Partial truth is secret to successful propaganda

Partial truth is secret to successful propaganda

TL;DR Summary Testimonial from unknown (or “ordinary”) person in Belgium Half true, half logical fallacy. Works in part, on the basis of “What you see is all there is”. Belgium really does have “automatic wage indexation” that requires wages to be adjusted to the “retail price index” cost of living calculation. Belgium and Luxembourg are the only countries in Europe that have this policy. Thus, “This is the opposite of America” is true, but it is also true for Europe…

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“Click Bait” “fake news” operation employs 11 writers

“Click Bait” “fake news” operation employs 11 writers

These fake news sites are apparently more profitable than “real news” web sites. One of the websites that ended up on a widely-shared list of “fake news” purveyors is run out of a house in Seattle. Source: Seattle’s own ‘click-bait’ news site serves up red meat for liberals And employs 11 writers and makes tons of money. As we have been saying, for profit, social media-based, emotionally laden publishing has been around a long time and crosses the full political…

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Social media users tend to share news that confirms their beliefs, even if the news is false

Social media users tend to share news that confirms their beliefs, even if the news is false

If internet users are predisposed to believe false information that confirms their prejudices — and if they enthusiastically take part in spreading conspiracy theories — then falsehoods may be endemic to mass online communication platforms. This issue is more difficult for Facebook, whose algorithms rely heavily on a social signal that comes from what a user’s friends are sharing. If its users promote unreliable information — particularly if it is not easily categorised as “news” — it will spread rapidly….

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Breitbart, Occupy Democrats among list of alleged fake, news sites 

Breitbart, Occupy Democrats among list of alleged fake, news sites 

[Professor] Zimdars puts the news sites into four categories. Category one deals with sites that rely on “outrage culture”, using distorted headlines or misleading information. Category two are sites that “circulate misleading and/or potentially unreliable information.” Category three is for more click-bait type websites that still deliver questionable information. And category four deals with satires news site like The Onion. The satires sites are included into the list because Zimdars thinks they sometimes contribute to the cycle of misinformation. The list includes…

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Media and social media’s “outrage culture”

Media and social media’s “outrage culture”

We have a media system that loves to yell and scream. It is basically its default setting. Forget deliberation and civil discourse, it goes immediately to outrage and cynical condescension, or in other cases, relentless and unprovoked shaming. And we, as the consumers and residents of this culture, have come to confuse all this noise and reaction with action. Psychologists call this the narcotizing dysfunction—when the amount of effort and energy poured into something becomes self-soothing, obliterating any notions of…

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Social media publishing propaganda for profit

Social media publishing propaganda for profit

BuzzFeed News identified more than 100 pro-Trump websites being run from a single town in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Source: How Teens In The Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters With Fake News – BuzzFeed News As this blog has pointed out, fake news sites are prevalent across the political spectrum. They aim for the emotional response of their target audience – and generate revenue from click through advertising. The young Macedonians who run these sites say they don’t…

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Strawman argument: False quote asserts candidate is an idiot

Strawman argument: False quote asserts candidate is an idiot

Goal: Dr. Ben Carson is an idiot Method: Assertion, Strawman Argument: Fabricate a statement about your opponent and then use that fabrication to argue your opponent is an idiot. Scorecard: Over 36,000 shares within a month of this propaganda item posted online. Snopes.com notes the headline is fiction; Dr. Carson never said what is claimed. Here is the original headline: A political report claimed Dr. Ben Carson said he had no idea how gravity works but asserted climate change is a hoax….

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Social media sucks – pink and red iceberg photos are fakes

Social media sucks – pink and red iceberg photos are fakes

Studying geology is a hobby for me. I subscribe to some FB groups that feature items about geology. However, this post from Geology of the world and the Environment is fake. I fell for it and stupidly shared it into my timeline, tagging my youngest daughter, who is a geologist and microbiologist, seeking her input (she was out of town at the time so I did not get a reply). When I first saw it, I read up on “Watermelon…

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How can we know if the #Wikileaks emails are authentic?

How can we know if the #Wikileaks emails are authentic?

Many years ago, email spam and phishing attacks via email became a big problem. Most such attacks originate from email servers other than the one they pretend to be from. For example, you receive an email that purports to be from the IRS (irs.gov) but in reality, came from a server named irs.gov.uk, located in another country. To detect this, the industry adopted a method to detect fraudulent or altered emails using a concept somewhat like a “digital signature” stamped…

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