Kalcifer @ Kalcifer @sh.itjust.works

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1,710

Joined

2 yr. ago

[…] If you don’t trust where you’re getting your news from, this is a problem that’s probably not gonna get fixed with citations.

Why not?

[…] As citizens we are called on to trust them to not make sh*t up. […]

Imo, that's an appeal to authority.

Or maybe we require large newspapers and other single owner/large audience influencers to cite sources if they make claims and make them liable if it turns out to be false… […]

Well, defamation laws do exist ^[1]. Other than things like that, I think one should be very careful with such times of laws as, imo, they begin encroaching rather rapidly on freedom of speech.

[…] Too much leniency, and you just end up with people posting […] tiny un-sourced blogs with snazzy titles. […]

Imo, in a perfect world, if everyone cited their sources, there would be a perfect chain of sources that leads directly to the original. If one collectively cited source was found to be inaccurate, then, logically, all connected references would be nullified.

Agreed. Imo, if the journalists simply cited their claims, then this question of whether its safe to appeal to authority wouldn't need to be asked.

[…] I’m not going to play along with bad faith questioning of common knowledge.

Leaving aside the "bad faith questioning" component, how would you handle requests for proof of what you are calling "common knowledge" in general?

If I tell him the sky is blue, and he asked for a source, am I obligated to provide that as well? […]

Imo, while not exactly proper science, a quick source for such a claim could be a simple color photo of the sky.

Seeing a lot of bots defend Wikipedia the past couple months. […]

How are you determining that they are bots? Would you, by chance, have any examples?

This person thinks that Ukraine invaded Russia, FYI.

[…] that doesn’t make them wrong […]

Nice catch of their strawman 😉

[…] I would also love to see a better place for keeping news outlets accountable for their bad publishing actions. […]

It's not immediately clear to me what you mean. Are you referring to increased transparency when a news outlet makes a mistake? Are you referring to legal action? Are you referring to something else?

[…] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Perennial_sources […]

Thank you for sharing that link! 😊

News outlets are generally graded by their historical reputabilitiy. […]

While that's good data to have, I think that any claims should be immediately verifiable. I think it's a disservice to the truth and public discourse to rely on appeals to authority for trust in one's published news. Imo, an argument is either sound or unsound — an atomic claim is either accurate or inaccurate.

When reading hard news from an outlet that actually hires journalists I consider that to be the source. […]

For clarity, do you mean that you don't care if they cite their claims?

[…] The last few years have been basically “get it written, get it out the door and fact check later if time allows”. […]

If true, that's terrible, imo. Anecdotally, it would explain a great deal.

[…] no definition on the context of economics.

Do you mean that, in your opinion, it has definitions in other contexts? If so, what would it be, and what would the contexts be?

[…] It’s a nonsensical economical theory, with no definition on the context of economics.

Hrm, if it has no definition in the context of economics, how could you know argue that, by its definition, it is a nonsensical economic theory? That seems to fail modus ponens.

[…] starting with Signal in the first place doesn’t make sense to me.

If you have the means to choose something more secure/trustworthy/robust than Signal, then I think it would be in your best interest to do so! I personally would recommend SimpleX, if possible.

[…] And it’s proven because they’ve already ["nuked" communications] before. […]

Would you mind providing a source of this? This sounds interesting, and good to know.

For reliability, I’m not concerned with how much RAM Signal’s servers have. […]

I'm not sure that I understand this statement. What does RAM have to do with with Signal's infrastructure reliability?

[…] What I should have highlighted is that Signal can nuke your communications on accident / on purpose / under coercion. […]

Are you referring to the possibility that they may be able to block communications, as they are a centralized service?