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Comment by papito | Hacker News Reader

Altavista did not lock hundreds of millions of people in an alternate reality.

During COVID lockdowns, my Mom called me, and asked if it was true that at night choppers were going to spray something over NYC.

"Ah", I thought, "Facebook".

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It's good she asked, and spraying municipalities from planes is pretty common[0].

China was doing similar with sanitizer trucks running up and down streets so it's not terribly unfounded--actually that fake news is likely better than >99% of the actual crap on there.

[0] https://www.clarke.com/blog/aerial-mosquito-control-applicat...

Edit: footage of the trucks because they're neat https://futurism.com/neoscope/watch-china-spray-entire-city-...

No idea what the efficacy is.

The point is, this was not based in fact. There was no such plan ever, especially with helicopters. Someone generated the bullshit, and we have to spend energy disputing it.

> There was no such plan ever, especially with helicopters.

The NY health department does use helicopters to drop larvicide on likely mosquito spawning grounds[1]. Your mom did believe a false story and also there absolutely was (and is) a plan to use helicopters to distribute an an anti-disease treatments over NYC.

I think the tricky part of the misinformation we are all dealing with is that many elements of it (method of distribution, the idea of spraying down a city) are things that are happening in some way - the false narrative is the particular combination people believe in. I think it's part of why flat denials are often ineffective.

[1] https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/west-nile...

She didn't "believe" anything - she read it on Facebook. Someone else believes it, without evidence, types it in, and then millions of people either believe it or are not sure of what is true anymore. You are posting links to official government websites - do you think the people who get their information from Facebook verify it via official government sources? Do you think that most of them go "oh, that sounds weird, let me check the official NYC page"? I do it, you do it, but most people do not.

I did specifically call it fake news; but it's a harmless example compared to the other stuff people get wrapped up into believing, in large part thanks to algorithms.

My mom believed a ton of crazy conspiracies before Facebook. Just like a ton of people in her generation did. No one was surprised when she continued doing that on the internet.

Alternative medicine, aliens, JFK, secret gov technology etc etc was all super popular on TV, Hollywood movies, and in best selling books growing up in the 80s/90s.

> JFK, secret gov technology

What is crazy about this exactly?

the conspiracies surrounding them

Loony, completely unsubstantiated fringe deviations aside, governments really do develop and build secret technology in secrecy, in ways that can only be guessed at by very hazy inference for a time. And there are enough weird things about the JFK assassination for it to be understandable that many people, even serious investigators, spent decades with doubts about the basic lone gunman narrative.

>governments really do develop and build secret technology in secrecy,

Well, if they developed them in public, they wouldn't be secret.

First, being pedantic, you mean the conspiracy theories surrounding them. Certainly there are some crazy theories. At the same time, given the suspicious circumstances of JFK's killing, there's a decent chance a conspiracy to kill him between some people did occur. With secret government technology... I don't know if that counts as conspiring. We know they develop things in secret. Of course, you can have crazy theories about what they're developing. It's also, in either case, crazy to believe a theory is true without any evidence.

You must be new to everything if you haven't heard conspiracy theories regarding the 2 things you're questioning.

JFK: lone gunman, CIA/Mob, magic bullet

Secret gov tech: come on really? area 51, MK Ultra

If you really are that new, then boy, do I wish I was in your spot. You're going to have a lot of fun with some new reading. Whether because you believe them, or because of the enterainment in seeing others believe them. Either way, it's a whole new world...

Except MK Ultra turned out to be a thing

you say that like area 51 is not a thing. it very much is a thing. however, the things people say about those things are not necessarily accurate.

Moms is batting 3 for 4. Not bad.

No comment on the differences between email chains and modern, targeted advertising?

This is not an "alternate reality," New York City does "spray something" by truck and chopper at night.

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/west-nile...

>Adulticide: Trucks spray this pesticide to kill adult mosquitoes. It is used when testing has shown a high risk to human health. Spraying occurs in the evening in residential areas and parks.

>Aerial Larviciding: Helicopters drop eco-friendly larvicide over marshes and other large natural areas to kill young mosquitoes before they become adults. The City does not use helicopters to treat residential areas.

"The City does not use helicopters to treat residential areas."

So how is that true?

Let's just think about helicopters spraying Manhattan with a ... sanitizer? The idea is insane. People read this on Facebook and think it might be true, so what else will they believe?

> So how is that true?

This question says to me you misunderstood something in their post, which states that helicopters do spray larvicide, just not on residential areas.

They did that in a city I was in, in Florida, but using trucks.. They were poisoning everything to kill mosquitoes/larvae.

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