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Memories of the 28th Century

Miscellaneous thoughts about miscellaneous matters

  1. Falsifying Data

    by , 07-23-2022 at 03:42 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    Today, July 22, 2022, I ran into another example of someone(s) trying to control how people thought about something by controlling the data. Specifically, it was in regard to the Cambrian Explosion. The manipulator of facts had a set of conclusions and edited the facts to get there, and other opinions be damned. That was how news media in the Soviet Union turned opinion toward the government, and it is how the U.S. Government tries to turn opinion in its favor. That method is easiest to see in regard ...
  2. When Slavery Ended

    by , 06-12-2020 at 08:54 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    I might have heard of Junteenth is the past, but I do not recall it. Today I heard, or read, of it several times, so I looked it up. It appears to be the anniversary of when a military officer announced the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. Apparently, some people got the impression that it was the end of slavery in the U.S.A.. Alas, they were mistaken. Slavery ended in the U.S.A. On December 5, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified.

    There ...
  3. Spotting the Lies

    by , 10-26-2018 at 01:51 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    I was working on a work of fiction, when I realized that what I had one character complain about was a major problem in today's world. The character was talking about setting up a school that would teach the basics of Rhetoric and Logic, so that the graduates would later be able to make better arguments and to detect fallacious arguments. The problem is that most people never learn the basics of argumentation and logic, so they can't tell when someone is using a logical fallacy, and much of the ...
  4. Big Lies and Fake News

    by , 06-24-2018 at 03:48 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    A lie told often enough becomes truth.
    Nicolai Lenin

    The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously." from Mein Kampf

    “...a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.” from Machiavelli's, The Prince, note 2, at ch. XVIII

    The ...
  5. Why Do They Believe?

    by , 04-25-2017 at 05:01 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    Once again I was thinking about propaganda and why people believe it, so I did a little searching to see what others might think of the matter. It appears that a major problem is that it is difficult to tell the difference between real news and fake news. Both real and fake news assert things and provide alleged witnesses and sometimes expert opinions. I suspect that another component is whether the news fits what the reader wants to find out.

    In political news the desires of the ...

    Updated 04-29-2017 at 07:13 PM by PeterL

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