News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Perverse Downstream Consequences of Debunking. Parent comment

Re:Perverse Downstream Consequences of Debunking by legulere on Monday May 10, 2021 @03:06PM (#27109581)
For a democracy to work you need a basis of shared facts with opinions on top that need decision. In the later years we have seen a movement to erode this basis of democracy to make discussions on top of the basis of facts impossible and replace it with tribalist attacks against each other.

Preventing fake news and fact checking is not about attacking sound political opinions, but about making them possible.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Perverse Downstream Consequences of Debunking by h2odragon on Monday May 10, 2021 @03:58PM (#27110193)
I agree with you up to the point where "consensus" becomes a replacement for "verifiable fact", which is usually the next step in this chain.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Perverse Downstream Consequences of Debunking by legulere on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @02:32AM (#27114872)
There are also some things that need to be consensus without being fact-based, for instance that we want to live in a democracy.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Perverse Downstream Consequences of Debunking by h2odragon on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @03:00AM (#27115047)
Not everyone does want to live in a democracy. I may disagree with them, but I'd like them to have the same ability to discuss their ideas as I do. Including advocacy up to the point of civic disruption, if not necessarily violence.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Perverse Downstream Consequences of Debunking by dane-pgp on Monday May 10, 2021 @08:51PM (#27112856)
> For a democracy to work you need a basis of shared facts

This is an Achilles' Heel which is unfortunately now well known by the enemies of democracy. An article from last year[0] highlighted this quite well:

> The Kremlin specialises in offering alternative “narratives”: about who poisoned Sergei Skripal and Alexander Litvinenko, for example. The goal is to confuse the public and to spread the idea that the truth is unknowable. It’s a form of epistemological warfare.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2020/jul/12/covering-...

[ Parent | on HN ]