These disinformation researchers saw the coronavirus ‘infodemic’ coming

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/these-disinformation-researchers-saw-coronavirus-infodemic-coming-n1206911

So… we need curated debunking sites that we pay for? Are there such things already? Where are they? How do I find them?

«The early notion that users could be both producers and consumers of information has turned platforms into information landfills, where people are forced to sift through increasingly dangerous garbage in the search for real information.»

«”More people intentionally — because they want to mislead or due to their own confirmation biases — are picking and choosing information that is misleading and spreading information that may be leading us away from the best collective understanding of what’s going on.”

….
Conspiracy theories are powerful because, unlike science, they are uncomplicated and explain a chaotic world in a way that gives the believer a feeling of control.»


Ok, this is cool, after googling “curated debunking”: https://www.dw.com/en/fact-checking-a-curated-guide-to-resources-and-ideas/a-54509776

And, yes, I already knew about snopes, but it always seemed aimed at some particular piece of crazy chain email your Republican aunt forwarded you.

The real reason local newspapers are dying » Nieman Journalism Lab

https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/12/the-real-reason-local-newspapers-are-dying/

Ok, this is why I love Twitter (generally). Somebody will post something that’s either a link to an interesting article, or something that makes me go, “Oh, yeah?” and go look it up, and…

«HANTSCHEL: Newspaper editors and publishers hire all these people because of their incredibly advanced bullshit detectors and their question-asking skills. And then you somehow are confused and upset when they apply those to their own newsroom. I and my colleagues would sit in meetings and be like, well, why is the company doing this? And they’re like, well, you shouldn’t be asking questions. And that’s literally the only good thing about us. That’s the only thing we know how to do is ask annoying questions of people standing in front of podiums lying. That’s our entire lives.»

Tweet from Paul Maunders (@paulmaunders)

https://twitter.com/paulmaunders/status/1343143578147684357?s=20

The sausage of our laws.

Paul Maunders (@paulmaunders) Tweeted: I wonder how much of UK-EU trade deal has been copy & pasted from old 90s documents 🤔 p921 refers to Netscape Communicator 4.0 as a “modern e-mail software package” (it was last updated in 2002) and recommends SHA-1 as a hash algorithm (deprecated by NIST in 2011 as insecure) https://t.co/3yw1vutsfC

Tweet from The Mehdi Hasan Show (@MehdiHasanShow)

https://twitter.com/MehdiHasanShow/status/1342092894375727105?s=20

Shots fired, I guess.

The Mehdi Hasan Show (@MehdiHasanShow) Tweeted: .@RevDrBarber blasts white evangelicals’ obsession with abortion and homosexuality over Jesus’ Gospel lessons on helping the least among us: “If we were in the ancient world, we would have had a Nicaean council by now and declared white evangelicalism a form of heresy.” https://t.co/wj6gpX4u05

White evangelicals, don’t just condemn Christian nationalism. Own it.

https://religionnews.com/2020/12/14/white-evangelicals-dont-just-condemn-christian-nationalism-own-it/

«[Beth] Moore, David French, Michael Gerson and other evangelical writers have been wringing their hands for years about evangelicals and Trump. They have made a cottage industry of the “I’m shocked” genre of commentary. …

This performance of piety in the face of evil is empty, because it does not deal with the core issue: white evangelicalism’s own racism.»

On org-mode & usability

https://twitter.com/lproven/status/1341782989013995521?s=20

Actually, I don’t think truer words about org-mode have been spoken. (ftr, I’m an org-mode user.)

Liam Proven (@lproven) Tweeted: «@pdcawley I’ve tried, repeatedly, but it’s the user-interface equivalent of trying to learn to juggle using plutonium spheres.

I’m sure there’s some amazing editor functionality buried in there but you have to eat your way through a lot of 1970s HCI hate-crime to get to it.»

Tweet from Alexandra Erin the Meadow We Can Build a Snowman (@AlexandraErin)

https://twitter.com/AlexandraErin/status/1341741643737821186?s=20

Huh. I wonder if they teach THIS in 6th-grade civics. Along with systems to track what got folded into the consolidated bill.

Alexandra Erin the Meadow We Can Build a Snowman (@AlexandraErin) Tweeted: If you’re lost as to why the stimulus bill has a passage dealing with this, that, or the other thing, or why it’s thousands of pages long if it was just written at the last minute: it’s not a stimulus bill. It’s an a must-pass spending bill the stimulus was folded into.

Alexandra Erin the Meadow We Can Build a Snowman (@AlexandraErin) Tweeted: I just saw somebody asking how they call it a “consolidated” bill when it’s so long and this is the answer: it’s long *because* it’s consolidated. They consolidated a bunch of funding and other priorities into one giant bill.