The fake videos featured Black women with "seven baby daddies" complaining about SNAP cuts. Even if they'd been real, this would still be journalistic malpractice.
"The only real difference is that AI makes the fakes more convincing. And when Fox gets caught this time, they can claim they were 'duped' by sophisticated technology rather than admitting they never bothered to verify whether the people they were demonizing actually existed."
FAUX has been exhibiting misleading and/or outright dishonest stories and slanderous chyrons for many years now. I wouldn't put it past them to be using Sora to produce these in-house.
"The problem is that people don’t want to tell the difference when the fake confirms what they already believe, or when calling something fake protects someone they support"
It is this indifference to reality that scares me the most about the legacy of trumpism. Yes, Fox has been lying since the get go. But at one point people who knew better cared. Now we are inundated with instances and we, even on the left, respond with "all MAGATS are stupid." They aren't all stupid; many of them know exactly what they are doing and we do ourselves no favor if we dismiss them.
We may be able to keep the troops off the streets and get the funding going back to where it belongs. With a new administration we may be able to plug loopholes trump has used against further use by other wannabe autocrats. We may be able to defang some of the oligarchs. Building belief in reality will take a lot longer and be a lot harder
Will they ever decide to rejoin reality? I don't see why they would, Republicans have always had a difficult relationship with reality, which is always rudely pointing out that the things they believe are hogwash. Why not simply construct your own bubble-world where no inconvenient truth can penetrate? This project was underway long before AI came along. Now that every lie can be accompanied by "realistic" machine-generated pictures "proving" it to be "true", why would they ever want to leave?
With respect, Ms. Linehan, as an 85-year-old, near-lifelong member of the working press and student of humanities (first newspaper reporting job at age 16; interdisciplinary BA in art, mythology, sociology and history), I know neither metaphor nor precedent for the Evil that has befallen us. Please understand that Trump, our subjugation by ever-more-zero-tolerance white-male-supremacist Christian theocracy and the omnipotent high-tech/financial slavemasters Trump serves as overseer are the intended conclusion of a process that flourished because the victorious Union failed to execute the Confederate traitors. And it triumphed because the post-JFK "Democratic" (sic) Party was too compromised -- probably by its role in the coup of 22 November 1963 -- to ever again be more than the Fifth Column of the "Republican" (sic) Christonazi/Neoconfederate Party.
That said, the most accurate description I can make of what the malignant majority of 77 million ecogenocidally hateful moral imbeciles have made of our (former) republic is not just to label it a "Failed State," but the world's first Failed State deliberately forced into its irreparable failure by the Auschwitz-caliber vindictiveness of its voters. Nor is there any rational hope of liberation. Their literally bottomless loathing -- of free women; of all racial, ethnic, sexual and doctrinal minorities; of all disabled and/or non-exploitable peoples; and, yes, even of our Mother Earth -- is forever reinforced by the emulators of Josef Goebbels and their "Volkischer Beobachter" equivalent Fox News. And with the Soviet Union dead and the Red Army but a memory, there is no power on this planet capable of organizing the requisite revolution. Those who live elsewhere be thankful you are -- at least for now -- beyond der neu Führer's toxic reach.
Confirmation bias is real, and it's in all of us. And "smart" can often mean "clever at twisting the facts to fit my preconceived notions." The "smart" ones are the worst.
Something else going on here, I think, which is they're giving up on talking to anyone who's not already in the cult. Fox News is no longer a tool of persuasion used on undecided voters (if it ever was) it's a warm bath of approval for those who've already signed their souls away to the Devil.
And I think I see this shift within the Republican party itself. It's telling that the original shutdown messages they posted on government websites blamed "radical far-left Democrats", just the language cult members would want and expect. Later they dialed that back to just "Democrats" because there's apparently still someone in the party who gives a thought to how to talk to the normies, but such people are getting scarce.
Just look at any tweet Tubby sends out and ask, "Would you even know what he's talking about if you're not an Extremely Online political junkie?" James Comey? John Bolton? Who are these people? AUTOPEN?
Thank you Parker! You do fantastic work. I share your work with friends and family. I’m amazed at the depth that Fox, Trump and others will go to keep “their base” ignorant. Incredible!
"The only real difference is that AI makes the fakes more convincing. And when Fox gets caught this time, they can claim they were 'duped' by sophisticated technology rather than admitting they never bothered to verify whether the people they were demonizing actually existed."
FAUX has been exhibiting misleading and/or outright dishonest stories and slanderous chyrons for many years now. I wouldn't put it past them to be using Sora to produce these in-house.
Parker you are writing great pieces. They are sharp, clear and to the point. I'm happy to be a paying subscriber!
I would quibble slightly about saying that SORA will only get better... better at what? Creating lies. It might be worthwhile to specify that.
Keep up the good fight, Parker!
"The problem is that people don’t want to tell the difference when the fake confirms what they already believe, or when calling something fake protects someone they support"
It is this indifference to reality that scares me the most about the legacy of trumpism. Yes, Fox has been lying since the get go. But at one point people who knew better cared. Now we are inundated with instances and we, even on the left, respond with "all MAGATS are stupid." They aren't all stupid; many of them know exactly what they are doing and we do ourselves no favor if we dismiss them.
We may be able to keep the troops off the streets and get the funding going back to where it belongs. With a new administration we may be able to plug loopholes trump has used against further use by other wannabe autocrats. We may be able to defang some of the oligarchs. Building belief in reality will take a lot longer and be a lot harder
Will they ever decide to rejoin reality? I don't see why they would, Republicans have always had a difficult relationship with reality, which is always rudely pointing out that the things they believe are hogwash. Why not simply construct your own bubble-world where no inconvenient truth can penetrate? This project was underway long before AI came along. Now that every lie can be accompanied by "realistic" machine-generated pictures "proving" it to be "true", why would they ever want to leave?
from 1984 to Brave New World. What a literate bunch they are.
Throw in The Matrix, "reality" fed to you by machines so you won't make trouble for the machines.
With respect, Ms. Linehan, as an 85-year-old, near-lifelong member of the working press and student of humanities (first newspaper reporting job at age 16; interdisciplinary BA in art, mythology, sociology and history), I know neither metaphor nor precedent for the Evil that has befallen us. Please understand that Trump, our subjugation by ever-more-zero-tolerance white-male-supremacist Christian theocracy and the omnipotent high-tech/financial slavemasters Trump serves as overseer are the intended conclusion of a process that flourished because the victorious Union failed to execute the Confederate traitors. And it triumphed because the post-JFK "Democratic" (sic) Party was too compromised -- probably by its role in the coup of 22 November 1963 -- to ever again be more than the Fifth Column of the "Republican" (sic) Christonazi/Neoconfederate Party.
That said, the most accurate description I can make of what the malignant majority of 77 million ecogenocidally hateful moral imbeciles have made of our (former) republic is not just to label it a "Failed State," but the world's first Failed State deliberately forced into its irreparable failure by the Auschwitz-caliber vindictiveness of its voters. Nor is there any rational hope of liberation. Their literally bottomless loathing -- of free women; of all racial, ethnic, sexual and doctrinal minorities; of all disabled and/or non-exploitable peoples; and, yes, even of our Mother Earth -- is forever reinforced by the emulators of Josef Goebbels and their "Volkischer Beobachter" equivalent Fox News. And with the Soviet Union dead and the Red Army but a memory, there is no power on this planet capable of organizing the requisite revolution. Those who live elsewhere be thankful you are -- at least for now -- beyond der neu Führer's toxic reach.
The welfarebots are saying exactly what a right-winger would imagine them to say.
yes, that the problem You don’t have to be actually DUMB to hear what you want to believe.
Confirmation bias is real, and it's in all of us. And "smart" can often mean "clever at twisting the facts to fit my preconceived notions." The "smart" ones are the worst.
Something else going on here, I think, which is they're giving up on talking to anyone who's not already in the cult. Fox News is no longer a tool of persuasion used on undecided voters (if it ever was) it's a warm bath of approval for those who've already signed their souls away to the Devil.
And I think I see this shift within the Republican party itself. It's telling that the original shutdown messages they posted on government websites blamed "radical far-left Democrats", just the language cult members would want and expect. Later they dialed that back to just "Democrats" because there's apparently still someone in the party who gives a thought to how to talk to the normies, but such people are getting scarce.
Just look at any tweet Tubby sends out and ask, "Would you even know what he's talking about if you're not an Extremely Online political junkie?" James Comey? John Bolton? Who are these people? AUTOPEN?
Thank you Parker! You do fantastic work. I share your work with friends and family. I’m amazed at the depth that Fox, Trump and others will go to keep “their base” ignorant. Incredible!