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Comment by aNoob7000 | Hacker News Reader

What scares me is the sheer amount of conspiracy stuff on Facebook. My dad is on Facebook, he's 80, and the stuff he talks to me about on the phone is just amazing. I initially thought it was only him, but then my sister-in-law's mom started sending me videos, and I was faced with the same crazy stuff.

I'm not sure what groups my dad is in or how they contact him, but damn there are a lot of old folks talking about all the same crazy stuff. I really wish Facebook would address some of this crazy nonsense. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to tell my dad that it is not George Soros or Bill Gates behind the conspiracy.

Sorry for rambling on...

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No, this is the danger we are in. People are letting the "marketplace of ideas" try to sort things out. However, this is like letting a disease ravage a population until it achieves herd immunity. If it has no natural immunity, it never will. Humans do NOT have a natural immunity to propaganda. They are carriers for it. We are the mosquitos of the malarial swamp of misinformation that is plaguing the planet currently.

Many folks at Facebook know the terrible plight we are in. But there are enough people not wanting to rock the boat currently that they have not felt the urgency to change. It feels like we are reaching a breaking point, though.

I think "marketplace of ideas" fails as soon as you have curated feeds.

They’re notorious for yes men

We're the same, our parents tell us things we feel are "breathtaking" and super confused.

The other thing I'm starting to realize is that a lot of people are falling for more "comfortable" ideas.

Like I think honestly that it's easier to believe the Corona virus is less severe or even a hoax because if you can make that leap, you feel better about it.

Exactly the same for climate change. If you don't like the idea that we're destroying our future, well you can just choose that it's not real.

On a side note, Facebook was constantly hounding me to come work there, I didn't and personally, I'm really really glad I didn't, even though so many of my friends made good financially from working there.

They’re really easy and actually fun to get into. And of course Facebook and YouTube’s recommendation algorithms help a lot. You get to speculate about what’s going on behind the scenes and what not without so called rationalists ruining the fun.

I guess Facebook is the new “talk radio” but the amount of info it can deliver into your brain is a factor more than what talk radio used to deliver.

The alternative is Facebook being the arbiters of truth. I wouldn’t want them to be that, and they probably don’t want to be that either.

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