On Fake News
Ramblings of a Cynic
Published in
2 min readApr 15, 2020
On Falseness
- The “trueness” or “falseness” of a piece of news (or any proposition) lives in the mind of the consuming person.
- The “trueness” or “falseness” of a piece of news within a group is the collective “trueness” or “falseness” that live within the minds of the consumers that people the group.
- Beyond the simplest propositions (E.g. “2 + 2 = 4”) there are few “absolutely provable” truths. The “bar for probability” is constantly rising (Especially with DeepFakes).
On Fact-checking
- Fact-checking is the process of establishing a piece of news as true or false.
- For simple propositions, fact-checking is a process of connecting the proposition with absolute truths.
- For complex propositions, fact-checking is a process of convincing people that the proposition is true or false.
- Almost all pieces of news are collections complex propositions.
On Influencers
- An influencer is someone who controls the “trueness” and “falseness” that lives within peoples minds.
- An independent thinker is someone who is not influenced by influences.
- Fact-checking could either influence or encourage independent thought. One is easier than the other.
- “Independent thought” requires deep thought. “Being influenced” requires shallow or no thought.
On Social Networks
- A solitary individual is (by definition) an independent thinker. She/he cannot be influenced, because there is no other to influence.
- Influencers thrive on large social networks, with shallow interactions. The more extensive the social network, the more influence, the less independent thought.
On Fake News
- Fake news is news that you believe to be false.
- Belief in fake-news necessarily requires a belief in true-news. One cannot exist without the other.
On Free Thought
- A “free-thinker” is one with no beliefs.
- A free-thinker is necessarily an independent thinker. She/he is not controlled by the beliefs of others (influences)
- For a free-thinker, there is no fake or true news.
