memes

That's absolutely right; the only problem is that those chief-idiot are so rich that they control most of what the Internet means to the vast majority of people.

That's just how people are, unfortunately, as evidenced by the fact that platforms like Twitter or Reddit, for example, are still used by the masses.

Sorry, idiots are popular with idiots so the idiots vote for the idiot and now the idiot is in charge.

Thousands of articles of misinformation isn't power. It's a reminder on what to avoid and fact check.

Bosses are dumb. Use that to score extra vacation. Don't rock the fucking boat.

No, no. It’s absolutely true.

Scientists have known for years that the Earth’s gravitational field is remarkably stable—except when I fart.

At precisely 8:47 PM, I unleashed a fart of such extraordinary magnitude that NASA immediately detected a gravitational anomaly.

For exactly seven seconds, gravity simply gave up.

Cars floated. Birds were suddenly extremely confused. Somewhere in Ohio, a man watched his refrigerator slowly drift toward the ceiling.

NASA scrambled to identify the source.

“Where is this coming from?”

The technician checked the instruments.

“Sir… Georgia.”

A long silence followed.

“Dear God.”

At exactly seven seconds, gravity returned.

Scientists are now studying the event.

I have been asked not to fart again.

I have declined to comment.

If the result is I'm staying home for the day I'm happy to spread it along.

It does provide nearly unlimited access to knowledge. But, the Internet user needs to bring their own ability distinguish knowledge from strongly held ignorant opinions.

If you're an eye surgeon you can probably use the Internet to find out the newest techniques in eye surgery. You probably have enough knowledge of your own to spot fraudulent things, and to know where the real information can be found and how it can be vetted. OTOH, if you're an eye surgeon, you might know nothing about farming, so you might not be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. If you're not careful you might come away believing some crazy farming-related conspiracies.

This is the best thing I've seen on the internet all week. A whole 8 days!

In the past there were gatekeepers. That sounds like a bad thing. In some ways it was. But, at least Walter Cronkite wasn't allowed to go on a rant about the chemicals turning the frogs gay.

This is something I realised growing. Information and actual knowledge are two separate things.

The former is withour filter and the latter is under scrutiny for proper verification. In the hands of layman, it can be impossible to properly determine.

The current LLM mania is just an extension of that 'validation through evidence' that has been on-going.

Unlimited amounts of an audience for everyone 🙃

the more co2 we put in the atmosphere, the more carbonated the oceans will become

Flat Earther: Sheesh, looks like somebody's never heard of the Great Jurassic Shake-Up

Where this approach falls apart is where the argument they're making is convincing enough that it might appear legitimate to a less informed reader than you. They may not engage with the comment, but, if there's no counter-argument, instead go away believing it may have some validity.

Obviously thus doesn't apply to the more blatant forms of trolling, but even that distinction can be blurry.

Yeah, but you knew to stay away from those idiots and they kept to themselves. Now they exist either because they believe it or because clicks and have a megaphone.