Neil deGrasse Tyson was on the 'Hot Ones' show where he explained the universe while eating spicy wings. Funny premise which has led to him saying what I believe should be a quote for the ages. Read and integrate this deeply for the implications are critical:
Host: "Over the last 10 years or so, have you seen an increase in the number of people maybe think these things (bunk crazy ideas)?"
N.D.T: "I think that number of people may be the same over time. They just now, can write a blog that the whole world has access to via a search engine. You'd be alone with your own view that has no correspondence to objective reality. And you type it in to a Google search, and it'll find every other person like you, who think the same way, giving you the false sense that you're actually onto something, that you have some deep insight into the world that no-one else has. This is delusional. The Internet landed in our laps without creating a curriculum that empowers you to know when someone online is full of shit."
Check-out the whole thing here: https://youtu.be/Da8-QfGemgo
DON’T WANT TO FALL FOR FAKE NEWS? DON’T BE LAZY
"Huckabee Sanders shared an altered video of a press briefing with Donald Trump, in which CNN reporter Jim Acosta's hand makes brief contact with the arm of a White House Intern. The clip is of low quality and edited to dramatize the original footage; it's presented out of context, without sound, at slow speed with a close-crop zoom, and contains additional frames that appear to emphasize Acosta's contact with the intern.
And yet, in spite of the clip's dubious provenance, the White House decided to not only share the video but cite it as grounds for revoking Acosta's press pass. "[We will] never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern," Sanders said. But the consensus, among anyone inclined to look closely, has been clear: The events described in Sanders' tweet simply did not happen.
This is just the latest example of misinformation roiling our media ecosystem. The fact that it continues to not only crop up but spread—at times faster and more widely than legitimate, factual news—is enough to make anyone wonder: How on Earth do people fall for this schlock?
To put it bluntly, they might not be thinking hard enough. The technical term for this is "reduced engagement of open-minded and analytical thinking." David Rand—a behavioral scientist at MIT who studies fake news on social media, who falls for it, and why—has another name for it: "It's just mental laziness," he says."
https://www.wired.com/story/dont-want-to-fall-for-fake-news-dont-be-lazy/
