On 24/05/2016 07:30 PM, Patrick Elliott wrote:

> Yeah... Well, they need to stop doing that. This is why like 90% of the
> US trusts altie med people as much/more than actual experts, and at
> least half show low trust in what seems to come out of the mouths of
> scientists - an endless stream of freaking "journalists" putting out
> "better copy", by exaggerating claims, claiming things they imagined
> might be true, if they sort of squint a bit at what was described to
> them, or just flat out making shit up, based on some mish mash of what
> they are supposed to be reporting, and the last sci-fi TV show or movie
> they saw, which might have been vaguely related to the topic of the
> research.

Part of me wants to say "woah, sloooow down there, guy!"

And part of me keeps thinking about all the stuff I've seen on Facebook, 
where 10 seconds of Google immediately tells you that *actually* this 
thing is a known hoax. And yet everybody on my friends list is copying 
this stuff around. And if you point out that it's fake, you become "that 
guy". You know the one.

"Well I was only *trying* to warn people. You don't have to be so *mean* 
about it!"

As if I'm a Bad Person for pointing out that the misinformation you're 
uncritically spreading around is objectively wrong and possibly even 
harmful.

Lately, I keep seeing a lot of those image campaigns where it's a 
picture of some politician you've never heard of, and some text that 
says something like

"This is Labour MP John Smith. He earns £500,000 a year, but claimed 
£300,000 in tax payers' money to finance his second home, where his 
daughter lives. But he also voted to take away disability benefits from 
poor helpless handicapped people. WHAT SCUM!"

Of course, the question remains... did Labour MP John Smith actually do 
any of these things? Is that actually his picture? Does he even *exist*? 
WILL ANYBODY READING THIS BOTHER TO CHECK?!

Do you see what I'm saying here?

So on the one hand, part of me wants to tell Patrick to calm down dude. 
On the other hand... slightly scary times.

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