I had a whole thing written out today… but it’s taken a sharp turn… and I ended up pulling the plug on the latter half of it. It might not surprise you to learn that I have a lot to say about all sorts of topics, and sometimes my personal opinion perhaps clouds my judgement… or let’s just call it objectivity. I have a pretty clear idea of what I think is right, but that’s never stopped me from trying to put myself in someone else’s shoes, to see how things look from their point of view. Everyone has their story, as incongruent as it might be, so let’s hear it. I might learn something from it.
I’m going to get a little technical for a moment. There are two techie things to understand: A Virtual Machine and a VPN. Feel free to skip the next two paragraphs if you know what those things are.
A Virtual Machine is basically a computer running inside a computer. A host computer runs the virtual machine, and the virtual machine (and everything running in it) thinks it’s running as a stand-alone computer. For example, this is being written on a Mac, my primary computer (and host computer). But off in the corner, at the moment, I have a tiny VM… running, of all things, Windows XP. I need to do this because I have some hardware that needs controlling and for which there’s no current software; the old stuff runs fine, so rather than having a whole computer dedicated to it, I have this 20-year-old operating system running inside a VM that makes it look like 20-year-old hardware. That operating system thinks it’s running on a computer with a Pentium 4 chip, 512 megs of RAM and a 5GB hard drive. Minuscule numbers for today, but they work just fine for the purpose.
A common use for a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is to establish a location different than where you actually are. Typically, VPNs are used to grant access securely to some remote resource, but people quickly figured out a convenient by-product… that often, those VPNs are based elsewhere. From there sprung-up a whole industry for people trying to bypass local controls. For the most part, a website can only tell where you physically are from the IP address you’re using. It’s a big no-no in some places in the world to connect to a VPN… like everywhere that the government controls access to the internet, because many VPNs allow you to select the location you want… be it a country, state or even city. Around here, people mostly use VPNs to watch US-based Netflix. When you connect to a VPN, you can “be” anywhere in the world that you want.
So a while back, I created a completely clean VM — like a brand-new installed operating system. I then set that VM to always connect through a VPN, in what we would all call a very red state. Serious MAGA country. Then I signed up for a new fake email address and then, Facebook. That FB profile had a fake name and fake credentials… no pictures of me… just many of American flags, Donald Trump, etc.
The intent here was research. I had no intent on engaging with anyone. I just started “Liking” lots of different groups, friending lots of American patriots, to see what my feed would look like. What would show up, and, more importantly, what “news” would show up? I just wanted to see what this world looks like from a very different lens… and you’d be surprised… slick and professional. Totally believable… so much so, a few times I had to go back and check other news sources to compare. What actually did happen today?
Near the end of the experiment, I made the mistake of engaging, because I was getting frustrated at all the crap I was seeing, and the same non-questioning, non-critical-thinking RaRaRa MagaTrump etc… there was such misinformation being posted that it begged asking… so I sent this blurb to a few people:
“I am curious about something — are you propagating misinformation on purpose? Are you just blindly copying/pasting information because it aligns with what you hope is reality? I apologize in advance if this comes off as a personal attack; it’s not meant to be. I’m just noticing a lot of people taking information that can’t possibly be correct and reposting it because it agrees with their version of reality, as warped as it might be. What you posted — do you know it’s bullshit? Do you not expect to get called on it? I’m genuinely curious.”
The result was what you’d expect, but far worse. It became impossible to manage.
I ended up shutting it down. I closed the FB account, closed the email, dragged the VM to the Trash. The whole fake identity no longer exists. Unfortunately, the reality with which that identity briefly interacted — it’s all still there.
I am desperate to see real change in the word, but I am incredibly discouraged by what I experienced. There is a whole block of population that simply can not understand, doesn’t want to understand, is unwilling to understand… it doesn’t matter how you word it. There are people who will post something so outrageous that it’s literally impossible for it to be true, yet they will defend it to the death. There is no logic that can be applied to convince them otherwise, because they don’t want to be convinced. They have their truth. So if you can’t convince someone who seems intelligent and educated… that their COVID-19 numbers, claiming a death-rate that would require the US population to be 15 billion people — are bullshit, how far do you think you’re going to get with more subtle, reasonable arguments… be it the pandemic, politics, racism, whatever. Their minds are made up, and nothing will ever change them.
As per the first sentence of this post… I’m cutting it here. My intent here is not to insult people, just inform… be it facts, or simply my opinion.
I talked recently about it being a steep uphill, but this looks like a vertical rock face. I do have my ideas, and perhaps I’ll eventually get around to sharing them… but honestly, at this point, I’m open to suggestions. It has to start with education… but how?
Very encouraged by Quebec’s numbers the past few days. And Ontario’s too.
Now we’re talking! I’ll be in my study if anyone needs me…..
This is also why I post nothing of substance. This thing is about entertainment. My last post was about Doritos.
I don’t need to convince people of much. Everyone is always right all the time in their own mind. It’s a waste of time.
However, if you don’t care for Cool Ranch, let me “unpack” this for you……
What you described Horatio is the leveraging of social media by persons and entities with an agenda to create generations of people who will seek and approve of an authoritarian state. It consumed one of my parents, who started talking about ‘Hitlery’ and ‘Killery’ 4 years ago and who wholeheartedly endorsed the narrative of removing ALL Muslims from the United States. That parent got ALL their information from FB.
There was an article in The Atlantic a couple months back (link below) that tried the same experiment you did. Same result. And same shock on the part of the author.
This article is required reading for every concerned citizen on the planet. We are sharing a world with a disinformation apparatus that is huge, sophisticated, dedicated, stealth and ruthless. It is terrifying.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/the-2020-disinformation-war/605530/?fbclid=IwAR1v_BhVUQbN5e44BXxrHUlSRN2lCWb32XJnMoqygomkXvz-2F3QF03AV-A
The only solution is to completely dismantle the apparatus root and branch, right down to the very last microns. Smash it into dust. If it tries to come back, smash that into dust too.
Disinformation is the real plague in America. It must be eradicated. And never be allowed to resurface. Ever.
The HK Daily Report (2.5min read)
Have also dipped my fingers in there. Have also seen how convincing it is, and found myself thinking… if I was in that environment I almost certainly would change my mind. All I can think of is… my education. I read the damn books, listened carefully to experts, travelled the world, went deep spiritually (and religiously as well). My mind and heart have gone through multiple “before I was blind, but now I see” moments, and included in that are my precious months studying statistics for third year psychology. There is hope, there is a way to spread and share ideas that help and don’t hurt. There is such a thing as higher ethics and more sophisticated understanding. Just going to keep on doing what I’m doing, step by step, according to my ability and conscience. ???? And maybe even go “back in there” and stir things up.
What a great read. I really believe what an old friend always used to say” you can’t help stupid !’
Humans . . . the colorful quilt that blankets the earth. Each square very different but linked together by the thread. Eventually the quilt gets old and some of the threads break and the quilt becomes many pieces. I look at these pieces as humans in one group or another, good or bad it doesn’t matter. Be it a pandemic, race or anything else it’s what creates these groups of people. My hope is that one day (maybe not in my lifetime) that the pieces of the quilt get sewn back together. And no I didn’t read this on FB.
First of all, great numbers. I’m really glad to see that Quebec may finally be getting their situation under control. As for your experiment, I have an extremely diverse group of friends and interests and I probably see a wider cross section of posts than many people do. This same type of response occurs, dishearteningly, across every spectrum I can think of. Political. Religious. Ethnic. Socio-economic. You name it. There are a relatively small number of people in the middle trying to stay rational and calm and a whole lot of others at the far ends whipping everybody into a frenzy and attacking all the people in the middle. Right now the best thing to do is just scroll through. You will never win if you respond and I’ve seen people get doxxed, which is pretty scary.
You have a brilliant way of saying what I feel but could never put into words.
I’ve been watching this shit happen for 30 years just steadily getting worse. People often ask me why I’m generally pessimistic about the state of things and the forces of change, and it’s because I’ve looked at more crap like this than they have. It isn’t some external influencer either, those guys just take advantage of what is already there. What is there always has been, it is just unmasked by the online environment.
Horatio – the only way to explain the fanaticism of Trump supporters is to recognize that he is the leader of a cult with social media being his primary method of communication- and getting people out of that cult is going to require a long-term intervention – see https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7552231/Trumps-tactics-taken-playbook-cult-leaders-like-Jim-Jones-David-Koresh-says-author.html
I used to think education was the answer. Now, as an older person, I often think about the laws of physics, and how, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
This means that as long as human beings exist, there will be people such as you have described that will not listen to reason, are not interested in rational thought, and would prefer to blindly go, where no one has gone before (couldn’t resist the latter).
Do not be discouraged, for it is, quite simply, the nature of the beast.
🙂
I probably see more of the dumb meme politics from red state types than most, as I have a high % of US friends. Sometimes it’s cringe-worthy. I don’t know why somebody trying to create impact would incessantly re-post memes instead of either writing something original or posting a meaningful article and adding commentary. I see stuff that would offend me if I was too sensitive and stuff so wrong that it could be logically refuted by a 4 year old. And it was similar in 2016. Now, I actually know some of the people and they are not evil trolls or Russian agents, more often than not they are folks that any of us would appreciate in real life, but they just do this for some maddening reason.
Other times, I get the equivalent posts from blue state types. Likely more educated but not patriotic, no flags, no love of country. Mostly just hateful of the other side of America and the president. And SMUG as f*ck. For the past 3 years, their conversation was dominated by the “russian collusion” narrative. And everyone bought in 100%. America was the worse country on earth, CNN told us, because a president got elected due to Russian interference. (No mention that, presumably, the previous president failed to protect the election from this despite frequent warnings). Now we are seeing EVIDENCE (Senate hearings this week, documents recently unclassified, testimony dating back to 2017) that the entire collusion narrative was an illusion. That the FBI and others in government illegally targeted the incoming president and his team with unconstitutional surveillance. That the President and Vice President (BIDEN) were participants in such even in 2017 in the very last days of their term!! Lives were destroyed by this and the will of the people was abused. Perhaps even worse, if possible, we have recently seen testimony from 2017 in which high level officials confirmed (under oath but off the record) that there was NEVER any evidence of collusion. Never. But for the next 3 years these SAME officials have gone on CNN and MSNBC claiming just the opposite of their previously sworn testimony – that there was proof against Trump. That Trump needed to go by any means possible. Etc. Adam Schiff was one. Rod Rosenstein, James Comey, Susan Rice. Many others. Now, that testimony is unclassified and we see the truth. Top government officials telling LIES on TV nightly, making their country look like a banana republic to the world and torpedoing the agenda of the elected president while ALL ALONG their truthful statements, made under oath, existed off the record.
So what’s worse? Dumb posts and childish memes from some simpler Republicans on Facebook expressing love of country though inelegantly and sometimes incorrectly or even falsely? Or the utter corruption and ROT of the Democrat Party and the complicity of professional TV networks like CNN and MSNBC that knowingly push disinformation 24/7?? Is it any wonder that the red state types are protective of Trump?
Oh and how many of today’s Canadian progressives pained by America’s supposed “systemic racism”, and wanting to see real change in the world, nonetheless voted for Justin Trudeau last year after a campaign in which he lost count of how many times he has been recorded on video in blackface??
Brilliant post Horatio. I suspect some of the solutions will need to be regulatory. For instance, Germany fined Facebook under its “Anti-Fake News” law, and I can see this trend being followed globally. Currently, there’s an ongoing internal backlash at Facebook regarding the dissemination of fake news. Also, I can see potential future litigation regarding disinformation, with possible class actions.
Screaming emojis. ????
I read it all Horatio, although as you know I’m not very technical but I got it 🙁 the general technical and the awful reality of it.
Totally starts with a Good education..hence the problem in the States.
If you drive around parts of the US, listen to the local radio and hang out at a local bar or Waffle House, you quickly realize the scale and scope of the ecosystem that feeds disinformation. It’s a truly complete experience. Tweaking coefficients at Facebook will see measurable change at the margin, but the overall landscape remains.
Of course all you need to invent are truths that travel faster than lies.
Well said and right on point. Sadly, as you said, we live in alternate realities from ‘those’ folks and no easy solutions out there anytime soon. I feel for them and us…I feel sad that there is a them and an us.
Brilliant, Horatio, but we a sad reality in front of us????
This resonated today. I was feeling it last night. That feeling of having no idea what truth even is anymore.
Fascinating post Horatio. I once thought that the rise of the Nazis couldn’t happen in our modern world because a free internet would prevent any group from having an effective propaganda machine. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Facts seem to matter less and less. Online spin makes everyone doubt everything, and gravitate to what they want to believe. Deep fake tech will soon make it nearly impossible to even believe video that you watch. Facebook has given a megaphone to people with the most ugly opinions and agendas. It’s a dark landscape out there and I find your journey into it fascinating. I’m really curious what society will come up with to tame the blantant misinformation online. But I’m optimistic, maybe naively so, that the ethical and most intelligent among us will find a way….I certainly hope so. We are living through a transformation of global human interaction and I hope we find a solution before it really goes off the rails…well, even more so than it astonishly has in the last few years.
I’ve always wanted to try that just to see what the other side would be like… sadly, I’m not that technologically advanced ????????
I do however sign up for things as a 27 year old guy and I get VERY interesting ads from time to time…
Fear is a powerful emotion that impairs one’s ability to see the big picture. Fear is taught at an early age….don’t walk alone on the street at night….dont wear inappropriate clothing….don’t walk into a grocery store without buying anything….don’t drive to that neighborhood without a gun….until we stop the cycle of fear taught to our kids, the view of the world will be clouded.
great experiment Horatio, too bad I’m not surprised at the outcome. that was brave of you
Sad to hear that Horatio! I wish people would take constructive criticism without ego attached and find a way to see where that criticism is coming from. What do you have to gain from telling these people what you did other than to help them learn? ????
Great conversation! The human brain and the perspective it formulates is very powerful. Scary and amazing all at the same time. Learning to listen, to understand another’s perspective, even if we “feel” they are completely full of it…, in order to find a common ground, is going to be our go-forward challenge and opportunity.
Wow… what a great experiment that was. It must have been insightful to see how the world looks through those far-right eyes, and to see just what they see as the “gospel-truth”. Only trouble is how were you able to sleep at night knowing the world is so strongly divided like that. ????
https://www.ted.com/talks/carole_cadwalladr_facebook_s_role_in_brexit_and_the_threat_to_democracy
I have a lot of Texas based friends and family, so my regular feed sees a lot of what you are talking about. Frequently I will see things posted that are quite literally the opposite of what happened. Sometimes I call them out, which leads to me being referred to as a puppet of “the media”. When I try to point out that CBC and BBC are not part of an anti-Trump cult, well….
It is important to remember that the terms “fake news” and “alternative facts” both came from the mouths of team Trump.
Great post Horatio, it’s amazing and scary how people can distort the facts depending on how they feel about the subject. I had a similar experience a while back when a friend suggested I follow an anti racing group on Facebook. She had believed a lot of the “facts” they had posted about racing, but was confused because she would see my posts about our horses and how they go on to good homes once they’re done racing. So many of the posts on this site would have a snippet of truth but it would be twisted and exaggerated to make it look like we were all heathens. It bothered me so much to read the lies I felt I had to explain how it really was for the horses at the track. The response was fast and furious, none of them wanted to know the truth, they just wanted to be able to spread the hate and the lies. My friend messaged me right away and warned me I’d be attacked if I commented????
Needless to say I left the group, life’s too short to deal with people with such closed minds