Fake news/alternative facts not new
Discussion
In recent years we have been talking of “fake news” and “alternative facts” but these are not new concepts. When I was growing up I was always puzzled how (the Christian) religion was presented as fact - or at least the possibility of it being nonsense was not discussed at school when we had assemblies and sang hymns.
A good chunk of Trump’s supporters (Biden’s too of course) will accept many more fantastical and unsupported “facts” than the obvious lies peddled by Trump and that applies to most conspiracy theories. Stuff like the Americans never landed on the moon or the US government were behind 911 are clearly bonkers but at least they are possible so whole orders of magnitude less silly than stuff accepted as true by believers. Importantly, most people with strong religious faith do so without any evidence supporting their position (and usually despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary).
If you can believe in angels and a literal heaven and hell then why not QAnon too?
A good chunk of Trump’s supporters (Biden’s too of course) will accept many more fantastical and unsupported “facts” than the obvious lies peddled by Trump and that applies to most conspiracy theories. Stuff like the Americans never landed on the moon or the US government were behind 911 are clearly bonkers but at least they are possible so whole orders of magnitude less silly than stuff accepted as true by believers. Importantly, most people with strong religious faith do so without any evidence supporting their position (and usually despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary).
If you can believe in angels and a literal heaven and hell then why not QAnon too?
Kind of. It's true that there has always been 'fake news'
But that isn't what Trump meant by fake news. Fake news was just everything he didn't like (even things he had said him self) that was being reported about him by news outlets he didn't like.
A lot of what Trump calls fake news is just 'news'.
'Fake news' really represents the view point that all ideas, opinions, positions, arguments and so on are equal. So if the media accurately reports an event, Trump says it's fake news and everyone who believes him feels that view point is legitimised.
It is why his current ranting about the election process is so dangerous, because no matter how much evidence you present people that the election was legitimate it can be brushed off as 'fake news'.
But that isn't what Trump meant by fake news. Fake news was just everything he didn't like (even things he had said him self) that was being reported about him by news outlets he didn't like.
A lot of what Trump calls fake news is just 'news'.
'Fake news' really represents the view point that all ideas, opinions, positions, arguments and so on are equal. So if the media accurately reports an event, Trump says it's fake news and everyone who believes him feels that view point is legitimised.
It is why his current ranting about the election process is so dangerous, because no matter how much evidence you present people that the election was legitimate it can be brushed off as 'fake news'.
gregs656 said:
Kind of. It's true that there has always been 'fake news'
But that isn't what Trump meant by fake news. Fake news was just everything he didn't like (even things he had said him self) that was being reported about him by news outlets he didn't like.
A lot of what Trump calls fake news is just 'news'.
'Fake news' really represents the view point that all ideas, opinions, positions, arguments and so on are equal. So if the media accurately reports an event, Trump says it's fake news and everyone who believes him feels that view point is legitimised.
It is why his current ranting about the election process is so dangerous, because no matter how much evidence you present people that the election was legitimate it can be brushed off as 'fake news'.
If the media mis-reports something and Trump says it's fake news the fact that Trump says it's fake news will flip it to non-fake-news for a lot of people.....But that isn't what Trump meant by fake news. Fake news was just everything he didn't like (even things he had said him self) that was being reported about him by news outlets he didn't like.
A lot of what Trump calls fake news is just 'news'.
'Fake news' really represents the view point that all ideas, opinions, positions, arguments and so on are equal. So if the media accurately reports an event, Trump says it's fake news and everyone who believes him feels that view point is legitimised.
It is why his current ranting about the election process is so dangerous, because no matter how much evidence you present people that the election was legitimate it can be brushed off as 'fake news'.
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