An Interview With a Real 'Fake News' Source

[PureX]

You can even listen if you're too lazy to read it.

Report link, here.

He was amazed at how quickly fake news could spread and how easily people believe it. He wrote one fake story for NationalReport.net about how customers in Colorado marijuana shops were using food stamps to buy pot.

"What that turned into was a state representative in the House in Colorado proposing actual legislation to prevent people from using their food stamps to buy marijuana based on something that had just never happened," Coler says.

During the run-up to the presidential election, fake news really took off. "It was just anybody with a blog can get on there and find a big, huge Facebook group of kind of rabid Trump supporters just waiting to eat up this red meat that they're about to get served," Coler says. "It caused an explosion in the number of sites. I mean, my gosh, the number of just fake accounts on Facebook exploded during the Trump election."

Coler says his writers have tried to write fake news for liberals — but they just never take the bait.

He says stories like this work because they fit into existing right-wing conspiracy theories.


​

 

[sun rise]

Confirmation bias is very very hard to break.

 

[PureX]

This guy claims he and those like him are making several grand a week spewing out this stuff. And of course, the more "believable" it is, the more hits it gets, and so the more money he makes.

 

[Windwalker]

Coler says his writers have tried to write fake news for liberals — but they just never take the bait.

He says stories like this work because they fit into existing right-wing conspiracy theories.

Interesting observation.

 

[columbus]

Coler says his writers have tried to write fake news for liberals — but they just never take the bait.

Kinda reminds me of how Air America crashed and burned, while Rush remained God.
Tom

 

[Revoltingest]

You can even listen if you're too lazy to read it.

Report link, here.

He was amazed at how quickly fake news could spread and how easily people believe it. He wrote one fake story for NationalReport.net about how customers in Colorado marijuana shops were using food stamps to buy pot.

"What that turned into was a state representative in the House in Colorado proposing actual legislation to prevent people from using their food stamps to buy marijuana based on something that had just never happened," Coler says.

During the run-up to the presidential election, fake news really took off. "It was just anybody with a blog can get on there and find a big, huge Facebook group of kind of rabid Trump supporters just waiting to eat up this red meat that they're about to get served," Coler says. "It caused an explosion in the number of sites. I mean, my gosh, the number of just fake accounts on Facebook exploded during the Trump election."

Coler says his writers have tried to write fake news for liberals — but they just never take the bait.

He says stories like this work because they fit into existing right-wing conspiracy theories.


​

I've posted this article several times here on RF.
Note that the fake news author is a registered Democrat.
That's amusing.

 

[fantome profane]

And of course, the more "believable" it is, the more hits it gets, and so the more money he makes.

And the problem is that how “believable” something sounds depends on how much it confirms our existing biases.

 

[Milton Platt]

You can even listen if you're too lazy to read it.

Report link, here.

He was amazed at how quickly fake news could spread and how easily people believe it. He wrote one fake story for NationalReport.net about how customers in Colorado marijuana shops were using food stamps to buy pot.

"What that turned into was a state representative in the House in Colorado proposing actual legislation to prevent people from using their food stamps to buy marijuana based on something that had just never happened," Coler says.

During the run-up to the presidential election, fake news really took off. "It was just anybody with a blog can get on there and find a big, huge Facebook group of kind of rabid Trump supporters just waiting to eat up this red meat that they're about to get served," Coler says. "It caused an explosion in the number of sites. I mean, my gosh, the number of just fake accounts on Facebook exploded during the Trump election."

Coler says his writers have tried to write fake news for liberals — but they just never take the bait.

He says stories like this work because they fit into existing right-wing conspiracy theories.


​

Well, most of what you say is true. People are quick to pass along stories or memes that agree with what they want to think. But this is also true of the left. In that regard, both the right and the left...and everyone in between....are all guilty.

 

[PureX]

I've posted this article several times here on RF.
Note that the fake news author is a registered Democrat.
That's amusing.

So was his BS about doing to show the world how fake news spreads. Yeah right.

 

[PureX]

And the problem is that how “believable” something sounds depends on how much it confirms our existing biases.

Exactly. It's how this stuff works. Lies become a commodity.

 

[PureX]

Well, most of what you say is true. People are quick to pass along stories or memes that agree with what they want to think. But this is also true of the left. In that regard, both the right and the left...and everyone in between....are all guilty.

Except that according to someone who creates this stuff, the left does not tend to buy into it. So your point doesn't stand up in reality. Sure, this happens occasionally among left-leaning liberals, but not nearly to the extent that it does with the folks on the right.

 

[Milton Platt]

Except that according to someone who creates this stuff, the left does not tend to buy into it. So your point doesn't stand up in reality. Sure, this happens occasionally among left-leaning liberals, but not nearly to the extent that it does with the folks on the right.

I was only saying that it is not true that everyone who is left leaning is completely impervious to believing false things. The generalization does not stand up. I am definitely left leaning and I have believed false things before.

 

[PureX]

I was only saying that it is not true that everyone who is left leaning is completely impervious to believing false things. The generalization does not stand up. I am definitely left leaning and I have believed false things before.

But these exceptions still do not justify presuming that both groups fall prey to these lies with equal frequency or enthusiasm. Because they clearly do not. In fact, that is just one more lie that the right really wants to believe is true, and spreads ad nauseam every chance it gets.

 

[fantome profane]

I was only saying that it is not true that everyone who is left leaning is completely impervious to believing false things. The generalization does not stand up. I am definitely left leaning and I have believed false things before.

But these exceptions still do not justify presuming that both groups fall prey to these lies with equal frequency or enthusiasm. Because they clearly do not. In fact, that is just one more lie that the right really wants to believe is true, and spreads ad nauseam every chance it gets.

I think the left is generally more likely to admit that sometimes we get fooled, and that is the very reason we get fooled less.

 

[PureX]

I think the left is generally more likely to admit that sometimes we get fooled, and that is the very reason we get fooled less.

Why do you think this is so (if it is so).

I would normally assume that we humans reject being shown our errors with unilateral enthusiasm. But there very well could be some personality factor that defines the groups, that also tend toward quicker error acceptance in one group and not in another. It's an interesting question, I think.

 

[fantome profane]

Why do you think this is so (if it is so).

I would normally assume that we humans reject being shown our errors with unilateral enthusiasm. But there very well could be some personality factor that defines the groups, that also tend toward quicker error acceptance in one group and not in another. It's an interesting question, I think.

I just think it is part of the liberal ethic, the liberal worldview that makes it more likely to question even our own preconceptions.

I am not saying that it is easy for anyone. Nor am I saying Liberals are immune to confirmation bias. Ironically it is possible that I might be falling victim to my biases right now.

Yet my very willingness to consider that possibility it exactly the liberal ethic I am referring to.

 

[PureX]

I just think it is part of the liberal ethic, the liberal worldview that makes it more likely to question even our own preconceptions.

I am not saying that it is easy for anyone. Nor am I saying Liberals are immune to confirmation bias. Ironically it is possible that I might be falling victim to my biases right now.

Yet my very willingness to consider that possibility it exactly the liberal ethic I am referring to.

I do think that people who embrace the revelation of relativity would more easily accept the value and accuracy of the alternative perspective of others. So that if there is a correlation between philosophical relativism and modern sociopolitical 'liberalism' then it would stand to reason that liberals would more easily accept the varying perspectives of others, and thereby the possible inaccuracy or less accuracy of their own.