online, but one where this can also happen by malicious actors as well as AI.
cygnus@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
That’s true, I was being too reductive with my comment. What you’re describing is the Steve Bannon “flood the zone with shit” strategy.