26,864
edits
Truth: Difference between revisions
→Fact or Fiction?
| Line 7: | Line 7: | ||
==Fact or Fiction?== | ==Fact or Fiction?== | ||
It's always been hard enough to separate fact from fiction, but in this day and age of deception, illusion, and delusion, I'm not sure it's possible any more, especially when most today seem to have forgotten their 3rd grade lessons for distinguishing between the two. On top of that, we're bombarded daily by [[Propaganda]]. As [[Propaganda#Alex_Carey_(writer)|Alex Carey]] has noted, Americans are the most propagandized people on the planet. [https://www.politifact.com Politifact.com] and [https://www.snopes.com Snopes.com] can help, but most of us make decisions based on our emotions, not facts, and often fail to distinguish between what isn't factual but merely [[wikt:opinion|opinion]] or an impression, what's only [[wikt:possibility|possibility]] or [[wikt:probability|probability]], [[wikt:circumstantial|circumstantial]], [[wikt:anecdotal|anecdotal]], or [[wikt:conjectural|conjectural]]. | It's always been hard enough to separate fact from fiction, but in this day and age of deception, illusion, and delusion (and now AI [[wikipedia:Deepfake|Deepfakes]]), I'm not sure it's possible any more, especially when most today seem to have forgotten their 3rd grade lessons for distinguishing between the two. On top of that, we're bombarded daily by [[Propaganda]]. As [[Propaganda#Alex_Carey_(writer)|Alex Carey]] has noted, Americans are the most propagandized people on the planet. [https://www.politifact.com Politifact.com] and [https://www.snopes.com Snopes.com] can help, but most of us make decisions based on our emotions, not facts, and often fail to distinguish between what isn't factual but merely [[wikt:opinion|opinion]] or an impression, what's only [[wikt:possibility|possibility]] or [[wikt:probability|probability]], [[wikt:circumstantial|circumstantial]], [[wikt:anecdotal|anecdotal]], or [[wikt:conjectural|conjectural]]. | ||
The court of public opinion is just that — opinion, not fact, or necessarily good judgement. It's nothing but mass mentality, or herd mentality that's easily manipulated into political “constituency”, or mob, by those who know how — who have [https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/3069500 means, motive, and opportunity] (''See'' — [[wikipedia:Criminal_investigation|Criminal investigation]]). It's true that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. But a lot of the people are fooled a lot of the time, and typically refuse to listen or follow the few who historically aren't fooled and who exhibit good judgement. | The court of public opinion is just that — opinion, not fact, or necessarily good judgement. It's nothing but mass mentality, or herd mentality that's easily manipulated into political “constituency”, or mob, by those who know how — who have [https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/3069500 means, motive, and opportunity] (''See'' — [[wikipedia:Criminal_investigation|Criminal investigation]]). It's true that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. But a lot of the people are fooled a lot of the time, and typically refuse to listen or follow the few who historically aren't fooled and who exhibit good judgement. | ||
In the [[wikipedia:Information Age|Information Age]], it's imperative to train ourselves to think like lawyers building court cases. We must learn the basics of logical fallacies so as not to fall prey to them. How many today know the difference between raising the question and begging the question, especially when their arguments mainly consist of ad hominem attacks on those they oppose? If we cannot concede to “point taken” or that we simply don't know, then we are not reasoned beings. And if our evidence is unreasonable and will not stand up in court, then we must accede lest we be thrown out of court and lose our conviction, or worse, maintain it on the false basis of claims to “conspiracy theory”, “truthiness”, or “alternative facts” and become guilty of slandering our neighbor. | |||
'''[https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies !]'''<br > | |||
'''[https://yourbias.is Thou shalt not suffer cognitive biases !]''' | |||
It's taken me a lifetime to unravel the mystery of [[Modernity]], and that's what this wiki is about — information gathered and organized in such a way as to aid in seeing through the noise and confusion of the world in which we live, to the heart of [[Modernity]]. | |||
'''MOD•wiki''' is not a conventional wiki that seeks to catalog factual information, which may not even be entirely possible because humans are subjective, tend toward some degree of bias or another, and are corrupted by falsehood. That's evident in how sometime before June 29, 2022 it was discovered that — [https://futurism.com/the-byte/fake-articles-wikipedia?ref=thefuturist Someone Slipped Hundreds of Fake Articles About Things That Never Happened Onto Wikipedia]. Apparently, Chinese and Russian language versions of Wikipedia suffer from this the most, but the English version is not immune either. (See Wikipedia links below that illustrate complexities and controversies surrounding Wikipedia attempts to maintain veracity and objectivity.) | |||
Such as the Wikipedia controversies won't happen here because I'm sole administrator, but that in itself is an issue of objectivity. It follows then that this site is only as convincing as the evidence and the arguments I present. I follow the principle of what I call C3 methodology — Clear, Concise, Comprehensive (but not exhaustingly exhaustive). The content here is presented for analysis and interpretation; it primarily consists of links to outside information with some quotes from linked pages together with my comments. I also try to include pop culture associations where possible to enable information to make more of a connection with everyday life, and to hammer it home, sink it deep into memory so it sticks. | |||
Information selected and how it's organized is key. For instance, [[Planned obsolescence]] is a marketing strategy so I've placed it as a subcategory of [[Marketing]] (which is a subcategory of [[Business]]). [[Fashion]] is a subcategory of [[Planned obsolescence]] because it functions in the [[Economy]] primarily that way. It could be argued that [[Fashion]] is primarily [[Art]] or [[Culture]], (and I do mention and link to it there secondarily) but that would only obscure the role [[Fashion]] plays in the [[Economy]] by way of [[Planned obsolescence]], and the role of [[Economy]] as the primary idol of [[Modernity]]. | |||
[[wikipedia:History_of_Wikipedia|History of Wikipedia]] • [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not|What Wikipedia is not]] • [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:No_original_research|No original research]] • [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:Accuracy_dispute|Accuracy dispute]] • [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:Verifiability|Verifiability]] • [[wikipedia:Criticism of Wikipedia|Criticism of Wikipedia]] • [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:Do_not_create_hoaxes|Do not create hoaxes]] • [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:List_of_hoaxes_on_Wikipedia|List of hoaxes on Wikipedia]] • [[wikipedia:Reliability_of_Wikipedia|Reliability of Wikipedia]] • [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:Wikipedia_is_not_a_reliable_source|Wikipedia is not reliable]] • [[wikipedia:Conflict-of-interest_editing_on_Wikipedia|Conflict of interest editing]] | |||
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Review Wikipedia Review] | Wikipedia<br> | |||
[https://wikipediareview.com The Wikipedia Review]]<br> | |||
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipediocracy Wikipediocracy] | Wikipedia | |||
<span style="font-family:sans-serif; font-size:120%;">[https://wikipediocracy.com/2022/01/24/the-nicholas-alahverdian-story-update/ Wikipediocracy]</span> | |||
Our Mission: We exist to shine the light of scrutiny into the dark crevices of Wikipedia and its related projects; to examine the corruption there, along with its structural flaws; and to inoculate the unsuspecting public against the torrent of misinformation, defamation, and general nonsense that issues forth from one of the world’s most frequently visited websites, the “encyclopedia that anyone can edit.... | |||
[E]ven after 20 years of existence [Jan 24th, 2022], it’s still too easy for Wikipedia to be manipulated by clever and/or tenacious bad actors, even when those bad actors aren’t particularly well-versed on the rules, or even particularly skilled at lying. | |||
</div> | |||
==Fallacy (Error)== | ==Fallacy (Error)== | ||