Post-truth society

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Originally Posted by Ozyhibby

Not all untruths are equal. Sturgeon got pulled up in the debate for saying that 75% of our energy was from renewables. This is not true, it’s only 75% of our electricity that comes from renewables. Transport and home heating have miles to go yet. So it’s an untruth but it’s not hard to imagine that Nicola Sturgeon maybe made a mistake here rather than deliberately mislead.
When Johnson says he’s going to build 40 hospitals it’s hard to see that as a bare faced lie when he can’t name them or tell us where.


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Yep, the severity and quantity of lies varies dramatically. I'd be interested to know where in the middle the bar lies - as it were - for the acceptability of lies. It seems to me that we aren't objective about this, we excuse the lies that come from the mouths we want to hear and we condone, justify or turn a blind eye to the ones that come from those we support.

Don't get me wrong - Johnson, Cummings and co are a serious step-up in high grade lying, manipulative chancers.

There will be no checks at the Irish Sea border is my favourite. It’s demonstrably untrue and has been proven so but he keeps saying it over and over. And he’s probably going to win so maybe it’s me that’s the fool.


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Originally Posted by Ozyhibby

There will be no checks at the Irish Sea border is my favourite. It’s demonstrably untrue and has been proven so but he keeps saying it over and over. And he’s probably going to win so maybe it’s me that’s the fool.


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Don't feel bad. I fell for 'once in a generation'...

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Originally Posted by One Day Soon

Don't feel bad. I fell for 'once in a generation'...

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Did you vote yes? How did it affect your vote?


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Originally Posted by One Day Soon

Don't feel bad. I fell for 'once in a generation'...

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Lots of people fell for "the only way to remain in the EU is to vote no to independence"

Are the SNP using it to their advantage, yes and I'd expect them to, but how anyone could claim it's not a material change is beyond my comprehension

How do bots on Twitter work when it comes to personal interaction?

I've been in a conversation with someone for the last hour and it all seems a bit odd. Only registered just before the election campaign, stock profile photo. Has no tweets of his own, every interaction is a reply to a reply if that makes sense and every like is an anti Labour tweet.

Do bots interact in real time or is it just a troll?

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Originally Posted by Pretty Boy

How do bots on Twitter work when it comes to personal interaction?

I've been in a conversation with someone for the last hour and it all seems a bit odd. Only registered just before the election campaign, stock profile photo. Has no tweets of his own, every interaction is a reply to a reply if that makes sense and every like is an anti Labour tweet.

Do bots interact in real time or is it just a troll?

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They can act in real time, not saying it's "Russian" but they have ones that are not exactly bots but are actual people who respond, there is evidence that during the US election they were using historic accounts that they change names etc to suit whatever subject(pro gun, immigration etc) and that they tried to set up demonstrations by people with opposing views to be in the same place at the same time to get maximum carnage and discourse

I'd take everything I read online these days with a huge pinch of salt

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Originally Posted by Mon Dieu4

Lots of people fell for "the only way to remain in the EU is to vote no to independence"

Are the SNP using it to their advantage, yes and I'd expect them to, but how anyone could claim it's not a material change is beyond my comprehension

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It's amazing how often this has to be stated to the "once in a generation" camp.

I dug up this thread, as i think it’s got worse over the last few months, with numerous claims by politicians in particular going unchecked by journalists - even things like the Dominic Cummings lockdown rule breaking, basically it went away because the prime minister started repeating that people weren’t bothered about it.

We’ve seen the government openly lie about testing figures, deaths, actions they’ve taken and decisions that were made etc.

Somebody in an earlier post mentioned Boris' claim that there would be 'no border checks in the Irish Sea'.

Guess what, Boris lied


Maybe we could now have a regular vote for 'whopper of the week'.

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Originally Posted by matty_f

I dug up this thread, as i think it’s got worse over the last few months, with numerous claims by politicians in particular going unchecked by journalists - even things like the Dominic Cummings lockdown rule breaking, basically it went away because the prime minister started repeating that people weren’t bothered about it.

We’ve seen the government openly lie about testing figures, deaths, actions they’ve taken and decisions that were made etc.

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I'll only be surprised now if they contradict themselves within a single sentence.

So
"We started lockdown on 23rd March."
"We started lockdown on 16th March."
- expected, normal.

But
"We started lockdown on 23rd March and on 16th March."
- contender for whopper of the week

It's really worrying, and it seems like they're realising that no matter how much they lie there's no effective way of calling them out in it. People who can see through the lies never supported them anyway and people who support them don't care about the lies. So they carry on and the lies get more and more outrageous.

Don't get me wrong, there's always been spin and lies in politics but it's really getting quite sinister now. I think a lot of populists have learned from Trump that lying can be really effective, it shifts the news agenda to whichever squirrel he happens to be pointing at on any given day, and the real stories miss out on proper scrutiny.