Fifty years ago, it would be because a trial takes time. A trial this big, with repercussions this big and a defendant list this large, will take months or even years to play out.

Fifteen years ago, it would be because, with people this rich who have this much money to pay the best lawyers, the pre-trial work needed to get the prosecution started takes a huge amount of time to do right, because any attempt to speed it up in a way that isn’t very, very careful, with every i dotted and every t crossed, could end up in a mistrial and the person walking free.

Five years ago, it would be because the DOJ was absolutely mortified by the fear of being “politically motivated.”

But right now, it’s because the DOJ is explicitly no longer independent, and the guy in charge of it doesn’t want anyone listed in the files to be prosecuted because he’s in there, and if anyone gets prosecuted, he has to be.

Wow. I could code up that “AI” in an afternoon, and I wouldn’t even need an LLM for it.

“sigh No, I’m Terence Shrewsbury-McEllen-Smith-Harper-Thomas-Capote. You’re looking for Terence Shrewsbury-McEllen-Harper-Thomas-Capote-Smith.”

“No, we’re not related.”

It’s called Live Plus.

If you’ve never heard of Live Plus before, it’s a feature on LG smart TVs that uses ACR (automatic content recognition) to analyze what’s displayed on your screen (via The Markup). LG then uses that data to offer “personalized services,” including content recommendations and advertisements.

[…]

On Samsung smart TVs, for example, you can disable targeted ads by going to Privacy Choices, selecting Terms and Conditions, and toggling off Viewing Information Services and Internet-Based Advertisement Services. On Roku TVs, ACR can be turned off by disabling Use info from TV inputs, which is tucked away in the settings menu under Smart TV Experience.

Saved you a click.

If this is something you’re actually going through, OP, you should know that (1) the trimesters can all feel dramatically different, sometimes even turning on a dime, and (2) it’s definitely always ok to call up your OB anytime if something feels wrong.

I already talked you through it in the linked comment, and honestly if you don’t get it I don’t think I can make it any simpler.

In any case, I’m not taking homework from you. I know how I arrived at this conclusion, and you’re free to believe me or not. Have a good night.

But how does including sources make that world? How does it move from point A to point B?

I addressed that very objection at the beginning of the conversation.

You haven’t thought of that at all. You’re applying reasoning to positions you hold, not reasoning to reach positions.

That’s particularly hilarious since the comment I’m talking about was from fifteen hours ago.

I’ve been thinking about media literacy for decades at this point. I’m not naive enough to be certain that this is some foolproof magic bullet, but I think it’ll help, and it’s definitely not going to hurt public discourse.

You’re contending that sharing sources online won’t accomplish anything because people are resistant to changing their opinions. Yes, that’s currently true; and while I see a benefit in the current world to sharing sources, why not also imagine a world in which it actually does change opinions? There’s no physiological or psychological law that makes opinion change impossible. People can change because people do change, so why don’t we do what we can to make that more common?

People behave like this now for a lot of complicated reasons. For one, changing opinions hurts us (physiologically), so our brain tries to prevent it; that’s something that can be eased with exposure. Also, rich people and foreign interests have a vested interest in keeping people susceptible to misinformation, and greater media literacy is really the only tactic that can combat it.

But more importantly, the world we live in now isn’t the only world we ever have to live in. It’s going to change one way or another; why not take steps to make it change into something more like what we want to live in?

No, I’m absolutely not saying that. I’m saying we should normalize having sources and not just blindly repeating a thing we heard.

You’re talking about a current reality. I’m talking about normalizing a different future.

No. I’m not running on a fantasy. I’m trying to bring into existence a world that doesn’t yet exist. I know that people aren’t rational, but if my mind can be changed by facts, they have to have some value.

Yeah, definitely. But:

1. It’s a lot easier to answer the disinformation if you know where it’s coming from. Part of the thing that makes my head spin about the GOP news cycle is how even I (a chronically-online, fairly well-informed person) will have absolutely no idea where some people come up with the nonsense they come up with. Is it from their own mind? Is there some fringe community on Facebook doling out steaming dog piles of AI-generated anti-vax nonsense? Is it a legitimate outlet, and they’re just massively misunderstanding it? Knowing where it comes from can really help in combating it; even if you can’t stop the current fake news, you might be able to head the next one off before it takes root.

2. Sometimes just the process of needing to find a source can make people look twice. It works for me, even: if I want to write something I’m pretty sure about, and then go looking for a source, sometimes I’ll find out that that source isn’t reliable, or that it was retracted. Sometimes I’ll even find out that what I remembered was true, but it’s way better or worse. I become more media literate sourcing my facts.

And he represents just one of hundreds of deadly misinformation campaigns in the last thirty years alone.

This. As soon as we treat them as “only monsters,” we start to think that “regular humans” aren’t capable of monstrous things.

Because misinformation and disinformation are way more dangerous than anyone takes seriously; in my opinion, it could legitimately cause the end of our species. I think that being forced to at least have sources to support your assertion can help.

And I’m saying it should be normalized, especially for high-emotion and controversial topics. It shouldn’t just be for academic or professional work, but for casual conversation, too. I don’t think people should necessarily be forced to post sources every time, but they should definitely be encouraged to do so when asked.

Misinformation and disinformation are an extinction-level threat for our species. I’m not exaggerating. And I think that being forced to at least have a source can help.

Just because it doesn’t work doesn’t mean we shouldn’t normalize it.

Just because nobody cares doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to normalize them.

Took me a minute, too.