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https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.81b1067a6efc

‘Nothing on this page is real’: How lies become truth in online America

A new message popped onto Blair’s screen from a friend who helped with his website. “What viral insanity should we spread this morning?” the friend asked.

“The more extreme we become, the more people believe it,” Blair replied.

He had launched his new website on Facebook during the 2016 presidential campaign as a practical joke among friends — a political satire site started by Blair and a few other liberal bloggers who wanted to make fun of what they considered to be extremist ideas spreading throughout the far right. In the last two years on his page, America’s Last Line of Defense, Blair had made up stories about California instituting sharia, former president Bill Clinton becoming a serial killer, undocumented immigrants defacing Mount Rushmore, and former president Barack Obama dodging the Vietnam draft when he was 9. “Share if you’re outraged!” his posts often read, and thousands of people on Facebook had clicked “like” and then “share,” most of whom did not recognize his posts as satire. Instead, Blair’s page had become one of the most popular on Facebook among Trump-supporting conservatives over 55.

“Nothing on this page is real,” read one of the 14 disclaimers on Blair’s site, and yet in the America of 2018 his stories had become real, reinforcing people’s biases, spreading onto Macedonian and Russian fake news sites, amassing an audience of as many 6 million visitors each month who thought his posts were factual. What Blair had first conceived of as an elaborate joke was beginning to reveal something darker. “No matter how racist, how bigoted, how offensive, how obviously fake we get, people keep coming back,” Blair once wrote, on his own personal Facebook page. “Where is the edge? Is there ever a point where people realize they’re being fed garbage and decide to return to reality?”

 

*For Entertainment Purposes Only* (mainly mine...)

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"part of the problem".... Both can be true

https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.87f0f7ced981


 

Back in the day, parents/grandparents would tell their children/grandchildren that too much tv rots the brain.  We need to apply the same line of thinking to social media.  Only differences is, now we need to explain it to older generations who are supposed to be wiser.


https://www.theguardian.com/wo...uits-far-right-group

 There's a lot of grifters out here manipulating people for their own selfish wishes.  Then, they cut and run when held accountable for their actions.  By then, the damage is done, and the fire can't be easily extinguished.

 

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