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A comment on Terry Pratchett warns Bill Gates about fake news (1995). Parent comment

Re:Terry Pratchett warns Bill Gates about fake news (1995) by kingkawn on Thursday May 30, 2019 @12:17PM (#20052733)
I am grateful to the internet for exposing how deeply our social consensus was dependent on a particular culture and ruling class owning the means of disseminating information, ie newspapers and tv channels. With the means to distribute ideas more openly available there has come both a broader range of views across the population and a noticeable weakening of the ruling class’s ability to direct public attention and belief toward strategic conclusions.
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Re:Terry Pratchett warns Bill Gates about fake news (1995) by fzeroracer on Thursday May 30, 2019 @01:36PM (#20053790)
This hasn't changed at all, only that the way the ruling classes exert influence. One just needs to look at Facebook to understand how the field has changed and I would argue for the objective worse.

The so-called broadening of ideas isnt the result of giving a voice to the voiceless, but strategically decrying science and research in the pursuit of profits. This is the heart of the argument against climate change and has resulted in a noticable weakening of science as a basis for truth and rationale.

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Re:Terry Pratchett warns Bill Gates about fake news (1995) by kingkawn on Thursday May 30, 2019 @01:38PM (#20053829)
Science institutionally wed itself so completely to the previous ruling social structure that it is natural that it would be undermined as collateral damage in the battle for cultural influence.
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Re:Terry Pratchett warns Bill Gates about fake news (1995) by CM30 on Thursday May 30, 2019 @12:42PM (#20053081)
Agreed. There are tons of important stories that only came out because the internet democratised the media and let independent voices get heard, and it's brought just as many reliable sources as it has fake news sites.

That's not always been a good thing sure, but it's at least shown the world that no, not everything was 'fine' and that the political and social systems in play now have failed a lot of people.

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Re:Terry Pratchett warns Bill Gates about fake news (1995) by justinmchase on Thursday May 30, 2019 @12:27PM (#20052852)
That's a great way of putting it, thanks for that non-ruling class view.
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