"Nightmare Tenant" Story Amplified by Seattle Times Crumbles Under Scrutiny
publicola.com
publicola.com
I remember an article about a letter Ayn Rand wrote to her teenage niece. It was clear from the article text surrounding the letter that the author intended for the reader to pass judgement against Rand as a horrid, unfeeling aunt. But the actual text of the letter told a different story: Rand had agreed to lend $25 to the niece to buy a new dress, on the condition that she repay it within a year: six months to find a job, and then in six monthly installments after that, under pain of being considered an "embezzler" and being cut off from contact with her aunt altogether. Which is very... Ayn Rand, but a wholly unkind aunt would never have lent the money in the first place, let alone at no interest. And Rand also wished to convey a lesson: a responsible person does not enter into debt without the intent of repaying it in full. Something more teenagers especially today could stand to learn. This letter is probably least on the list of things to judge Ayn Rand for.
Because of things like these I tend to check claims in sensationalist journalism much more carefully now.
That said, cutting off contact with an under-age relative over a couple hundred dollars does sound like pretty miserly behavior. A lesson in the tenuousness of familial ties in the face of stubborn ideology, if anything.
Basically, a relative that she didn't know wrote to her knowing she had money, and she said, sure, but since you aren't exactly close family, I'll put some conditions on it.
Like you said, if you want to get judgey with Ayn Rand, this is at the bottom of the list.
We're all prone to Gell-Mann amnesia.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-ge...
For those who don't know: Gell-Mann amnesia is the effect is what happens when you read a story in the newspaper about, say, the rampant corruption of the opioid crisis, but then turn the page and read about the Covid vaccine with fresh eyes.
It's basically like containerization for knowledge that helps prevent conspiratorial-thinking exploits. :)
Note: I am fully misrepresenting the intention of the phrase "Gell-Mann amnesia effect," but in a way that AFAICT is 100% consistent with its definition.
I understand that others might differ, they want only "safe" coffee to be served, but we're not looking at a "trolley problem." Less than hot coffee is just a different arbitrary line, one that will increase number of people disappointed by cold coffee. "hey, lower speeds save lives, let's put the highway speed limits at 45 and strictly enforce!" It's not something to make a morals case out of, it's a practical tradeoff.
Not 190 degrees Fahrenheit.
"Hunter has had less luck. Of the news stories, he said: “They’re infuriating but they’re comical if you have the facts… I tried to give the facts to KIRO, I tried to give the facts to Daily Mail, I tried to give the facts to Business Insider. I would send them actual proof of everything, and none of that mattered. They just wanted that [online] engagement.”
How do we solve that problem? Educate people to instead read properly informed news sources that still have journalistic integrity? Hold the journalists to a higher standard and call them out when printing sensationalist stories? Even if they are called out, the damage is usually already done. The press is supposed to check society, but who checks the press?
Both are also easier than simply paying for legitimate journalism (witness the vast number of articles here instantly posted to an archive site).
Society is the failure here - and social media is the medium. I say, unironically, on social media.
It seems that these days the only way to prevent this kind of rage bait is to make it unprofitable to publish a story so misleading. The Seattle times is just another news outlet that has found the most profitable model is printing rage bait, and there seems to be no shortage of people who will fall for it in increasingly dangerous ways.