Ignoring the nonsense that is OAN... does no one else find humour in the fact that in 2021 we are watching an uploaded video of a screenshared phone recording of a TV news clip? Instead of you know.... just the news clip?
Over 100 fully vaccinated people contract COVID-19 in Washington state, officials say
- Thread starter Robert Upndown
- Start date
This goes right to the heart of the problem.
Many news outlets do very badly on reporting science, whether it's covid, space, computers, whatever. Even the best intentioned can misinterpret the science, while the malevolent ones can twist it to suit their agenda.
Whenever possible readers should try and go to the original source material. Many papers are available online.
I've said this repeatedly for many years, somewhere along the way a good subset of the population lost the ability to think critically. Maybe never had it to begin with but one doesn't have to go far to see how wacked out some folk's thought processes can be. Conspiracy bullshit, news as entertainment, exaggerated or just flat out false reporting, all provide the fodder for this.
When it comes to science, because it may need more than a simple A to B explanation, those same folks jump to whatever they heard last. As an example when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant went into meltdown 10 years ago, within a couple days people were freaking out that their kids would be drinking radioactive milk, that all the fish would be contaminated, that a plume of strontium 90 was going to envelope the earth and cause an extinction event ... The media did a half assed job of discussing this, better than when Chernobyl happened in the 80's but still a poor job. Maybe that is all they can do as people just don't listen.
Some preacher in bygone days said "first you tell them what you are going to tell them; then you tell them; then you tell them what you told them" and a 1/3 of them will get it. So you do it 3 times. Maybe that is the key thing happening, it's too much work to get it right, so people just hang on to whatever they believe resonates with them. Whatever the issue, the fringe shit that is out there floats up and people think these floaters are what is real. I tell you its tough being a man of science these days and trying to educate people.
When it comes to science, because it may need more than a simple A to B explanation, those same folks jump to whatever they heard last. As an example when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant went into meltdown 10 years ago, within a couple days people were freaking out that their kids would be drinking radioactive milk, that all the fish would be contaminated, that a plume of strontium 90 was going to envelope the earth and cause an extinction event ... The media did a half assed job of discussing this, better than when Chernobyl happened in the 80's but still a poor job. Maybe that is all they can do as people just don't listen.
Some preacher in bygone days said "first you tell them what you are going to tell them; then you tell them; then you tell them what you told them" and a 1/3 of them will get it. So you do it 3 times. Maybe that is the key thing happening, it's too much work to get it right, so people just hang on to whatever they believe resonates with them. Whatever the issue, the fringe shit that is out there floats up and people think these floaters are what is real. I tell you its tough being a man of science these days and trying to educate people.
