Illusions Revolt!

People who share potential misinformation on Twitter (in purple) rarely get to see corrections or fact-checking (in orange). Shao et al. , CC BY-ND By  Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia , Indiana University and Filippo Menczer , Indiana University Social media are among the primary sources of news in the U.S. and across the world. Yet users are exposed to content of questionable accuracy, including conspiracy theories , clickbait , hyperpartisan content , pseudo science and even fabricated “fake news” reports . It’s not surprising that there’s so much disinformation published: Spam and online fraud are lucrative for criminals , and government and political propaganda yield both partisan and financial benefits . But the fact that low-credibility content spreads so quickly and easily suggests that people and the algorithms behind social media platforms are vulnerable to manipulation. Explaining the tools developed...

Source: Shutterstock If you came into a windfall, would you be more enthusiastic about buying yourself something big or giving to charity? If honest, most of us would admit that buying ourselves something big would be the more motivating prospect. Direct benefit to ourselves is generally more motivating than distributed benefit to others. Apply this to large institutions and you’re confronted with a fundamental feature of capitalism. In a competition between for-profit and non-profit campaigns, the for-profits have a motivational advantage. They’re buying themselves something big. Their campaigns reward directly. Wealthy individuals and corporations serving self-interest will generally prevail against non-profit campaigns in the public interest. A self-funding campaign beats a charity-funded campaign almost every time. Libertarians recognize this. It's why they say that for-profits are so efficient. But efficient at what? Not promoting general welfare. Read more >

Quietly and behind the scenes, a front group funded by the Koch family fortune has lobbied and advocated for the soon-to-be-operating Dakota Access pipeline, a project in which a Koch subsidiary stands to profit. A DeSmog investigation reveals that the group, the 60 Plus Association, pushed in recent months for Dakota Access both on the state…

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2017 - Every university graduate program should have one of these mottos over its doors: "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch' intrate." "Arbeit macht frei." The tension in my den is seeping into the kitchen, the living room, and every other corner of the house. My wife is on the search committee for a…

Want more proof that nothing is out of bounds for tobacco companies in carrying out their profitable mission to push "nicotine delivery systems" any way they can? Consider this - Did you know mentally ill adults smoke one third of all cigarettes in the US? It's true, and it didn't come about just by accident. In 2007 Big Tobacco was forced to admit that starting in the 1950s it had targeted mentally ill people with bogus scientific evidence and free cigarettes. Two whopping lies were used to convince vulnerable people, their families and even the medical profession that smoking cigarettes was a good idea. It was claimed: Smoking relieves the symptoms of psychosis, depression and anxiety. Mentally ill people have special immunity to tobacco-related disease. These unbelievably cynical fabrications were pushed so aggressively by cigarette-makers that many customers/victims still believe them and suffer the effects. But that's not all we have to off...

You know those commercials and ads that show how much the food industries care about your well being? The ones where happy and healthy families are laughing and having a good time while consuming generous quantities of the company's latest "wholesome" invention?  Bullshit! Pure propaganda! Don't believe a word of it. The agriculture, dairy and food industries only care about making money - as much as they can - at the expense of the customer's physical, emotional and spiritual health. Your health and happiness are of no concern, despite all those feel-good images of vibrant revelers. We've seen the warnings about mercury in tuna, wood pulp in Parmesan cheese, ground beef treated with ammonia to retard E. coli. These are examples of how the media exposes some of the dangerous and deceptive practices of Big Food. The problem is, the public assumes corrective measures will be taken once an issue is exposed - and that's just fine with Big Food...