• GuyFawkes@midwest.social
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    3 days ago

    The biggest challenge with this is that those who will need to see the information will ignore it, or simply continue to disbelieve.

    • N0t_5ure@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      You’re exactly right. The effort proposed in the article overlooks the fact that people silo themselves into information bubbles via the media sources they choose, making the world today into a “choose your own reality” type of situation. The fox News or OAN viewer isn’t going to suddenly look to other sources, and even social media sources provide an echo chamber to most. Eventually, the fantasy worldviews will bump up against cold, hard reality, but by then most of the damage will be done.

  • bacon_pdp@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Look at the atheist vs creationist debates on YouTube. When it is a neutral playing field; (like it was in YouTube’s early days) truth wins. But in a shifted playing field where by appealing to people’s already existing (or easily radicalized) beliefs greater engagement occurs. (Like YouTube is doing now) The truth doesn’t stand a chance.

    So our only chance is if we can make a level playing field and encourage everyone (including those who we are fighting against) and then let the truth win by virtue of being true.

    And we have the problem that none of us is as cruel as all of us are.

      • rational_lib@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        the vast majority of people will always accept a pretty lie over an ugly truth

        I’d argue this is true temporarily.

        A lie is like putting something on a credit card. It can make things look better in the short term, but the debt builds. Maybe you can get lucky and win the lottery (or get a pandemic to use as an excuse) and pay off the debt temporarily, but keep following the same strategy and the debt will build again. And when the debt grows larger than what you can repay, and people figure this out, they start to get pissed.

        Maybe Trump can survive the current crisis in his popularity, but eventually he’s going to be no more popular that Pol Pot is today.

      • bacon_pdp@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        The only thing that keeps me safe is community and the fact that the community is able to bring sufficient firepower to keep bad actors away (for now at least) we only need to delay them long enough. The same applies to everyone; so build as large communities as possible and take care of everyone you can.

  • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    For the second year in a row, the WEF Global Risks Report ranks both misinformation (false or inaccurate information) and disinformation (intentional misinformation) as the the **number one short-term risk to humanity— even above extreme weather events, cyber attacks, and armed conflict.

    Well that’s an absolutely ridiculous degree of hyperbole. And I’m sure it’s linked to the push for intense censorship in the global west. This is just an attempt to manufacture consent for more crackdowns.

    Capitalism is the greatest global threat. We already have plenty of information on what is destroying the planet, killing the most people, etc. We still can’t change these things even when we know about them, because capitalism has total control of all the levers of power. Not to mention the capitalists are funding actual disinformation campaigns.

    What good is knowing the truth, if we’re forbidden from acting on it?

      • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Walk me through your thinking on that. You believe that the world governments, the greatest purveyors of disinformation and propaganda on the planet, are going to allow everyone to know the truth by outlawing disinformation? You really, truly believe this?

        • theparadox@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I’m not arguing specifically for governments to outlaw disinformation. I’m arguing that those who want to perpetuate capitalism use disinformation, quite effectively in the US, to ensure it is perpetuated. That absolutely includes those in government.

          If everyone thinks capitalism is the best option and that every other alternative ever conceived leads to a dictatorship or destitution/famine, then capitalism is here to stay.

          I’m in favor of combating disinformation and misinformation as a priority. I’m not at all opposed to starting with the topic capitalism.

          Edit: Also, this from very early in the linked article:

          What if we could fight misinformation not through isolated efforts, but with coordinated global action? Imagine a unified initiative bringing together forces from research, politics, and civil society — a true global collaboration. With that collective power, we could launch massive, targeted campaigns that make truth go viral.

          It’s not calling for government or laws. It’s calling for coordinated collective action.

          • yonderbarn@lazysoci.al
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            23 hours ago

            It’s calling for coordinated collective action.

            The “coordinated” part is what I have an issue with because who decides this coordination? Inevitably it will be the government, which means their agendas will flip widely depending on the party or the elected leader. It would be a chaotic mess going from one extreme to the other every four years or so.

            Also the pandemic was proof that even scientists were not immune to being persuaded by politics. They despised Trump and his claim that covid came from a lab yet they refused to investigate until Biden came into power because at that time the pandemic situation was improving and people weren’t paying attention. The CDC also eventually admitted that their vaccine boosters weren’t necessary for the 18-49 age group when the omicron variant was spreading. Fauci was also culpable at various moments during the pandemic.

            • theparadox@lemmy.world
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              21 hours ago

              who decides this coordination? Inevitably it will be the government

              Agree to disagree. I imagine that fhe government can attempt to influence it and if it does then… it’s back to the status quo, basically. Your claim about the pandemic would basically confirm that such is already happening.

          • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            So then who decides what is and isn’t disinformation? I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve seen governments claim that people were spreading disinformation, only for it to come out years later that the people pushing against propaganda were not wrong at all. Does Iraq’s WMD’s ring a bell?

            Calling for a global censorship authority is by far worse. So much worse. I don’t understand why you think that makes it better.

            • theparadox@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              I really don’t understand what is so hard to understand.

              So then who decides what is and isn’t disinformation?

              People who take part in collective action against the false information?

              I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve seen governments claim that people were spreading disinformation, only for it to come out years later that the people pushing against propaganda were not wrong at all. Does Iraq’s WMD’s ring a bell?

              …so you are saying that if a bunch of upset people around the world collectively organized the dismantling of the Iraq WMD propaganda, that would be… worse somehow?

              Calling for a global censorship authority is by far worse.

              Collective action is not a global authority any more than a union is a labor authority. I do not see this as a call for a UN Information Authority. I see this as a call for people, like you and me, to organize and coordinate effective campaigns against disinformation and misinformation. Normal people, or maybe people educated on the topic, acting collectively. Collective action. Like workers organizing a general strike, or activists organizing protests, but instead of not working or protesting in the streets the participants are coming up with and disseminating organized facts on the internet and anywhere else it might be deemed effective.

              Can you source any explicit mentions of government being recommended to handle this responsibility in the article or are you just reading it that way?

              • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                This is such a level of naivety, I gotta believe you’re just trolling. As if the majority position is not often wrong, or that peer pressure and mob mentality won’t take the reins. Or that a bot network won’t just rule over it.

                The best option we have is free speech, uncensored, with trusted institutions critically verifying positions.

                • theparadox@lemmy.world
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                  21 hours ago

                  As if the majority position is not often wrong, or that peer pressure and mob mentality won’t take the reins.

                  Is that not what literally happens and is happening right now?

                  Or that a bot network won’t just rule over it.

                  That’s also already happening right now. I’m not saying this article contains The Solution™. My entire original point was that capitalism is feeding disinformation en masse through every available channel to brainwash the masses into believing capitalism is the one and only system that won’t lead to disaster and that it the world would fall into ruin without it. How do you stop capitalism without breaking through the disinformation?

                  The best option we have is free speech, uncensored, with trusted institutions critically verifying positions.

                  Holy tap dancing Christ. That’s literally, literally what is being called for. The hope is to organize so that the criticism ends up being more than some scientist being talked over by a corporate thinktank employee on some “news” debate show.