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An interesting article on how susceptibility to fake news has its origin in Christian fundamentalism’s rejection of expert elites, i.e. evolution theory and a historical-critical analysis of the Bible.
I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on how this correlates to current political events, and from all sides of the fence. (Note: this would require actually reading the article, preferably with an open mind.)
"truthiness was the truth that “comes from the gut,” not from actual facts—“the truth we want to exist,” that feels right.
Truthiness is certainly an ancestor of fake news and alternative facts. And the way fake news tends to get better reception among conservatives than liberals, even by a two-to-one margin, has also been recognized. (When one fake news creator was interviewed, he explained, “We’ve tried to do similar things to liberals. It just has never worked, it never takes off. You’ll get debunked within the first two comments, and then the whole thing just kind of fizzles out.”) What is it about Republicans that seems to make them more credulous to fake news than Democrats?"
All I can say is ... C R A P. Biased. Unsupported. Garbage.
The problem is that Democrats - liberals in particular - would love it if this was indeed true. But, it is definitely NOT true. Alinsky 101.
One interesting point: He mentions that right-wingers are more susceptible:
"We've tried to do similar things to liberals. It just has never worked, it never takes off. You'll get debunked within the first two comments and then the whole thing just kind of fizzles out."
I think he overstates the case here. Liberals may be less gullible about fake news, but they are not immune. We all really need to be vigilant. As a liberal myself, I am especially annoyed when liberals re-post fake news that is designed to appeal to liberals. We all need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Don't share any story until you have made a sincere effort to check its validity.
The bottom line for the creators of fake news is money. They make more money posting fake news for right-wingers. There are probably numerous factors that contribute to this. I'd be curious to hear some thoughts about what these various factors might be.
BTW: If you would rather listen to the interview, rather than read the transcript, you can do so by clicking on the blue play-arrow in the upper left corner of the page. The radio report is 7:33 minutes long, and is very interesting. I highly recommend listening.
Last edited by Gaylenwoof; 02-27-2017 at 08:49 AM..
An interesting article on how susceptibility to fake news has its origin in Christian fundamentalism’s rejection of expert elites, i.e. evolution theory and a historical-critical analysis of the Bible.
I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on how this correlates to current political events, and from all sides of the fence. (Note: this would require actually reading the article, preferably with an open mind.)
That's not what the article says. Read it all the way and try again if you are so inclined.
I did read it. The article goes into a whole thing about evolution, Falwell, Christians hijacking the Republican party, etc.... which has nothing to do with the missteps of CNN, NYT, and so on.
Isn't that the point of the article, and especially the headline of the article - that the root of fake news is with Christians?
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