A Look At Cambridge Analytica

[Cosmik]

and, no, there is not monolithic 'progressive position' on these issues.

Of course there is. Just as there is a 'conservative' position on those issues.

Research shows that there is a link between, say, being a supporter of the death penalty and being a climate change 'denier'.

...throughout the Anglophone world there is a dangerous political polarisation around climate change. In one particularly disturbing US poll, attitudes to climate change were a better predictor of respondents’ political orientation than any other issue- including gun control, abortion and capital punishment. Denial of climate change is not just an opinion, it has become a dominant mark of people’s political identity.

Just as strongly, there is a monolithic 'progressive' position that correlates being pro gun control with being a climate change 'believer', even though those two things shouldn't, on the surface, have much to do with each other.

 

[Sal1950]

You misrepresent and mischaracterize those whose positions differ from your own. Mass dissemination of lies and propaganda is a problem, and, no, there is not monolithic 'progressive position' on these issues.

Your right, just look at the propaganda being spread by the lame stream media like NBC and CNN. Fools Gold!

 

[Frank Dernie]

I think freedom of speech is the most important freedom.
I am concerned that there has been a concerted, and to a surprising extent successful, effort to convince people that normal media, with its experience reporters, peer review and editorial control is fake and the unresearched views of kooky extremist sites are true more or less on the basis that if it seems more or less feasible to a few people who repeat it enough it becomes true.
It is just like the hifi sites now where completely unjustifiable bollox is mainstream and good sense has been largely abandoned.

 

[Thomas savage]

I think freedom of speech is the most important freedom.
I am concerned that there has been a concerted, and to a surprising extent successful, effort to convince people that normal media, with its experience reporters, peer review and editorial control is fake and the unresearched views of kooky extremist sites are true more or less on the basis that if it seems more or less feasible to a few people who repeat it enough it becomes true.
It is just like the hifi sites now where completely unjustifiable bollox is mainstream and good sense has been largely abandoned.

Everyone loves free speech until they hear people saying things they find distasteful.

Reporting speculation, conjecture as ‘news’ seems rife. Got to fill those 24 hours with something.

 

[Deleted member 65]

Of course there is. Just as there is a 'conservative' position on those issues.

Research shows that there is a link between, say, being a supporter of the death penalty and being a climate change 'denier'.

Just as strongly, there is a monolithic 'progressive' position that correlates being pro gun control with being a climate change 'believer', even though those two things shouldn't, on the surface, have much to do with each other.

View attachment 11647

Have difficulty comprehending your graph. Do I correctly understand it as follows:

Climate change is not happening

Gun control should not be implemented

Evolution is correctly described in the bible

Death penalty for parking violations

or have I failed in understanding it? ... ;-)

 

[Cosmik]

I think freedom of speech is the most important freedom.
I am concerned that there has been a concerted, and to a surprising extent successful, effort to convince people that normal media, with its experience reporters, peer review and editorial control is fake and the unresearched views of kooky extremist sites are true more or less on the basis that if it seems more or less feasible to a few people who repeat it enough it becomes true.
It is just like the hifi sites now where completely unjustifiable bollox is mainstream and good sense has been largely abandoned.

Could be, but I think that it just needs a single example where the mainstream media deliberately and consciously suppresses a major story that is then 'broken' by the non-mainstream sites. When that happens (and it has happened), people automatically begin to wonder what else is being suppressed, so I don't find it surprising that they start seeking out their own news from dubious sources. Before the internet, this could not have happened.

 

[FrantzM]

I think freedom of speech is the most important freedom.
I am concerned that there has been a concerted, and to a surprising extent successful, effort to convince people that normal media, with its experience reporters, peer review and editorial control is fake and the unresearched views of kooky extremist sites are true more or less on the basis that if it seems more or less feasible to a few people who repeat it enough it becomes true.
It is just like the hifi sites now where completely unjustifiable bollox is mainstream and good sense has been largely abandoned.

Hi

I share your opinion. People are getting to not trust the media especially in the USA. It suits a few well-heeled individuals but weakens the country as a whole. There is no alternative to a Free Press even one as imperfect as the American one.

For my part I believe that the current World order is at a crossroad: At the end it is a matter of profit, of greed. We would lke to believe in an ever expending profit machine. They/We are too often into exploiting the weak, weakening the middle and doing all possible to maximize financial gains at the expenses of social advances? For Profit Universities? Drug that cost so much that people get bankrupt just trying to get these? Millions of people fate dictated by the profit and greed of a few foreign commercial entities? Re-writing history to fit the profit narrative? We all are witnessing those. The Internet makes makes information available and the discussion and questioning possible, help people oppose however weak it seems to be some resistance which may well grow and force changes ( it has happened in the short history of the Internet) ... No wonder they want it closed down... The aste is out of the tube, there is no pushing it back: Things are changing and in ways many are not ready to accept...

 

[rebbiputzmaker]

I think freedom of speech is the most important freedom.
I am concerned that there has been a concerted, and to a surprising extent successful, effort to convince people that normal media, with its experience reporters, peer review and editorial control is fake and the unresearched views of kooky extremist sites are true more or less on the basis that if it seems more or less feasible to a few people who repeat it enough it becomes true.
It is just like the hifi sites now where completely unjustifiable bollox is mainstream and good sense has been largely abandoned.

Very well said. Although I think the subject is much more serious than Hi Fi. Our future is in the balance, not just who has the better dac.

 

[NorthSky]

The better DAC, the more power, the better control, the best manipulation, the better lies, the more money. ...The biggest rocket.

 

[Wombat]

70 years ago.

Don't be a sucker:

 

[Thomas savage]

Iv no problem with this thread but Iv delete some posts and issued A reply ban for member @NorthSky due to his inflammatory rhetoric that’s not in keeping with the temperature of the discussion.

Carry on

 

[Wombat]

Like Sid James and crew.

Taunton Moderacia. 200 miles from Cambridge.

Stop Taunton the Moderator, Wombat.

 

[Cosmik]

70 years ago.
Don't be a sucker:

Irony...

The process described in the video is happening today in plain sight. But perpetrated by the supposedly 'nice' people. People who think about these things want it to stop:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-identity-liberalism.html

 

[Thomas savage]

Like Sid James and crew.

Taunton Moderacia. 200 miles from Cambridge.

Stop Taunton the Moderator, Wombat.

Stop drinking it clearly dose not agree with you

 

[Fitzcaraldo215]

Your right, just look at the propaganda being spread by the lame stream media like NBC and CNN. Fools Gold!

Right, Fox, the largest TV news outlet, is soooo much better. Yeah, right.

But, really, anyone who relies solely on TV news, "indie" websites, newspaper headlines, radio talk shows, political ads, the word of this or any other President, etc. and looks no deeper deserves to be blissfully ignorant. Unfortunately, in the land of the free, they get to vote like everyone else.

 

[DonH56]

What is/are your news source(s)? Seriously -- with my work hours I'm doing good if I catch the evening news, listen to the radio to and from work, and a few times a week skim a few headlines. All of which you imply are no good. I doubt I am alone in having many time demands that preclude any sort of in-depth search for viable news sources.

 

[Frank Dernie]

This looked fair enough to me, based on the publications and web sites I have read. My view would maybe shift them a bit but I am prepared to believe that I am biased
The BBC seems well placed based on my friends opinions, in that the right wing friends I have believe the BBC is dangerously left and the left wing friends believe the opposite.

What I find regrettable, and I do blame this on the way stories are targeted on the internet, is how the "sides" are becoming more and more polarised and there seems to be little place for the middle ground, where I would prefer to be.
And that probably won't end well.

 

[Fitzcaraldo215]

What is/are your news source(s)? Seriously -- with my work hours I'm doing good if I catch the evening news, listen to the radio to and from work, and a few times a week skim a few headlines. All of which you imply are no good. I doubt I am alone in having many time demands that preclude any sort of in-depth search for viable news sources.

Not saying TV/radio news or headlines are "no good". Others said that.

I am saying, the truth in terms of what "facts" are selected, emphasized or summarized by those time and space constrained media may need deeper analysis in order to separate important fact or degree of credibility from opinion or bias. Sometimes the true facts are murkier or even impossible to establish beyond doubt. And, what have they left out? Sound bites or headlines may not take you there, provide a plausible basis or give you the desirable "grain of salt". Nor, do White House press briefings.

Me? I do regularly watch local TV news at 11PM, not national, except occasionally the very refreshing BBC America. I do listen to 5-minute radio news headlines, principally NPR, since I hate commercial radio and TV. Now, commercial advertising - talk about twisted and distorted facts. But, mainly, I read newspaper articles in depth as appropriate, merely scanning headlines in other cases, mainly in the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as OpEds and reader letters in both, since I have the luxury of time. My weekly newspaper bin for recycling weighs a ton.

I don't always like what those sources say or how they say it, especially OpEds or letters. And, some bias, part of human nature, is inevitable, even when selecting, summarizing and reporting actual, factual news. But, if anyone has any unretracted hard evidence they are just making stuff up, as in "fake news", I would dearly love to hear it. Absolutely none that I am aware of has been provided by "fake news" believers. No viable "alternative facts" have been provided, other than sweeping, unsubstantiated claims about media untrustworthiness.

 

[DonH56]

Not saying TV/radio news or headlines are "no good". Others said that.

This is what you said, sorry if I misconstrued:

But, really, anyone who relies solely on TV news, "indie" websites, newspaper headlines, radio talk shows, political ads, the word of this or any other President, etc. and looks no deeper deserves to be blissfully ignorant.

I am saying, the truth in terms of what "facts" are selected, emphasized or summarized by those time and space constrained media may need deeper analysis in order to separate important fact or degree of credibility from opinion or bias. Sometimes the true facts are murkier or even impossible to establish beyond doubt. And, what have they left out? Sound bites or headlines may not take you there, provide a plausible basis or give you the desirable "grain of salt". Nor, do White House press briefings.

Agreed.

Me? I do regularly watch local TV news at 11PM, not national, except occasionally the very refreshing BBC America. I do listen to 5-minute radio news headlines, principally NPR, since I hate commercial radio and TV. Now, commercial advertising - talk about twisted and distorted facts. But, mainly, I read newspaper articles in depth as appropriate, merely scanning headlines in other cases, mainly in the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as OpEds and reader letters in both, since I have the luxury of time. My weekly newspaper bin for recycling weighs a ton.

I don't always like what those sources say or how they say it, especially OpEds or letters. And, some bias, part of human nature, is inevitable, even when selecting, summarizing and reporting actual, factual news. But, if anyone has any unretracted hard evidence they are just making stuff up, as in "fake news", I would dearly love to hear it. Absolutely none that I am aware of has been provided by "fake news" believers. No viable "alternative facts" have been provided, other than sweeping, unsubstantiated claims about media untrustworthiness.

OK, thank you. There are all sorts of reports and counter reports on both sides about various details that are wrong on either side. I've no desire to try to find some, just not worth it, and you've undoubtedly read them all anyway. I think much of it is the way things are reported, the terms and words used, inflection, and all that jazz as well as terribly selective reporting (as you've already said).

Back to work - Don

 

[Thomas savage]

I often find it enlightening to consume some news from foreign news agencies, it’s intresting to see their take on issues.

Our domestic news services seem heavily coloured, like putting a tube pre amp in.. might make you feel all warm and fuzzy but may not turn out to be the most accurate representation of events