[ExI] what did we learn?

[Henry Rivera]

How about this aspect: prior to the net, only authorities, entities with capital and probably reputation, could broadcast. Now anyone can say something on 4chan or Reddit and have it go viral. Next thing you know, Qanon is born. People who are not subject matter experts and opinions that haven’t been vetted or that are founded on baseless premises get equal footing and attention in some cases. Rules of memetics apply resulting in misinformation becoming propagated, and people don’t know what to believe. Now we have people questioning vaccines, masks, Public Health intentions, etc. And I mean in larger numbers than we would have seen in a pre-internet era I’m thinking. Access to garbage is easier than ever, and some people believe it way too easily it appears. Related to that problem, see this article that came out this week, with the POTUS as a case in point senior citizen it appears. 

“What Is The Internet Doing To Boomers’ Brains? Social media platforms are sucking a generation into a misinformation rabbit hole.”  
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/internet-baby-boomers-misinformation-social-media_n_5f998039c5b6a4a2dc813d3d

> On Nov 1, 2020, at 11:28 AM, Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> 
> epidemic
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