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From Breitbart:
Another day, another very fake news story from the network President Donald Trump has identified as "very fake news."
CNN's Thomas Frank on Thursday evening published what would have been considered an explosive report if remotely true: One anonymous source told him both the Treasury Department and Senate Intelligence Committee are probing a Russian investment fund with ties to several senior finance world leaders close to President Trump. Only problem? Both Trump administration officials and those close to Senate GOP leadership say it's simply untrue.
The retraction from CNN:
On June 22, 2017, CNN.com published a story connecting Anthony Scaramucci with investigations into the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
That story did not meet CNN's editorial standards and has been retracted. Links to the story have been disabled. CNN apologizes to Mr. Scaramucci.
According to BuzzFeed News, CNN has responded by actually requiring executives to review stories:
CNN is imposing strict new publishing restrictions for online articles involving Russia after the network deleted a story and then issued a retraction late Friday, according to an internal email obtained by BuzzFeed News.
The email went out at 11:21 a.m. on Saturday from Rich Barbieri, the CNNMoney executive editor, saying "No one should publish any content involving Russia without coming to me and Jason," a CNN vice president.
At least now we'll know who to blame.
[Ed Note: I debated leaving this in politics or dropping it to the main page. I opted for the latter because politics or not, the prevalence of "fake news" is one that we deal with on a daily basis from our respective social media feeds to all the major broadcast and cable news networks. How are we to tell what is "fake" and what is actually (relatively) "true"? The main stream media all put their spin on everything. A right slant for some, a left slant for others. Is the truth somewhere in between, or is it a story that we aren't getting becasue the mainstream media is so intent on telling their narrative that we the people are getting the shit end of the stick regardless of where we get the so called news?]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @03:22PM (30 children)
Alt-Right entryism has effectively killed this site. It was supposed to continue the traditions of Slashdot (which has itself become mainly a forum for arguments between 'libtards' and 'wingnuts') by providing somewhere nerdy and geeky to discuss tech-related news, instead it is just become an affiliate of /pol/. Sad!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Sulla on Tuesday June 27 2017, @03:31PM (10 children)
Then submit more articles that are not politics related. If Soylent is not what you want, that is your fault. Of all of the options of places you could have gone, you chose here.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @03:40PM (3 children)
The mods don't have duty to post any old shit that gets submitted, though. The problem is that all this partisan politics stuff just puts people off the site, why bother trying to fight the tide here instead of looking for an alternative elsewhere. It isn't even about 'challenging views' because the base level of political discussion here is idiotic regardless of which tribe the commenters support - that's the real problem, the shitty political 'discourse' makes visiting the site a chore that isn't worth it anymore.
You say to submit other stories, but they just get hijacked by the same arguments and posters. Everything is turned political, and it isn't even nuanced politics just pure tribal aggression. As every other part of the internet seems to have devolved to the same standard then I think its just better to cut my losses and quit the site.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @04:15PM (1 child)
Trump trump trump trumpitty trump trump trump!
He's keeping his promises, why you triggered bro?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @04:27PM
Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 27 2017, @08:05PM
This is off-base. I submit a lot of articles to SN (2556, according to the Hall of Fame [soylentnews.org]). 95% of them are tech/science related. The other 5% are 'techonomics'/social science.
Some of them are substantive and excite nerdy discussion, but those don't come along often. Most articles cover incremental changes or findings or improvements. Many of them are composed by university/laboratory/institute press departments who nearly always try to sex things up. It's the way the world is.
Some of them are silly, and are submitted because they're silly and we can all have a nerdy chuckle.
If you're not happy with the selection and volume of tech/sci articles on the site, then submit some and/or suggest more sources beyond the usual like phys.org or arstechnica. If you don't like articles about politics, then switch them off in your account preferences. You can do that here.
What is not appreciated in a community-driven site like this, which has given you these options to improve your and our experience, is to complain and stamp your feet that the rest of us volunteers are not doing a good enough job to meet your high standards.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Tuesday June 27 2017, @05:08PM (5 children)
It's almost impossible to escape now that paid trolls are stirring shit all over the internet.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @07:03PM (1 child)
I too agree that Trump is doing gods work. If only the damned heathen liberals would see their evil ways.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 27 2017, @08:15PM
I make no apology for being evil. Also, I may or may not be blind, you insensitive clod.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Sulla on Wednesday June 28 2017, @04:18AM (2 children)
I know, I can't believe how much Trump is paying for 'correct the record' and 'shareblue' to spread fake news all over the internet, interrupt topics that are unrelated to push his agenda, and generally shit up the place.
Oh wait...
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @08:32AM
I'm still waiting! I am sure that TMB could be bought for a couple thou, or some really good crappie fishing. Sad thing, if he had held out, he coulda got hisself some bass. Pretty sure of it.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Wednesday June 28 2017, @04:04PM
It's really interesting to watch the progression. There used to be an army of guys making comments about OBUMMER! random places all over the internet. It wasn't clear if these guys were paid or not but I know they would argue bullshit with you all day until you suggested they were a paid troll and now that particular brand of shitposting has morphed and evolved to the more sophisticated shit we see today.
This is what people were afraid the gutenberg press would do.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday June 27 2017, @03:38PM (6 children)
The consequence of going into politics..
Which there are already a lot of sites doing just that and the level of discussion is aligned with that. Therefore it's a good idea to stay focused on nerd topics which political forums usually are horribly clueless about. And only let political stuff in when it directly affects the nerd stuff.
Politics tend too often be like arguing that another person has the wrong taste for colors or food. And self interests added on top of that. That is even without taking into account inability to grasp issues. It usually ends with he said, she said, he said, she said.. which is extremely unproductive.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 27 2017, @08:19PM (5 children)
sadly it's a sign of the times. if we had something exciting going on like the space race then we could all reliably talk about rockets and orbital mechanics all the time. instead we have systemic failure that rather undermines all productive scientific and technological undertakings.
i would much rather see a discourse develop that explores ways for tech/sci to disintermediate the systems of control that are bedeviling all of us, as some out in the world do, but it hasn't happened (yet).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday June 27 2017, @08:22PM (4 children)
By "systems of control" do you mean government and corporations control over individuals?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 27 2017, @10:29PM (3 children)
Yes, such that it goes beyond simple exchange to control and exploitation.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday June 28 2017, @02:34AM (2 children)
There are some obvious means by which societal control is exercised:
* School
* Employer management style
* Media and every drone that regurgitate them
* Bank loans
* Inflation
* Taxes
* Eavesdropped infrastructure
If you read a book or get a great idea. There's no tax code for that. Think about that! ;-)
Anyway this is why homeschooling, economical off-grid, self employed etc. Is frowned upon. The big step is to think for yourself and ensure you are right and not letting others cloud your mind with doubt. Then you have all these people that parrots what they themselves heard but not spent any thinking on which will try to interfere with you in all kinds of ways. Too many because it's the right way (why?), because everybody else (so?), can't imagine (I can!) etc.
Employees and school control people very tight because by controlling employees time and money they get to decide what economic standard employees get to have, where they have to live (near work), where to spend time (with crap people), and what they will do during the day. The corporate culture gets to decide what people shall think.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday June 28 2017, @02:01PM (1 child)
That's well put.
The biggest challenge is not the physical mechanisms you listed, but the social constructs that surround them and the expectations they set. Wresting our world view away from the control of others is difficult because it goes against the deep socialization humans are hard-wired to do. "What's right?" "What's wrong?" "Well, what does everybody else think?" Isn't that how we know?
It is possible to wean ourselves off of those deleterious memes. First and foremost is practicing critical thinking. Never accept someone's say-so. Examine what we are told and what we see. It's hard to do at first, because it takes effort, but it is a lot like a muscle that gets stronger with use. With time we begin to see subterfuge and self-dealing that was invisible to us before, and we can act with clearer understanding.
Second is abandoning the sensation of intellectual comfort. If somebody is agreeing with us too much, it's because they want something and are manipulating us. There should always be a tension, even between people who largely agree; it's the only way to keep everyone honest.
Third is changing how we behave and what we devote our productive time to. You ticked off three of them, homeschooling, economic off-grid, self-employment, etc. In every way we can we should strive to be masters of our own fates and not subsume the best of ourselves to others. Controlling the patterns, the rules, by which we move throughout our days is the fundamental way in which the evil people of the world control and oppress the good (through corporate policy, fiscal management, etc); Good people are generally more interested in the red meat of honest work and real accomplishment to focus on the tedium and arcana of tax law (for example), so perhaps the best way is to not play their game at trying to game those rules, but to walk away at a right-angle as you have suggested. It was never possible for the people of East Germany to fix their system by working within it to reform its ground rules, but by literally walking away. That totalitarian police state, that prison, which was so intricately engineered to oppress its people, and which had stood unchallenged for decades, fell apart in a fortnight when the people simply voted with their feet. All of us have to do something equally simple and equally dramatic. Else, nothing changes, and nothing will ever get better.
The thing I would hope we can accomplish at SN is to extend that visceral comprehension of systems of control we know from open source vs. walled gardens, to the rest of society, because as much as systemd can subvert freedom in the OS, so do similar contructs of law and centralized control subvert freedom in the society in which we all live and work. I hope that we could take that same passion we can call upon for issues like systemd and use it to re-write the software of society, too. And who better? The entire world, every aspect of it, runs on technology and through technologists like us, so if we should resolve to change the society that runs on our systems we'd have a pretty darn good chance of seeing it happen. At least, it's a better way to spend our time than writing another talking cat app.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday June 28 2017, @02:45PM
Replace "What's right?" "What's wrong?" with what are the consequences of the various choices. Most people are idiots. Following them can result in intelligent person behaving like an idiot.
Never accept someone's say-so is part of it. Critically thinking about ones own assumptions and thinking is perhaps even more important. There's usually a lot of crud there that may limit really free thinking right there.
If there's intellectual comfort, it usually means your are in safe space that has very little relation to realities. People can agree without wanting something or manipulating. It takes some experience and intellectual capability to get the difference. I don't think tension is a necessity. It's when deciding out of the presence of tension instead of facts the thinking goes awry.
Re-writing society is usually not resource efficient. Feet voting is. It can be as simple as starting a club etc just to have a space that is uncluttered, provided the screening is appropriate. The problem with most societies is people so to enable those that want to be free of the limitations of their peers is to enable new social networks. Sometimes that has to be physical like moving elsewhere but not always.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @03:38PM (8 children)
If I wanted people to confirm my biases, I would go to another site. There are plenty of them these days. And, I do from time to time. I come here in part to find out what people that disagree have to say in each others presence. I do not appreciate people trying to make every public person and site conform to their own biases. But, then again, I prefer to self improvement over delusions of righteousness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @03:48PM (7 children)
That is idiotic. If I want to confirm by biases I'll go to particular sites, if I want to challenge them I will (and do) go to other ones. What I hate is that the whole internet is becoming an echo chamber for the same witless 'political' discussions that are essentially tribalism. I seriously doubt anyone has their opinions changed by anyone spouting the latest talking points and standard insults. Reasoned debate, in its correct place, would be great. What we have is deliberate attempts to subvert discussions and entire sites to try to normalize particular viewpoints. As I said at the start, there are plenty of places online to talk uninformed, opinionated crap about politics and society, but we are losing places where civil discussion can be had about other topics without the need to drag partisan politics into it. Go and look at some of the older (2000-2003ish) discussions on Slashdot and you'll see that the signal-to-noise ratio has completely flipped - pretty much everything is noise these days.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Tuesday June 27 2017, @04:21PM (4 children)
What I hate is anonymous cowards whining about the membership breakdown of a community.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @08:52PM
Yeah! I agree! What Tangofoxtrot said!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @06:41AM (2 children)
Paradoxically, I think anonymity is the purest definition of community. It is the complete removal of individual identity, with people left only to see a communal flow of discussion.
And personally I think people having their views praised or condemned on the merit of their views alone, as opposed to whom is holding said views, is the way society can make progress. Especially today when people are so quick to label one another (and themselves). People so often decide what to think based not on what is being said, but who is saying it. Anonymity removes this bias.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday June 28 2017, @02:46PM
A good point. But a lot of the AC comments are people just coming here to insult us/the site, not offer any valued dialog.
But then again, I could point fingers at certain registered users around here whose only purpose in posting seems to be to insult other registered users...
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @03:44PM
Conversely, there are times when the messenger is the message.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @04:23PM
No THAT is stupid AND idiotic you nose in the air elitist asshole. If I want a political echo chamber I'll just go to one of the many sites that exist. The real problem is that we let inbred invertebrates on to the net and now we're suffering the co sequences. If I want to reinforce my own world view I'll just pop down to the local church and see ask about the whole climate change thing. Bad actors are subverting our way of life, idiots who only want to spew their ignorance argue shitty points and post shit from breitbart. How about a more respectable tabloid for once? Heil Randler!! Free markets and competition because I Am Very Smart!
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Tuesday June 27 2017, @06:33PM
And, yet, here we are having this conversation.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @03:50PM (1 child)
I don't subscribe to the politics section. I suggest you do the same.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @10:47PM
And? This was NOT in the Politics section, you insensitive clod!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @04:05PM
The Alt-Right is killing the Internet. They've filled it with noisy nonsense and hatred. Years ago I met a very intelligent but paranoid Yugoslavian who refused to use the Internet. I thought it was just because he'd grown up in a dictatorship. He was about 20 years ahead of us.