News Stories Which Highlight the Structure of the System

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This story was really interesting, as well.

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbs

Fake news has escalated to an actual social problem.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Behold, my face of total surprise.

[P3nT4gR4m]

This story was really interesting, as well.

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbs

Fake news has escalated to an actual social problem.

Pretty sure this is an age-old problem. F'kin bible even had a "false witness" clause, although afaik it only applied to bears or something. I think now it's come to a head and the fact that people seem to be more aware of it and thus skeptical of their sources could actually be a net gain for society.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.nature.com/news/researchers-baffled-by-nationalist-surge-1.21110?WT.mc_id=SFB_NNEWS_1508_RHBox

Waves of nationalist sentiment are reshaping the politics of Western democracies in unexpected ways — carrying Donald Trump to a surprise victory last month in the US presidential election, and pushing the United Kingdom to vote in June to exit the European Union. And nationalist parties are rising in popularity across Europe.

Many economists see this political shift as a consequence of globalization and technological innovation over the past quarter of a century, which have eliminated many jobs in the West. And political scientists are tracing the influence of cultural tensions arising from immigration and from ethnic, racial and sexual diversity. But researchers are struggling to understand why these disparate forces have combined to drive an unpredictable brand of populist politics.

"We have to start worrying about the stability of our democracies," says Yascha Mounk, a political scientist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He notes that the long-running World Values Survey shows that people are increasingly disaffected with their governments — and more willing to support authoritarian leaders.

[Pergamos]

"people are increasingly disaffected with their governments — and more willing to support authoritarian leaders."

What a weird combination.  "Our governments are shit, let's try electing people that want to abuse their power!"

[The Good Reverend Roger]

"people are increasingly disaffected with their governments — and more willing to support authoritarian leaders."

What a weird combination.  "Our governments are shit, let's try electing people that want to abuse their power!"

"Our governments are functional.  we'll fix THAT."

[Junkenstein]

When times are bad you can generally count on people to pick an option that makes shit worse.

You know how stress makes you make bad decisions? This is basically the result of applying on a large scale to nation states. I'm expecting to see some terrible deals done and presented as great over the coming years.

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

When times are bad you can generally count on people to pick an option that makes shit worse.

You know how stress makes you make bad decisions? This is basically the result of applying on a large scale to nation states. I'm expecting to see some terrible deals done and presented as great over the coming years.

I agree. I've always maintained that panicking idiots are ultimately the biggest threat to freedom.

[P3nT4gR4m]

The mob has always been easy to lead by the nose. It's not rational argument that gets people elected it's image and rhetoric. If the guys with the good PR dept are cool guys then society wins if, on the other hand, some complete wankstain gets a hold of a weapons grade marketing machine then we have a clusterfuck. Protip - there are no good guys anymore, the wankstains sorted that out last century. 

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

The mob has always been easy to lead by the nose. It's not rational argument that gets people elected it's image and rhetoric. If the guys with the good PR dept are cool guys then society wins if, on the other hand, some complete wankstain gets a hold of a weapons grade marketing machine then we have a clusterfuck. Protip - there are no good guys anymore, the wankstains sorted that out last century. 

This highlights the failure of the educational system. There were never good guys. Good guys are a myth.

Before the current order we had things like (in no particular order) the scramble for africa, monarchies, the trail of tears, Fulgencio Batista, the conquest of canaan, medieval catholicism, protestants, the czars, the golden age of quackery, the golden age of piracy, slavery in america, slavery in europe, slavery in africa, slavery in rome, the list goes on and on

EDIT:
slavery in asia, ignorant abrahamic religious beliefs, ignorant eastern religious beliefs, ignorant african and native american religious beliefs, whaling, child labor, traditional chinese medicine, imperial japan, henry the 8th, andrew jackson, the people who lobbied to put the electoral college in the constitution, the people who lobbied to allow the slave trade in the constitution, the confederacy, king george the third, prohibitionists, slavery in ancient greece, aztec human sacrifice, roman emperors persecuting christians, roman emperors persecuting non-christians, Tiberius, the targeting of civilians in warfare, people profiteering off of the plague, fake fortune tellers, fraudulent claims to divinity by the pharaohs, circumcision, dickensian workhouses....

[P3nT4gR4m]

Point conceded. I grew up after all that shit. The myth of good guys still hung thick in the air.

[Junkenstein]

When times are bad you can generally count on people to pick an option that makes shit worse.

You know how stress makes you make bad decisions? This is basically the result of applying on a large scale to nation states. I'm expecting to see some terrible deals done and presented as great over the coming years.

I agree. I've always maintained that panicking idiots are ultimately the biggest threat to freedom.

No, people willing to take advantage of the bad times, whether real or imagined are the actual issue. Just look at your examples. Those at the top of the tree prosper at the expense of the masses.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Well, this explains a lot.

Let's say you receive a Facebook message from a friend with news that your favorite football team is moving to another state. He tells you he read it on a blog you know about. If you're an average 21st-century American, chances are you'll believe it, and you won't even bother to verify it.

When it comes to getting your news, that makes you a lot like a 17th-century Briton. In a paper in the Huntington Library Quarterly, UC Santa Barbara scholar Rachael Scarborough King explores the emergence of the news media nearly four centuries ago and the key role that manuscript newsletters — hand-written correspondence filled with third-party news and tidbits — played before printed newspapers dominated the scene.

http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2016/017497/news-evolution

[Junkenstein]

The tragic thing is that we live in an age where verification is often just a ctrl+c then ctrl+v. No respectable or even multiple sources for it? Almost certainly bullshit. Yet rt and random idiot blogs get quoted as reliable regularly. Just look at the recent rp fiasco. Half the time I just ignored the story in question  because the sources were less reliable than "guy in pub said...".

I've said it before but it bears repeating, this era will not be looked at favourably in future history books.we're smart enough to know better but choose not to bother.

[minuspace]

The news for me is like a weaponized vector of Takashi Miiake's Imprint.  Always fucking with my capacity to form positive expectations that do not reconfirm an otherwise total shitshow.  If I expose myself to it, for the sake of developing whatever fucking immunity to dealing with that "source", the result invariably reinforces my adherence to a world-view primarily informed by horror, instead of all the beauty that's ACTUALLY right fucking there.  It's fucking systemically pointless, a world where the center of narrative gravity is the specter of what could have been.  That's not news, it's not even fucking novel.  It's not even fake news, it's the endless recurrence of victimhood  A fucking curse through and through that people continue subjecting themselves to for only an effigy of sense.  It's like a long-form essay where we argue the reasoning FOR our extinction, because at least then, then we will have been right, once and for all finally satisfied, yes.  Behold, life at a pin's fee, very great, much good.
[this represents my one and only expression of weakness for 2017, which will otherwise be focussed on solutions instead of said recursive bitching which I hope to have somewhat cleared]