Fat Pizza

I’ve read quite a few media reports that are blaming ‘fake news’ for Trump’s win.

I say ‘blaming’ because, for some, Trump is worse than a bad thing, and they’re bad losers.

My view is that fake news on the internet generally just preaches to the converted and has little direct influence.

However, when broadcast media picks it up and runs with it, that’s different. Who’s at fault here I wonder?

And then you have our politicians making up fake news, almost daily. 

The Australian Minister for Immigration actually said on TV;

“The reality is Malcolm Fraser did make mistakes in bringing some people in the 1970s and we’re seeing that today.”

Malcolm was a people smuggler on the side? Who knew?

When asked to clarify these remarks (in Parliament) the Dutton replied;

“The advice I have is that out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist related offences in this country, 22 of those people are from second and third generation Lebanese Muslim background.”

Grammatically, so wonderfully  incorrect; I wonder where this bloke emigrated from?

What purpose this missive? I’d suggest it’s fake news. No policy change will follow. It’s just the government letting the rednecks know that they’ve been listened to and appeased.

Both sides of politics are awfully worried that they’ll lose votes to One Nation or similar.

So their solution is to walk on both sides of the tracks at the same time; conjuring up fake news and doing what they always do anyway, skewing wealth distribution towards their interest groups.

Which is simply a dumb notion, born out of their inherent lack of wisdom. It won’t work and it’ll be a painful process for them (and us) to learn this.

I do wonder to what degree people believe or care about any news, including fake news?

Gravity is worth considering. I tried this test with my administration staff; I asked them whether a heavier object falls faster than a lighter object.

Now, they couldn’t recall the actual answer. But they did recall, from high school, that it’s a trick question and hence got the right answer.

Which is to say, human intuition can be wrong, very wrong. Only those at the extremes edges of sanity get out of high school without accidentally learning this piece of wisdom.

I guess what I’m suggesting is that one doesn’t have to be highly educated to know that bullshit is rife. 

And in my experience the average Australian is pretty good at spotting bullshit. They might not admit it, they might play with it, have fun with it, tolerate it, and even suck it up.

But eventually they snap.