Monday 9 March 2020

Fake-Fake News is usually 'True' News

A double-negative is not the same as a positive - but the result may be a close approximation; or essentially very similar.

So, when the Establishment (i.e. 'Them' = governments, large corporations and institutions, or the mass media) label something as 'fake news' - and when these organisations are all themselves essentially fake and fundamentally dishonest - then we have the phoneomenon of Fake-Fake News.

Fake-Fake News =  
Accusation of Fake News, from a Fake source

How should we regard Fake-Fake news? - When a major global/ powerful/ wealthy/ influential entity starkly announces that X Is Fake (and, implicitly, therefore needs to be suppressed)?

We should, I suggest, regard it as - if not exactly 'true', because truth is seldom/ never known (especially not by these groups) - something this group believes to be essentially correct or to contain an important but unwanted fact.

In sum:

Fake-Fake News = Some-thing They believe to be true. 

11 comments:

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

I don't think that's a good rule of thumb at all. No one, not even Satan himself, finds it useful to literally lie all the time, like a Cretan in a paradox. Much (some unknowable percentage) of what the Establishment says is in fact true, and much that they say is false is in fact false. The best strategy is not to invert whatever they say but to *ignore* it.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Wm - You've perfomed a reduction on what I said - which is not that 'everything they say is a lie'. I'm saying that - here and now (not necessarily in the past nor in other places) when there is a specific campaign to label by the mass media and officialdom to shut-down discourse because it is 'fake-news', then that means that *They* (the one's doing the shutting down) believe it is really true, or comtains important truths. I'd say this began with Global Warming, and also in relation to the safety of vaccines.

When extra-ordinary efforts are taken to label an hypothesis as fake, my presumption is that it must contain considerable validity.

But now, as the system becomes more coercively totalitarian, it is spreading.

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

They target something as "fake news" because it is inexpedient (from their point of view) for it to be widely believed. The question of whether it happens to be true or not simply doesn't enter into the equation.

Take for example the question of whether the ongoing birdemic is "weaponized" -- whether it is a naturally occurring corvid species, or whether someone has (deliberately or inedvertantly) let slip the daws of war. I think it's safe to say that speculation and conspiracy theories to that effect are inevitable -- that any time an unusual-seeming disaster strikes, some people will say it was done on purpose. Whether the Establishment would prefer to encourage or suppress such conspiracy theories is entirely a question of expediency, orthogonal to truth. I don't think we can safely assume that it's always in their interest for people to believe false conspiracy theories and reject true ones.

Personally, I tend toward the assumption that these are in fact ordinary jackdaws, not hackdaws, because -- well, why would anyone design such a lame-ass weapon when we have anthrax? But really who knows? I do not consider Establishment propaganda to be valid evidence one way or the other.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Wm - 'Conspiracy theory' is another - recently massively amplified - example of the same strategy as Fake News. *They* have limited capcities, and cannot squash all the many inexpedient ideas that arise - and the choice of which ones to land hard on, is the point of interest.

And, as I said in the relevant post - there are solid genetic reasons to assume that the jackdaw has been weaponised, including from both high-status official sources (but suddenly withdrawn!); and private non-official, trusted sources. But I wasn't sure about this, didn't think this was necessarily significant - until the attempt to eliminate this POV from public discourse.

As usual with conspiracy theories and genuinely fake news - I can't tell you what did happen; but I know a few things about it that do Not fit with any of the (evolving) official explanations.

So it can confidently be stated that the official story is *certainly not* true, and more plausible alternative hypotheses can be constructed - but I cannot be sure what Is true.

So, contrary to your imputation, I have never said believe that Fake New is true for that reason merely - but it greatly increases the chance that an otherwise reasonable but unsure theory is actually true when it is being loudly and aggresively labelled fake news or a conspiracy theory.

(Which is itself an example of projection - since the accusers are themselves almost-invariably thsoe engaged in dishonest conspiracies and manufacturing genuinely fake news! - i.e. everybody in a leadership position in a major social institution.)

There is a resilience, persuasiveness, and explanatory power to accurate accounts of reality - which makes it dangerous for Them to leave it alone.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Wm - Related to the above, the *main* conspiracy to suppress fake-fake news seems to be to conceal the race of those who have been actually *killed* by jackdaws. There are nearly always race differentials in susceptibility to birdemics of any type; so this is *extremely* relevant and important.

Early evidence suggested a strong differentially greater susceptibility to die from jackdaw attack among racially Chinese. This may explain the 'hot spots' of mortality, and why other places have *very* low mortality - as the evidence is being concealed, I don't know. But I suspect.

The UK government has form on this. Back in the 1980s the UK govt suppressed that the Only people in the nation who got 'heterosexual AIDS' were recent arrivals from Africa (and, I think, almost entirely in and around London). This only came-out some years later.

This was to sustain the strategic lie that Anyone can get AIDS and Everybody is at risk. For reasons of political correctness, obviously; and this was acknowledged among those responsible for the lie.

We are now about forty years further down the line of habitual, strategic lying and manipulation of information. What is really going with the jackdaw plague on is impossible to know. But we can know For Sure what is Not going-on: which is The Official Story.

Bruce Charlton said...

"This may explain the 'hot spots' of mortality" - I mean, obviously, controlled for age and medical condition; old age and other medical problems are always important risk factors in determining mortality from birdemics - and indeed social class and intelligence and very probably trait conscientiousness (which overlap) usually is too.

Ingemar said...

The most important fruit of the Corvid hysteria:

"You WILL kneel at the foot of Dagon. You WILL pass your infants through the fire of Molech. You WILL offer a pinch of incense to Caesar!"

David Earle said...

I feel like memes (image macros) came along at the perfect time. They neutralize spells and reveal the Truth, just like true and honest comedy is able to do.

It's been pretty clear to me over the past few years that the forces of Evil are no match for a well crafted meme which is able to immediately connect with our consciousness and neutralize fear.

There is a lot of online panic and hysteria, but I must say I'm seeing a lot more jokes and memes being made about COVID-19 and the surrounding "conspiracies" which is a very useful spiritual relief and I imagine has to be fueling a massive pushback against Fear. I see it happening every day.

If one of the greatest threats is Fear itself, and if memes serve as a powerful antidote to Fear, then it might just be one of our greatest weapons right now. Perhaps a divine gift from God to help us fight this spiritual and cultural battle.

Bruce Charlton said...

@islanti - No - that's no answer at all. 'Memes' are just a marginal part of the mainstream mass media, and are no answer to anything substantive. We must be looking *way* deeper than that - at our fundamental assumptions.

David Earle said...

Thanks. I will wholeheartingly take your word for it.

Do you think quarantines are something the establishment prefers or wants to avoid? For example, the Italy quarantine--do you think it is more likely to be extended or cut short?

I ask because I am in Canada and I'm sure a provincial quarantine is inevitable, and I typically spend my summers in my home province. I am trying to decide if I should head there early since I rather be stuck in my home province for the summer rather than where I am for work.

Bruce Charlton said...

No idea - but I do predict that the powers that are currently being grabbed and used will not be handed-back any time soon. We are in a new era.