Tuesday, January 3, 2017

This Is What It’s Like to Read Fake News For Two Weeks

OMG, the convergence of violent TV and video games lashed with pseudo-elitism and pseudo- intellectualism and decades of humans pissing their psych meds into the water supply...

Must Read!
I lived Michael Flynn Jr.'s media diet so you wouldn’t have to.


By Simon van Zuylen-Wood Politico
A few weeks ago, perplexed by the persistence of fake news, I attempted to think like someone I wasn’t. On December 13, I created a dummy Twitter account. More of a clone, actually. I chose to emulate Michael Flynn Jr., the 33-year-old son of President-elect Trump’s choice to be national security adviser. Flynn Jr. was also one of the most prominent believers in the invented “Pizzagate” scandal that had prompted an armed man to fire shots inside a D.C. pizzeria in hopes of breaking up a child sex ring that didn’t exist. My working theory was that you can learn a lot about a fake news adherent from the company he keeps—especially on social media, where it’s possible to create bespoke echo chambers.
In the days after the election, fake news—the vast majority of which demonized Hillary Clinton or manufactured good press for her opponent—had become the fixation of the mainstream media. Watchdogs published lists of websites to disbelieve. Facebook pledged to vet bogus information; gullible readers would be educated by cigarette pack-style warnings. And yet there was no perceptible decrease in the quantity of fact-free fare being peddled by enterprising young internet trolls, from California to the Balkan states—“Trump Offering Free One-Way Tickets to Africa & Mexico for Those Who Wanna Leave America" was a particularly popular one.