The fake of my feed
Fake News is the abbreviated form for sensationalist posts and memes, created to do some harm and shared by naive or too lazy people to search for the source.
Some are very well made, with sensationalism contained, titles and images carefully planned to look like the profile of some big news agency, even having fake sources in the description (since they know that not even 1% of the people will take the trouble to check). Others are so fake that it burns the eyes, with images and aggressive titles, mixing incompetence with speech of hate and capital letters.
Recently I came across a post with “source” of Ibope in which Bolsonaro (Brazilian prezidential) is elected in the first round with more than 80% of the votes, shortly after I found one about Haddad (the oppositor), in which he said that “the children belong to the State and that the state decides whether they are boys or girls. “ You do not have to be too smart to know that none of this is true.
There are also true stories that seem fake, currently most come from the speeches of General Mourão (vice prezidential in Bolsonaro’s coalition), daydreams that mix “I live on an island far from Brazil” with “Dictatorship Already”. Which just makes it even harder to separate things.
I could spend my fingers on the keyboard to explain how to recognize a fake news, but I will not bother to work. The BBC has already made a great video on the subject.
What’s bothering the Fake News is not the naive or the lazy, who shares on impulse any nonsense he gets, but the one who does it for convenience. You should already be visualizing in your mind the profile of someone like that.
A big fan of a politician’s, either the one who is in jail or the one who is free but should be in jail, it does not matter, the internet is full of apple polish, from all sides of the electoral contest. The rule is not to report Fake News, but to fight Fake News with Fake News.
I have seen someone alert to a false report, willingly and very well measuring the words, receiving as an answer: “And you think I did not know it was fake? kkkkkk The face is mine and I put whatever I want!”. In another case (the example of Haddad’s false speech I described above), I commented in the post that it was probably fake, since I did not find any source. I still asked if there was at least one link and all I got back as a response was “I hope it’s fake anyway”. No, the person did not bother to argue, check, correct or delete the post.
It’s what they call intellectual dishonesty, when people close their eyes to the lies that are convenient for them, avoiding responsibility for not having created the post (and hence the importance of also blaming those who share).
The saddest thing is that people believe they are doing good with that kind of attitude. In the best style, “ends justify the means,” they see themselves as heroes of the nation, protecting ignorant people who do not know how to vote, closing their eyes to the mistakes of their own candidates and exposing beyond truth the mistakes of their opponents.
In what universe, close your eyes to the mistakes of your own candidates it’s a good idea?
The fever for protecting itself from the detested adversary takes away all rationality from the arguments surrounding the childish discussions to the criminal defamation and cover-up. How can a candidate’s election become soccer? (how can soccer become soccer?) What passion is this that moves politics, capable of turning any criminal or fascist into a hero of the nation? Maybe more than that, your personal hero?
Lula is not your childhood friend you played with hopscotch on the street. Bolsonaro was not the first love of your life (you can not disimagine this). Ciro did not pass the cheat on to you in college, Marina did not teach you to read and write…
Probably not even a childhood friend of Lula or Bolsonaro’s first love, are capable of defending, without a doubt, any of them. Why could you?
Politicians exist to be thoroughly scrutinized, and not loved.
