OT: Hurricanes Lounge XLVI: Really, It's All About Beer and Bojangles

[Surrounded By Ahos]

Its funny, I was just talking to my wife about this last night. I remember when we were growing up, we were routinely taught to not trust anything on the internet. If we were putting a book report together, a website was never a good enough source, we needed to follow it all the way back to its source material to verify its legitimacy.

Now, the people who taught us those lessons are the very same people who are spreading the most obvious of fake crap on places like Facebook and Twitter, and routinely falling for the dumbest of online scams. They're believing everything they read on the internet, and get pissy with you if you ask them to verify their sources.

Its eye opening just how willfully dumb we've become as a society the last 20-30 years when its never been easier in human history to find a verified answer to any question in seconds.

I can't count the number of blatantly fake ai photos of 'veterans' asking for likes I've seen. And the comments are always full of people thanking them for their service. It's baffling.

Shit like this:

 

[Svechhammer]

I can't count the number of blatantly fake ai photos of 'veterans' asking for likes I've seen. And the comments are always full of people thanking them for their service. It's baffling.

Shit like this:

Or hell, what about the fake photos that went viral after Helene, and in most cases just stoked political fires

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I can't count the number of blatantly fake ai photos of 'veterans' asking for likes I've seen. And the comments are always full of people thanking them for their service. It's baffling.

Shit like this:

To make matters worse, a lot of those "Thank you for your service" comments are likely bots that respond to any post that contains the word "veteran" with that phrase.

The worst, IMO, is when someone shares something fake, you disprove it, and they respond with "Okay, so it's not true this time, but it might be true next time, so I'm going to keep this post up."

EDIT: ^ That photo of the girl and the dog is a prime example I saw.

 

[hblueridgegal]

Woman dies after wreck along closed section of I-40

Horrible! It's hard to imagine how she ignored so many road closed and exit signs. She plunged over the side where there's no road at all now. She didn't brake or skid or anything.

There's been a few more reports of other rescues happening where folks are ignoring the warning signs and road closures. Take heed! Some side roads still have so much debris on the shoulders that when a large truck or RV passes by I kinda hold my breath.

 

[cptjeff]

Woman dies after wreck along closed section of I-40

Horrible! It's hard to imagine how she ignored so many road closed and exit signs. She plunged over the side where there's no road at all now. She didn't brake or skid or anything.

There's been a few more reports of other rescues happening where folks are ignoring the warning signs and road closures. Take heed! Some side roads still have so much debris on the shoulders that when a large truck or RV passes by I kinda hold my breath.

At some point, you just have to laugh and nominate people for a Darwin Award.

 

[tarheelhockey]

So probably heresy since good Bo's is legitimately top notch, but Bo's might be the most inconsistent restaurant chain I've ever seen.

Until I moved to the Triangle, I understood Bojangles to be a “hood” type of restaurant where you can just assume the service will be terrible. I think the first time I ever had a good experience at one was the Western Blvd location.

Not unlike Popeye’s, the food was good enough for me not to totally swear it off. But it was a surprise to find that there are actual high quality Bojangles locations out there.

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

The worst, IMO, is when someone shares something fake, you disprove it, and they respond with "Okay, so it's not true this time, but it might be true next time, so I'm going to keep this post up."

Most definitely. I'm friends with a former teacher of mine from high school, and he'll share the most blatantly fake 'news' stories imaginable. One was about 'Moslems' indoctrinating children in schools, and the proof of that was a watermarked photo of a woman wearing a hijab in a classroom from gettyimages. I called him on it, and that was pretty much his exact response. How do you even move forward from that?

 

[Derailed75]

I can't count the number of blatantly fake ai photos of 'veterans' asking for likes I've seen. And the comments are always full of people thanking them for their service. It's baffling.

Shit like this:

Obviously special forces so has no issue sitting in the middle of an interstate at rush hour!!!

 

[Borsig]

Popeyes has the worst, angriest, shittiest employees ever.

 

[DaveG]

To make matters worse, a lot of those "Thank you for your service" comments are likely bots that respond to any post that contains the word "veteran" with that phrase.

The worst, IMO, is when someone shares something fake, you disprove it, and they respond with "Okay, so it's not true this time, but it might be true next time, so I'm going to keep this post up."

EDIT: ^ That photo of the girl and the dog is a prime example I saw.

yep, sadly I've been getting smacked in the face from all angles with this stuff for a while. Before the AI bullshit in the past few years there was the low effort Russian bot farm shit to stir discord starting around 2008 piggybacking off the Occupy Wall Street movement and really picking up around 2014 and the 2016 election.

And when you call people out on spreading blatantly obvious propaganda bullshit they respond with "so what it's the message that matters".

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Most definitely. I'm friends with a former teacher of mine from high school, and he'll share the most blatantly fake 'news' stories imaginable. One was about 'Moslems' indoctrinating children in schools, and the proof of that was a watermarked photo of a woman wearing a hijab in a classroom from gettyimages. I called him on it, and that was pretty much his exact response. How do you even move forward from that?

Depends on how much effort you want to put forth. Even though I feel like it should be obvious, tell them that knowingly spreading false information can be very harmful, especially when it's targeted at a specific group of people. Being a teacher, I'd hope he could point at any number of instances in history where this is true.

If you've got more time, or simply like to argue (as I do), continuously call out the false reports, with sources whenever able. Either they'll start vetting the stories on their own to prevent you from doing so, or they'll block you entirely. Which just shows they're committed to remaining ignorant, and there's nothing to be done about that.

 

[LakeLivin]

Its funny, I was just talking to my wife about this last night. I remember when we were growing up, we were routinely taught to not trust anything on the internet. If we were putting a book report together, a website was never a good enough source, we needed to follow it all the way back to its source material to verify its legitimacy.

Now, the people who taught us those lessons are the very same people who are spreading the most obvious of fake crap on places like Facebook and Twitter, and routinely falling for the dumbest of online scams. They're believing everything they read on the internet, and get pissy with you if you ask them to verify their sources.

Its eye opening just how willfully dumb we've become as a society the last 20-30 years when its never been easier in human history to find a verified answer to any question in seconds.

For many years I've said that the biggest threat to our country is hyper-partisanship. It's said that if a lie is repeated often enough most people will believe it, no matter how ridiculous. (as a nod to our mods I'll pass on naming the individual I see as by far being the most successful in our lifetimes at effectively using and promulgating that strategy). Add in hyper-partisanship where people put themselves into information silos which reinforce their beliefs and screen out anything that would run counter to those, no matter how valid. I see the anger amongst some of the zealots on either side and wonder how much of it results from cognitive dissonance when evidence contrary to a strongly held belief does break through.

I also think that there has been a significant drop in integrity amongst our populace. For many, the end justifies the means, period. Again, without going into specifics, there are numerous recent examples that bear this out.

tldr: maybe it's a matter of semantics, but I wouldn't blame our current state of society on just people getting dumber. I'd add in a big dose of hyper-partisanship as well a drop in integrity.

 

[WreckingCrew]

Next you're gonna tell me milk contains dairy...how stoopid do you think I am?

 

[Lempo]

Yes, but quite a lot of milk nowadays doesn't contain milk.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/12/us/michigan-nazi-flags-anne-frank-theater/index.html

Have I been living in a bubble or has this kind of thing become so much more commonplace over the last 5-10 years?

 

[Unsustainable]

Taste buds are weird, does Italian Sausage taste like soap to anyone else?

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Taste buds are weird, does Italian Sausage taste like soap to anyone else?

WebMD says you have “Connectivity Issues”

 

[Unsustainable]

WebMD says you have “Connectivity Issues”

not Lupus?

 

[Derailed75]

WebMD says you have “Connectivity Issues”

Huh? I thought that was an allergic reaction to cilantro!

 

[HisIceness]

Taste buds are weird, does Italian Sausage taste like soap to anyone else?

If I start experiencing this, well, in the words of Alanis Morrisette, "I couldn't help it, it's all your fault!"

 

[Unsustainable]

Why does cranberry juice taste like it doesn't want to be wet?

 

[Svechhammer]

Why does cranberry juice taste like it doesn't want to be wet?

Is that why it prevents UTIs?

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Why does cranberry juice taste like it doesn't want to be wet?

I love this.

 

[WreckingCrew]

Why does cranberry juice taste like it doesn't want to be wet?

I feel like there's a joke about somebodies prudish/uptight/self-righteous ex here...

 

[hangman005]

Popeyes has the worst, angriest, shittiest employees ever.

You haven't meet me