# What do we do to fight fake news? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 21, 2016, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634 "2016-11-21T11:10:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/101 "2016-12-01T05:00:21Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > It is still more accurate than the millions Trump and Breitbart are getting from the flawed study. A study that as even you have pointed, does not really offer a good reason for the right wing sources of information to use it for support. Is that the criteria you’re using? If it’s more accurate than a claim by Trump or Breitbart than it’s not fake news? I’m not sure if you answered the question. Independent of the claims that Breitbart or Trump have made, how do you assess the claim that the likely % of non-citizens voting is zero? Do you think it’s reasonable to simply dismiss the data point of the 1 out of 85 they indicated? > [@](#): > > But this looks more like a begging the question fallacy. I don’t know what this is referring to. Can you elaborate - what conclusion is being assumed in the premise of an argument here? And now I see I forgot the quote tags in my post #99. Hopefully it makes sense ☹ ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/102 "2016-12-01T05:11:11Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > Is that the criteria you’re using? If it’s more accurate than a claim by Trump or Breitbart than it’s not fake news? I’m not sure if you answered the question. Independent of the claims that Breitbart or Trump have made, how do you assess the claim that the likely % of non-citizens voting is zero? Do you think it’s reasonable to simply dismiss the data point of the 1 out of 85 they indicated? Meh; the point is that even granting you that, and supported with very little evidence in the end, the number of illegal voters is most likely a pittance and in practice those illegals have been really unable to change results. > [@Bone](#): > > I don’t know what this is referring to. Can you elaborate - what conclusion is being assumed in the premise of an argument here? Again the conclusion that there were many illegals voting was indeed mostly smoke, as even the authors are not sure about it. And the fake news creators continue to make assumptions from a likely wrong premise. Breitbart and others even abuse the paper to make more smoke all right. As Peter Hadfield could say, they and many others did not really read the article, nor the rebuttals and what even took place in 2014. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/103 "2016-12-01T21:35:51Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Do you believe that typical watchers of Fox News or readers of Breitbart demonstrate your recommended open-minded skepticism? If not, then your point is moot. > > And if you think they do, you must be living in an alternate reality, because much of what these folks believe is utter bullshit. Many of them deliberately never leave the right-wing echo chamber, and as has been repeatedly shown with Breitbart and the like, and with the many of Trump’s campaign claims, much of what they believe is just outrageously factually wrong… Today CNN offered a concrete example of this: an interview (by their anchor Alisyn Camerota) of five ‘early Trump supporters.’ > [@](#): > > … when CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota sat down with a group of Trump supporters, it was clear such claims were blurring the line between fiction and reality. > > “Voting is a privilege in this country, and you need to be legal, not like California, where three million illegals voted,” a supporter named Paula told Camerota. > > Camerota maintained her composure at first, asking the group of five where they received their information. When Paula claimed she got her facts from the “media,” Camerota pushed for more information until Paula identified CNN as her source. [http://www.ew.com/article/2016/12/01/](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/12/01/) Needless to say, CNN has never carried on any of its shows (or website) the claim “three million illegals voted” in California. But the woman who made the statement was absolutely adamant. Though it’s possible she believes _she_ saw this claim made on CNN, it’s probably just as likely that she read on a Facebook page that someone \*else \*had seen it on CNN. That was good enough for her. …And surely that’s the difference between people who consume fake news and people who reject fake news: the latter are not content to play the telephone game (e.g. ‘I saw it on my cousin’s Facebook feed from someone whose neighbor tweeted about watching CNN say that three million California illegals voted.’) People who reject fake news are the kind of people who would never think of making a claim in a message board post without appending at least one supportive link–and they would expect that link to be questioned, too. But the fake-news consumers are content to say ‘you can Google it’ when challenged on their claims: > [@](#): > > Longtime Trump supporter Paula Johnson told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota that at her polling station in Nashua, New Hampshire, she caught people voting illegally who told her: “The president said I could vote, I’m here illegally.” > > Camerota asked Johnson where she heard that President Barack Obama said undocumented immigrants could vote. > “Google it,” another Trump supporter, Susan DeLemus, said. “You can find it on Facebook.” > **[Why Trump supporters stand by debunked claim | CNN Politics](https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/01/politics/donald-trump-supporters-check-in-camerota-new-day-cnntv/)** > > Donald Trump supporters made several debunked claims about election fraud in a post-election interview with CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/104 "2016-12-02T00:49:20Z")
\*\* > [@](#): > > What do we do to fight fake news? \*\* Call me cynical. I suspect that there is nothing to do except kill everybody who lives and breathes “Fake News”. The problem is not that it exists, the problem is that there are millions of people for whom the “Fake” stuff is MUCH preferable to the real stuff. As the saying goes: Water seeks its own level. Which sounds better: A. There has been a huge shift in how stuff is made and delivered. “Longshoremen” (aka stevedores) Used to unload stuff from trucks and hand carry into the ship. Then fork lifts and pallets cut the number of stevedores required. Now, there are about 5 guys running a crane. The factory production line is now a series of robots handing the work from machine to machine. No more paint booths for small parts - the robots powder coat anything metal. B. The nasty Chinese took the jobs from Good White Americans. Change the rules, and all those jobs will magically re-appear and it will be like 1960 again. Too many people prefer “fake” fairy tales to reality. And is not just the unemployed automated-out-of-the-work-force people. You don’t have to go to the polling place to vote - just send a Text! Seems to have worked, At this point, any story above inter-personal dealings which has a simple, easy, comforting message is probably not the reality of the adult world. And don’t forget American’s love affair of hate and fear - we never seem to have enough enemies - any story in which a foreigner makes an American’s life harder is an easy sell. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/105 "2016-12-07T20:46:33Z")
Anyone interested in this topic will want to take a look at the new survey (on American’s consumption of fake news) published yesterday in Buzzfeed. (I posted at greater length about this in the "What’s so bad about fake news sites? " thread.) > **[Most Americans Who See Fake News Believe It, New Survey Says](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/fake-news-survey)** > > An exclusive Ipsos poll conducted for BuzzFeed News found that 75% of American adults who were familiar with a fake news headline viewed the story as accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/106 "2016-12-07T21:23:42Z")
There is just this thirst in the country for simple, emotionally-validating and It-makes-sense-to-me news. Men are pigs, black people are thugs, Obama wants to destroy America, China took all our jobs, pro-lifers hate women, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/107 "2016-12-07T22:09:50Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > There is just this thirst in the country for simple, emotionally-validating and It-makes-sense-to-me news. Men are pigs, black people are thugs, Obama wants to destroy America, China took all our jobs, pro-lifers hate women, etc. Few people have gone broke appealing to the lowest common denominator, sadly. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/108 "2016-12-07T22:12:30Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > All of the sudden fake news is a big issue… and MSM jumps in with a “j’acusse!” after years of dubious journalistic practices that have destroyed public confidence, leading people to search for alternatives. > Me thinks the MSM protests too much. Which dubious journalistic practices? Please, be specific. This seems like an incredibly vague broadside. Got any… y’know, _basis_ for this? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/109 "2016-12-07T23:50:07Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Which dubious journalistic practices? Please, be specific. This seems like an incredibly vague broadside. Got any… y’know, _basis_ for this? I know it wasn’t directed at me, but I figure I’d jump in and offer a few, just from memory: Rolling Stone’s fake rape story Katie Couric’s deceptively-edited anti-gun piece CBS’ 60 Minutes using faked documents about GWB NBC’s Brian Williams’ array of lies HuffPo’s decision to treat Trump’s campaign as entertainment instead of news certainly looks asinine in hindsight ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/110 "2016-12-07T23:56:42Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I know it wasn’t directed at me, but I figure I’d jump in and offer a few, just from memory: > > Rolling Stone’s fake rape story > > Katie Couric’s deceptively-edited anti-gun piece > > CBS’ 60 Minutes using faked documents about GWB > > NBC’s Brian Williams’ array of lies > > HuffPo’s decision to treat Trump’s campaign as entertainment instead of news certainly looks asinine in hindsight In virtually all examples there all the sources had to acknowledge the gross errors and make corrections and/or the involved fired. And that leads one to identify one property of the fake news makers: they never do make corrections and many times the hired guns continue to be prized among the consumers of those news regardless of of how misleading or lying POS they are, like James O’Keefe . ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/111 "2016-12-08T05:04:40Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I know it wasn’t directed at me, but I figure I’d jump in and offer a few, just from memory: > > Rolling Stone’s fake rape story > > Katie Couric’s deceptively-edited anti-gun piece > > CBS’ 60 Minutes using faked documents about GWB > > NBC’s Brian Williams’ array of lies > > HuffPo’s decision to treat Trump’s campaign as entertainment instead of news certainly looks asinine in hindsight Are those bad journalistic practices from the parent company, journalistic malpractice, or simply individual bad calls from journalists? Like, just for example, the fake GWB documents. Not only was it _not_ immediately apparent that they were a hoax, but the network in question quickly fired the journalist who broke the story, a neophyte nobody with no strong reputation for journalism. I think his name was Don Mathers or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/112 "2016-12-08T05:56:57Z")
I’m going to repeat myself at least once just because my suggestion keeps getting overlooked… I think google et al should _not_ block fake news, just give more info on where it came from. Just as my cellphone will inform me if a new number is considered a spam number, it’s fairly easy for facebook and others to just add a line to a link saying “This may be a ‘fake news’ site" or even “This story is of dubious origin, click here for full details”. Then you don’t get people complaining about some conspiracy to suppress the “truth”. They can track where stories come from and whether they later get debunked and present the user with _more_ information than we have now. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/113 "2016-12-11T00:37:13Z")
I just came across [an old thread of mine from last year.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=766508) I wonder how many of those who dismissed me then are at all concerned now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/114 "2016-12-11T01:16:53Z")
Parts to the problem. Fake news is interesting. Real news is dull. Truth is solitary. Lies travel in packs. ---
**Author:** ![Calico\_Jack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calico_jack/32/7320_2.png) [@Calico\_Jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calico_Jack)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/115 "2016-12-11T21:52:53Z")
> [@Malden\_Capell](#): > > I get that it’s been around since mankind learned language, but the internet of recent years has made it so cheap to host news sites that it’s become a torrent of absolute tosh and lies. > > I’ve seen what we would label as conspiracy theorists crop up here and elsewhere from time to time and I’ve attempted to debate them. But, understandably, the byword has been ‘don’t feed the trolls’, and we let them ramble on unchallenged. > > Perhaps by not feeding them, we’ve allowed the online community to gobble poison? > > At the same time it is a hard battle. Right now I’m arguing with two separate groups on Facebook: one arguing that the EU is a federal superstate and the Commission dictates to the UK, and another which insists that Trump won the popular vote. No number of citations or links satisfies them, it’s all fake news and mainstream media. > > I try to get them to justify how their news is in any way more authoritative purely because it says what they want to hear, but of course they disengage or evade. > > It’s infuriating, as my instinct is that despite this, we _have_ to do _something_ to challenge this, otherwise it becomes fact. > > I may not persuade the person I’m directly arguing with, but there may be an observer who is quietly slightly more intellectually curious than my opponent, who might be invited to think again thanks to what I say. > > As exhausting and unprofitable as it may seem, I am starting to think the best and only way we can fight this threat to our democracies is to fight a WW1-style battle of attrition with them online. We have to invade their comments sections, swamp their debates, invade their bubbles (and invite them into ours) and flame-war the beJesus out of them. Like I said, it will be bloody, ugly, distressing and hair-whitening, but…what’s the alternative? > > A free press is a great thing, but a free press where the truth has no value next to outright lies is no free press at all. > > This is my current train of thought. Am I wrong? What would be a more profitable means to deal with this danger? What can I - and we - do? Well personally I’m more concerned about misinformation infecting scientific discussions and the classrooms, such as the notion that one’s biology is not what should define their sex, but rather if a 40 year old man decides he ‘feels like’ a woman he should have an immediate right to use the bathroom with little girls. But on a radio show I listened to the other day, an ‘era where the lines between fact and falsehood are blurred’ could be a sign of the times, as this began to become the case in the last days of Rome. And of course this goes well beyond left/right politics, though from your post it sounds like you’re singling out ‘right-wingers’ as the misinformants; I might be wrong to assume, but I get the feeling you’re less concerned about school boards defining sex by ‘feelings’ instead of biology, or [Salon.com](http://Salon.com) giving a voice to a self-admitted pedophile claiming his attraction to children is an ‘orientation’ and objecting to it a form of ‘bigotry’. Not to mention the ‘anti-fat shaming’ trend, in which it’s apparently now politically incorrect to claim that obesity is an unhealthy lifestyle as it might offend people; despite this being little more than free PR work for fast food corporations than serious nutritional information; much like the cigarette cartels which used to advocate smoking as a health or ‘weight loss’ product before their advertizing was cracked down on. And yada yada - anyway I think your ‘plan’ to swamp message boards with facts is pretty futile, not to mention boring. I’d much rather spend my free time with a good book or a drink of my choice, than spamming message boards with Wikipedia posts, but that’s just me. Plus considering the internet is more or less a pure democracy, I’m pretty sure the number of misinformed folks posting nonsense will always outnumber the number of informed ones, not to mention the trolls who aren’t really misinformed, but just love posting nonsense because it riles you guys up. So I think you need to come up with a better game plan than that. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/116 "2016-12-11T21:59:23Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > Well personally I’m more concerned about misinformation infecting scientific discussions and the classrooms, such as the notion that one’s biology is not what should define their sex, but rather if a 40 year old man decides he ‘feels like’ a woman he should have an immediate right to use the bathroom with little girls. [QI wrong klaxon sound.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU5mOT57ghM) Oh, fell again for the fake news: > **[An Expert Explains Why The Right-Wing "Bathroom Predator" Myth Is Wrong And...](https://www.mediamatters.org/sexual-harassment-sexual-assault/expert-explains-why-right-wing-bathroom-predator-myth-wrong-and)** > [@](#): > > Opponents of HERO have falsely claimed that the ordinance would open the door to sexual predators who might pretend to be transgender in order to sneak into women’s public restrooms and commit sexual assault. The “bathroom predator” myth has been thoroughly debunked by experts from cities and states across the country with similar laws on the books, including several cities in Texas with similar ordinances. > > The talking point continues to be one of the most popular right-wing attacks on LGBT non-discrimination laws, and HERO’s opponents have used it relentlessly to weaken support for the measure among women and parents. > **[15 Experts Debunk Right-Wing Transgender Bathroom Myth](https://www.mediamatters.org/sexual-harassment-sexual-assault/15-experts-debunk-right-wing-transgender-bathroom-myth)** > > Experts in 12 states -- including law enforcement officials, government employees, and advocates for victims of sexual assault -- have debunked the right-wing myth that sexual predators will exploit transgender non-discrimination laws to sneak into... ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/117 "2016-12-11T22:24:17Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > Well personally I’m more concerned about misinformation infecting scientific discussions and the classrooms, such as the notion that one’s biology is not what should define their sex, but rather if a 40 year old man decides he ‘feels like’ a woman he should have an immediate right to use the bathroom with little girls. For someone concerned about misinformation in science you sure don’t know much about gender or sex. Your sex is largely based on your outward appearance and your genitals. Your _gender_ is based on your brain, and there is convincing evidence of [differences in brain structure](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-something-unique-about-the-transgender-brain/) - transmen (that’s men born as women) have brains that are legitimately built differently to cis women, despite their mismatched sexual organs. This often creates a dysphoric effect, and currently the best way to resolve said effect is by allowing those people to transition to the opposite sex - we don’t have the technology to change their gender (i.e. their brains) at the moment. Just as your sexual organs do not determine who you are attracted to, they also don’t determine which gender your _brain_ thinks you are. This is not news; try to keep up. > [@](#): > > And of course this goes well beyond left/right politics, though from your post it sounds like you’re singling out ‘right-wingers’ as the misinformants; I might be wrong to assume, but I get the feeling you’re less concerned about school boards defining sex by ‘feelings’ instead of biology, or [Salon.com](http://Salon.com) giving a voice to a self-admitted pedophile claiming his attraction to children is an ‘orientation’ and objecting to it a form of ‘bigotry’. Okay, you’re interested in science denialism when it comes to “fake news”. Commendable; it’s a _real_ problem, and it has been for a lot longer than in politics in general, thanks to the efforts of sites like NaturalNews, WattsUpWithThat, and Answers In Genesis. But it’s also largely on one side of the aisle. Okay, the medical quacks? That’s bipartisan (just ask Orrin Hatch). But which side has all the creationist representatives? Which side has all the AGW denialists? There is a legitimate partisan difference here, whether you like to admit it or not. Oh, and for the record? [Salon is right](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia#Development_and_sexual_orientation). According to the available research, pedophilia is _not_ a chosen orientation. For many people, it’s a constant burden they have to live with, knowing that exploring their sexuality is impossible for them because doing so would seriously harm other people. > [@](#): > > Not to mention the ‘anti-fat shaming’ trend, in which it’s apparently now politically incorrect to claim that obesity is an unhealthy lifestyle as it might offend people; despite this being little more than free PR work for fast food corporations than serious nutritional information; much like the cigarette cartels which used to advocate smoking as a health or ‘weight loss’ product before their advertizing was cracked down on. Every single medical professional and medical organization in the world will, if asked, tell you loud and clear that obesity is unhealthy. _EVERY SINGLE ONE._ There is no “PC Taboo” here. That’s entirely your own invention. Rather, the taboo is on fat shaming. There’s a difference between saying “it’s unhealthy to be really fat” and constantly giving people shit about unhealthy habits or eating too much. The former is well-understood and done to try to push people in the right direction. The latter is not. In fact, once again, for someone complaining about the misinformation infecting scientific discussion, you’re really behind the times when it comes to the research. Fatshaming _[doesn’t help](http://www.techtimes.com/articles/15404/20140912/fat-shaming-obese-people-harmful-good-study.htm)_. [At all](https://authoritynutrition.com/fat-shaming-makes-things-worse/). It actually makes things worse. Before you appoint yourself the gatekeeper of scientific fact, it would behoove you not to be completely wrong about every single thing you say. > [@](#): > > And yada yada - anyway I think your ‘plan’ to swamp message boards with facts is pretty futile, not to mention boring. I’d much rather spend my free time with a good book or a drink of my choice, than spamming message boards with Wikipedia posts, but that’s just me. Then what are you doing here? > [@](#): > > Plus considering the internet is more or less a pure democracy, I’m pretty sure the number of misinformed folks posting nonsense will always outnumber the number of informed ones, not to mention the trolls who aren’t really misinformed, but just love posting nonsense because it riles you guys up. ---
**Author:** ![Calico\_Jack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calico_jack/32/7320_2.png) [@Calico\_Jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calico_Jack)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/118 "2016-12-11T22:35:29Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > For someone concerned about misinformation in science you sure don’t know much about gender or sex. > > Your sex is largely based on your outward appearance and your genitals. Your _gender_ is based on your brain That’s just the gender schema theory: > **[Gender schema theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_schema_theory)** > > Gender schema theory is a cognitive theory to explain how individuals become gendered in society, and how sex-linked characteristics are maintained and transmitted to other members of a culture. The theory was formally introduced by Sandra Bem in 1981. Gender-associated information is predominantly transmuted through society by way of schemata, or networks of information that allow for some information to be more easily assimilated than others. The theory argues that there are individual differen... But sex hormones in the body such as testosterone play an influence on brain development, so no you can’t treat the sex of the physical body and the physical brain as completely unrelated, as they’re interlinked. Ultimately the brain is just another organ in the body. > [@](#): > > transmen (that’s men born as women) have brains that are legitimately built differently to cis women, despite their mismatched sexual organs. This often creates a dysphoric effect, and currently the best way to resolve said effect is by allowing those people to transition to the opposite sex - we don’t have the technology to change their gender (i.e. their brains) at the moment. Just as your sexual organs do not determine who you are attracted to, they also don’t determine which gender your _brain_ thinks you are. Apples to oranges, because being a ‘true transgender’, or being born with the brain structure not matching the body isn’t the same as just being a transvestite. Plus in some cases, the people in question didn’t even have to provide medial proof they’d been diagnosed as transgender, meaning that anyone could just claim they were and gain access to the bathrooms. In some cases rapists and perverts used this as a way to get access to women and girls. > [@](#): > > This is not news; try to keep up. > > Okay, you’re interested in science denialism when it comes to “fake news”. Commendable; it’s a _real_ problem, and it has been for a lot longer than in politics in general, thanks to the efforts of sites like NaturalNews, WattsUpWithThat, and Answers In Genesis. But it’s also largely on one side of the aisle. Okay, the medical quacks? That’s bipartisan (just ask Orrin Hatch). But which side has all the creationist representatives? Which side has all the AGW denialists? There is a legitimate partisan difference here, whether you like to admit it or not. > > Oh, and for the record? [Salon is right](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia#Development_and_sexual_orientation). According to the available research, pedophilia is _not_ a chosen orientation. For many people, it’s a constant burden they have to live with, knowing that exploring their sexuality is impossible for them because doing so would seriously harm other people. There’s no evidence that pedophilic thoughts are ‘genetic’, or that the development of pedophilic urges is equatable to the way that homosexuality is said to develop. Plus, the author that Salon hosted was outed as a member of a genuine pedophile message board which advocated actual sex acts with children, not just a ‘no contact pedohile’ like he claimed. > [@](#): > > Every single medical professional and medical organization in the world will, if asked, tell you loud and clear that obesity is unhealthy. _EVERY SINGLE ONE._ There is no “PC Taboo” here. That’s entirely your own invention. Rather, the taboo is on fat shaming. There’s a difference between saying “it’s unhealthy to be really fat” and constantly giving people shit about unhealthy habits or eating too much. The former is well-understood and done to try to push people in the right direction. The latter is not. In fact, once again, for someone complaining about the misinformation infecting scientific discussion, you’re really behind the times when it comes to the research. Fatshaming _[doesn’t help](http://www.techtimes.com/articles/15404/20140912/fat-shaming-obese-people-harmful-good-study.htm)_. [At all](https://authoritynutrition.com/fat-shaming-makes-things-worse/). It actually makes things worse. > > Before you appoint yourself the gatekeeper of scientific fact, it would behoove you not to be completely wrong about every single thing you say. > > Then what are you doing here? Actually there have been ‘campaigns’ with actually medically obese people using slogans like ‘fuck your body standards’, so how’s that any different than smokers coming out and chanting ‘fuck your health standards’? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/119 "2016-12-11T22:47:28Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > Plus, the author that Salon hosted was outed as a member of a genuine pedophile message board which advocated actual sex acts with children, not just a ‘no contact pedohile’ like he claimed. I even read the Breitbart reports about him, nothing was mentioned about advocating sex acts with children, only thought crimes. But yeah, he needs always to be under a watchful eye. Of course the point is still that a lot of what you are reporting as a fact is not. Specially the argument about the sexual predators being used to counter new bathroom rules. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634/120 "2016-12-12T00:13:59Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > Plus in some cases, the people in question didn’t even have to provide medial proof they’d been diagnosed as transgender, meaning that anyone could just claim they were and gain access to the bathrooms. In some cases rapists and perverts used this as a way to get access to women and girls. You know, everyone’s so worried about this, but I’ve never heard a peep from these people about little boys being molested in the mens’ room. Why is that? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-to-fight-fake-news/772634.md?page=7)