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Re:Information overload helps fake news spread by paulz_ on Thursday November 19, 2020 @03:54PM (#25154229)
Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame wrote about this experience calling it "Gell-Mann Amnesia."

>“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.” – Michael Crichton

I've noticed I have this sort of meta Gell-Mann effect where every time I think of that annecdote the news seems much more dubious. Then a short while later I go back to not thinking about it and reading the news as I otherwise would.

Re:Information overload helps fake news spread by jasonv on Thursday November 19, 2020 @03:57PM (#25154259)
Reading HN though, every assertion from someone who knows something can become a thread of dispute, disagreements and "yeah, but" digressions.

So, maybe, who knows anything..

Re:Information overload helps fake news spread by onecommentman on Thursday November 19, 2020 @04:10PM (#25154389)
“Who knows anything” sounds dangerously close to nihilism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism

The problem is nihilists never produce anything of lasting value. Or of any value. It seems to be the posture of those who feel like failures, and justify that perceived failure to themselves by telling themselves that nothing is worth anything.

Perhaps others hold that position too. It seems like a dead end in a lot of ways...

Re:Information overload helps fake news spread by klmadfejno on Thursday November 19, 2020 @04:27PM (#25154582)
A lot of Nihlism is about recognizing that even if everything is without intrinsic meaning and arbitrary subjectivity, that you can assert yourself to a meaningful life in spite of it all. I find that a compelling argument personally.
Re:Information overload helps fake news spread by daniellarusso on Thursday November 19, 2020 @07:05PM (#25155948)
Sounds exhausting.
Re:Information overload helps fake news spread by sjg007 on Friday November 20, 2020 @10:07AM (#25161104)
The same is true for Hacker News comments!