Donald Trump

[Widespread Gang Violence]

Never consciously though. Never ever consciously. I've mentioned this before, but at LSE, I'd sit in seminars arguing about five different cases at the same time. None of that was for attention; it's what academics tend to do. Fortunately, friends of mine found it endearing, and were laughing with me, not at me. Um, I think.

Imagine if Twitter, Facebook, message boards etc had been around in the past. If they had, I bet there'd have been constant contradiction, constant apparent hypocrisy, from leaders, politicians, thinkers and Joe Bloggs all the time. Now, with anything someone's ever said put so under the microscope*, it's becoming increasingly impossible: and with so much pride taken in being part of a 'team', any apparent hypocrisy disillusions the public. "Politicians, they're all the same. Say one thing, do another. They're only in it for themselves".

Which in some cases, is indeed true - but nowhere near as many as the public's started to believe. And when the public starts to believe it, it wants to throw the whole lot of 'em out and start again, regardless of the consequences. It's scary. I'm at the stage now where I think if Facebook and Twitter don't find some miraculous way to control what's spread on those platforms, democracy won't be able to recover.

*Not that I can complain about that, given the Lawssier.

What the fuck Don't know where to begin.

[Zizou]

Fake news on social media is becoming a big issue

https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/...lang=en-gb

I should know, I was victim to it much to everyones delight on here :lairdvoldemort:

[PHOODLE-OUt]

I refuse to believe people get their news from Facebook and believe ANY of those memes that get posted

[Zizou]

It's a fact people get their news from Facebook. I'm not on there but I saw legit journalists sharing at least two of those memes. Is that one about Trump so hard to believe?

[PHOODLE-OUt]

I naively thought that everyone in this day and age knows that those quote memes are all made up

Get your point about how it can be hard when it comes to trump tbf

[shaun.lawson]

I refuse to believe people get their news from Facebook and believe ANY of those memes that get posted

I recommend Zeynep Tufecki on Twitter. I know we don't like experts any longer, but she's a true expert on these things. She thinks Facebook swung the election - and she's right.

[King WillDred of Orange]

^^^

Bookmarked for 9months time and your opinion is the reverse of this

[shaun.lawson]

[Fire Doinks]

Fake news on social media is becoming a big issue

https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/...lang=en-gb

I should know, I was victim to it much to everyones delight on here  :lairdvoldemort:

I saw something, can't remember if it was off here or facebook, which was a headline on how Sanders could still become the president. Once you click on it, the article is all about the fact that people only read the headlines and never the content.

I think this has always been true of people, and largely explains why tabloids like The Sun are the best selling papers because people don't really want to understand an issue, they just want to reinforce the position they already hold. In the age of twitter and facebook a lot of this headline liking and sharing stuff, to me, is nothing but wishful thinking and virtue signaling where a headline represents a position someone wishes to express their support for and nothing more than that.


I've seen a lot of talk (not specifically on here, just generally) of how we're in a post-knowledge age and that this somehow explains why people voted for Brexit and Trump, but the other side are just as guilty of this. Who were the ones that massively relied upon supposedly expertly sourced data, that turned out to be badly wrong on voting day? I think the smug idiots who throw around polls that back their existing position are just as foolish as someone willing to believe every campaign promise. These people have no gut feeling, no instinct for which way the wind is blowing because they put all their faith in others they consider to be more informed than themselves, that's just as bad as the "Send 'em all back" tabloid headline readers.

[Fire Doinks]

I refuse to believe people get their news from Facebook and believe ANY of those memes that get posted

I'd say most people around my age or younger get all their news from facebook and twitter, maybe the metro if they're on the bus.

[Giza Brek]

I'm a BBC news app man myself.

[PHOODLE-OUt]

Only news outlet that I don't take with a pinch of salt is C4 tbh.

[shaun.lawson]

I saw something, can't remember if it was off here or facebook, which was a headline on how Sanders could still become the president. Once you click on it, the article is all about the fact that people only read the headlines and never the content.

I think this has always been true of people, and largely explains why tabloids like The Sun are the best selling papers because people don't really want to understand an issue, they just want to reinforce the position they already hold. In the age of twitter and facebook a lot of this headline liking and sharing stuff, to me, is nothing but wishful thinking and virtue signaling where a headline represents a position someone wishes to express their support for and nothing more than that.


I've seen a lot of talk (not specifically on here, just generally) of how we're in a post-knowledge age and that this somehow explains why people voted for Brexit and Trump, but the other side are just as guilty of this. Who were the ones that massively relied upon supposedly expertly sourced data, that turned out to be badly wrong on voting day? I think the smug idiots who throw around polls that back their existing position are just as foolish as someone willing to believe every campaign promise. These people have no gut feeling, no instinct for which way the wind is blowing because they put all their faith in others they consider to be more informed than themselves, that's just as bad as the "Send 'em all back" tabloid headline readers.

Good post. As well as social media eroding public discourse more and more, we also have polls: which dominate campaign after campaign. Instead of discussing the issues, we get discussion on who's up, who's down, and everything stems from that. It's appalling - not least given that polls aren't predictions, but mere snapshots in time; and they're way more random than is commonly thought too.

[Widespread Gang Violence]

Should probably get rid of the fridge magnet that I got in NYC in June, now that I think about it.

[Fire Doinks]

One bit in that video I found funny - Our survey shows that only 10% of people answer surveys. Would be interested to see the source for that, did they get that figure based on the answers of respondents or just look through a bunch of surveys and looked at the return rate.

This is the new meme that's been trotted out since the 2015 GE over here, but only just penetrating the US now on places like CNN. Polls are no less reliable now than they ever used to be, the problem is people placing all their faith in the polls and loudly talking about how significant changes in them are. That's what needs to be fixed. Everyone knew the rust belt was in play at this US election, hubris and complacency fucked the Clinton campaign.

For years the Tories exploited the Ashcroft polls to produce targeted local campaigns, they are arguably one of the reasons for David Cameron's electoral success. The difference with the Tories and the Ashcroft polls was that they weren't used as a confidence boost so the party could rest on their laurels but to enable a more effective distribution of resources and target constituencies.

Polls aren't bad for democracy, party loyalists who expect voters to be as partizan as them are though.

[Roger H. Sterling]

I naively thought that everyone in this day and age knows that those quote memes are all made up

Get your point about how it can be hard when it comes to trump tbf

I was just as naive tbh. Because I can read an article and then verify its source I assumed that most could. But they can't, won't, or just don't care enough to. Dank hit it there that it's more about reinforcing your own opinions. If you see a fake news story that holds your view you don't care if it's real you just read the headline and move on with your day.

I'm of the opinion that Donald Trump was 100% meme'd into the White House.

/r/The_Donald is a fascinating read and actually one of the more informed and impartial (amongst all the hyperbole) sources of information I've seen. It's a real cross section of legitimate Trump voters who are happy to express their reasons for it, and a shit load of wee digital anarchists who voted as a big fuck you to mum and dad. Really interesting. It's just a lot of backslapping and Nelson-level "haha"'s now, but in the run up to the election they were making legitimate impacts with meme's and fake smear campaigns. I've no doubt that a 300,000-strong internet group could have an influence on an election in which the vast majority get their news from social media.

[Edson Arantes 2Nascimento]

The man is on a roll.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016...CMP=twt_gu

[PHOODLE-OUt]

Sad to see more central government undermining of local councils

[Mr A]

Loss of citizenship

[Fire Doinks]