Conversation

Ha, was just thinking the exact same thing. You can "prove" just about anything to yourself with the Internet. Determining the reliability and relevance of sources and constantly checking the validity of your research is a Herculean, thankless task.

Quote Tweet

Rob Manuel

@robmanuel

Mar 4, 2019

The internet is the biggest confirmation bias machine ever invented. Whatever you neurotically fear, search and you'll find it, and keep searching and you'll come to believe it's the root of everything that's wrong.

Replying to

It's always been like that. Traditional news is a giant mill for cycling out propaganda, intelligence narratives & thinly-veiled corporate copy. Lotsa (most?) prominent scientists are traded assets. The internet is just democratizing deception (and self-deception) further.

Replying to

Sure, it's a scale/speed thing. The only way out is anchor sources of reliable information - trustworthy organisations or people. Which explains the concerted effort politically to undermine the very concept of trust. It's horrible to see it playing out in real time.

Cinder

@Triquetrea

Replying to

@gdeichen

No, I don't think we agree. I'm suggesting the entire idea of reliability, in the context of people, is suspect. Information is not impartial. It favors some interpretations over others. This incentivizes deception, and no org is trustworthy. Subversion is remarkably easy.

10:16 AM · Mar 4, 2019Twitter Web Client

Replying to

and

Look at all the supposedly neutral international treaties and organizations present today. Can you find any that aren't controlled by some external actor, or group thereof? And to think, this is just the visible tip.

Replying to

Sure, ultimately that's inevitable, but when it comes to trying to honestly form a personal understanding of what's actually going on in the world, what can the individual do but reach for a source of information that they trust?

Show replies