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Comment by noobermin | Hacker News Reader

>the fake news was created by the left to discredit the alt-right

I would say that this individual who was a liberal tried to do this. This isn't like a group of leftists conspiring to do (anti-)propaganda. It is pretty stupid, and his continuation of it is extremely confusing.

Sorry, but a side rant to the more "entrepreneurial" startup-cats who browse here. Would you consider this fellow and others like him an entrepreneur? I ask because there is talk in the article that he is one. Even if you take him at his word that he is trying to highlight the problem of disinformation rather than profit off of it, it seems quite suspect to me.

A good analogy here is a cook serving spoiled food to highlight healthy and safe cooking habits, regardless of who it hurts. It makes no sense.

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Spoiled food makes no sense indeed. However, what this guy does makes definitely business sense.

People do not care about the truth.

+ Fake news goes viral.

+ Medium tells people that the ones who passed away still love and talk to them.

+ Religion in general.

+ Advertisements about medicines with fake doctors.

+ Advertisements in general.

+ Gossip.

+ Sensationalized scientific breakthroughs.

And then there is a lot not true, but it is at least within a context clear that it is not true, like fairy tales and literature. All the other examples are however disinformation and people doing business using it.

The continuation of it could be explained purely by the financial insentives from advertising on the sites. It doesn't sound like he would have any morale qualms with the whole situation.

Sounds pretty entrepreneurial to me.

Definitely, that's what I got out of it. Actually a pretty interesting win, telling tales. There's a market for this flavor of fiction and it'll spawn businesses and generate revenue like any other.

The term "entrepreneur" is value-neutral. It refers to someone who successfully forms a business venture by noticing and taking advantage of an opportunity or need.

> The term "entrepreneur" is value-neutral.

Even on Hacker News?

Isn't "successful" a value-term?

Aren't there "entrepreneurs" who repeatedly fail?

My interpretation of entrepreneur is someome who fails with other people's money.

The one you described is just a business person.

I found this to very shady. He claimed that he first started with the fake news to: "then be able to publicly denounce those stories and point out the fact that they were fiction"

But then why didn't he stop when that didn't work? I would guess that it's just a way to try to rationalize his shady business to himself.

Whether he meant to or not, he made a product that found its market.

I agree it was a terrible idea.

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