Re:Donald Trump Won Because of Facebook
by gragas on Friday November 11, 2016 @02:24PM
(#12933511)
I think he won indirectly because of Facebook. The real powers behind the meme magic on Facebook were /pol/ and /r/The_Donald. This is evidenced by the amazing growth rate of /r/The_Donald and the huge traffic to and support from /pol/.
And I don't think misinformation won Donald the presidency. The main theme pushed by the two forums I mentioned was that Hillary and the DNC were extremely corrupt. Every new WikiLeaks release was scoured by /pol/; there were daily /cfg/ (Clinton Foundation general) threads on /pol/ in which tons of anons investigated the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and then made memes and organized social media movements about their findings.
It wasn't misinformation that won Donald he presidency, it was the organized effort of people trying to expose corruption. Whether the corruption was over-exaggerated is another story.
Re:Donald Trump Won Because of Facebook
by maxfurman on Friday November 11, 2016 @03:29PM
(#12934028)
On the Left, we used to make fun of Republicans for living in the Fox News bubble (Jon Stewart memorably dubbed it "Bullshit Mountain"), and how easily they were fooled by the constant stream of fake scandals (Death Panels! ACORN!). But this time we fell into our own bubble, hard. I'm sure conservatives in this thread will say we were in one the whole time, and maybe they're right. This election isn't Facebook's fault as much as humans' desire to believe what they want to believe.
Re:Donald Trump Won Because of Facebook
by cheald on Friday November 11, 2016 @04:05PM
(#12934327)
> This election isn't Facebook's fault as much as humans' desire to believe what they want to believe.
I like to say that humans are very efficient bias confirmation machines.
Of course, I may now just be saying this because your comment confirms my bias that humans are bias confirmation machines.
Objectivity - true objectivity - is incredibly hard, and most people are deluding themselves if they think they're anything approximating objective (and I count myself in that number!), IMO. I want to believe that I'm objective, but my observation that just about nobody else seems to be very objective suggests that I'm not, either.
And I don't think misinformation won Donald the presidency. The main theme pushed by the two forums I mentioned was that Hillary and the DNC were extremely corrupt. Every new WikiLeaks release was scoured by /pol/; there were daily /cfg/ (Clinton Foundation general) threads on /pol/ in which tons of anons investigated the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and then made memes and organized social media movements about their findings.
It wasn't misinformation that won Donald he presidency, it was the organized effort of people trying to expose corruption. Whether the corruption was over-exaggerated is another story.
/r/The_Donald is much more public oriented
I like to say that humans are very efficient bias confirmation machines.
Of course, I may now just be saying this because your comment confirms my bias that humans are bias confirmation machines.
Objectivity - true objectivity - is incredibly hard, and most people are deluding themselves if they think they're anything approximating objective (and I count myself in that number!), IMO. I want to believe that I'm objective, but my observation that just about nobody else seems to be very objective suggests that I'm not, either.
I agree wholeheartedly.