Regarding the title of this thread, I read this in a book maybe 10 years ago and thought it a bit far-fetched at the time. It doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched now.

Pondering the current state of misinformation and rubbish circulating the internet – and I am by no means an expert on the subject – I can only see things getting worse as time goes on.

Will it be the case that in the future the various world Governments will end up issuing lists of trusted websites that are deemed to be factually correct and a ‘safe’ source of information? If so, I wonder what Trump’s ‘factually correct’ list would look like, or Putin’s?

How will we know what we read is true?

Or will STW become the only trusted source?

How will we know what we read is true?

The problem is always what is and isn’t true.  Even The Guardian is guilty of printing stuff that although isn’t untrue is bending what others might consider to be a true picture.  I’m also not sure I want governments selecting what they consider to be true and not true as although being European I trust my government more than the US folks, I still don’t completely trust them 🙁

We live in a time of ‘post’ truth. The truth is what one believes is true. This ‘truth’ is endorsed by whatever media outlets we chose to watch, listen to, or read, based on those beliefs. No, there is no hope.

if its on Facebook it’s got to be true.

It’s always too late. The patient is dead. The untruth (and appetite for it) is already out there. With the global population and means/speed of dissemination at current levels we are pretty much self-doomed.

Swift was correct (if not handily prescient)on this point some three centuries ago

Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.

Jonathan Swift
The Examiner No. XIV (Thursday, November 9th, 1710)

^ I *believe* that there is paraphrase of this same quote currently doing the rounds. Not as a warning, but as encouragement to tell lies and weaponise untruths for political expedience and influence. As ever, I’m usually happy to be proven wrong if anyone has better evidence

Wellingborough Conservatives have encouraged Tory members and activists to lie and weaponise fake news.

I've written to Conservative Party Chair @AmandaMilling to demand an urgent investigation and ask whether it is official Tory Party policy to “weaponise” fake news. #PMQs pic.twitter.com/PRQvC3V9Si

— Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) December 16, 2020

The Currency Of The Future Is The Truth

I think you’ll find the world is currently bankrupt.

Not so much objective truth, but rather what news and information  you actually see and trust is the key.

Neal Stephenson has an interesting take on echo chambers, bias and balkanisation of communities in his mist recent book.

Luckily it’s at the beginning so you don’t have to read the slightly turgid other thousand pages of so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall;_or,_Dodge_in_Hell

It has always been the case. The only difference is that now there’s noone to hold accountable.

There’s a lot of neuroscience involved. People do what gives them pleasure. This means they like hearing things that make them feel right and dislike things that make them feel wrong. They also don’t like feeling that something they are emotionally invested in is a lie or not in fact worthy of their belief

This is what allows racism, xenophobia and jingoism to flourish. Which are hardly modern phenomena.

‘The Currency Of The Future Is The Truth’

Currency has always been open to forgery.

What no-one has mentioned is the main driver behind the explosion of this appetite for utter bolx/utter untruth?

Personal gain (fiscal and/or via influence)

The selling of nightmares is still the selling of dreams. Different side of the same coin. It’s a bit meta, like ‘The Cultural Marxist’s War Against Christmas’.

The ‘war against/reason for Christmas’ was arguably already long won by commercialism/consumerism. So a new niche was required. What better product than a scare-story that most of the World is now against the true religious tradition of the Christian Festival Of Christmas? Pretend as if the enemy isn’t consumer capitalism. Pretend that the enemy is the non-Christian/Atheist/Leftist/Marxist. ie ‘the Enemy’. Also twist ‘secularist’ to now mean ‘non-Christian’, even ‘non-Freedom’. Who would do such a thing? Who would sell such nightmares? Who would profit from such untruths? Who would buy such putridful roses? Maybe a ‘prize’ would serve as a product?

The prize? Piety, victimhood, ‘being right’, and ‘fighting the Enemy while being on the side of ‘good’, with a side-helping of righteous indignation? Buy a T Shirt and share the word. Grow the prize bigger. In manure. More manure. Info Wars! War against information? War for information? Warformation? I drank too much beer. But here:

It’s not like this is new. Just easier to do now. History is full of lies and bent truths to get people to do what was wanted of them.

What we need to start doing is trying to get people to notice and care about it. Understand who is providing the information, who paid for it, what are the motives and what bias they may have.

I think the phrase alluded to up there is “the lie is halfway round the world before truth has got its boots on”.
There are 3 sides to every story; your side, my side, and what actually happened.

Will it be the case that in the future the various world Governments will end up issuing lists of trusted websites that are deemed to be factually correct and a ‘safe’ source of information?

Why on Earth would they do that when they are the ones spreading misinformation and downright lies?

Johnson & Trump are the perfect examples of post truth politics

What’s worrying is that those that follow them could well be worse

They’ve seen how effective lies & social media can be