Opinion of calling anything that upsets your worldview fake news?

[Virginiá]

After all, it is a good way to avoid accepting other points of view!

[Virginiá]

I love how it took only a few weeks for the right-wing propaganda machine to coopt the phrase " fake news" and twist it beyond recognition. They are getting better and better at this.

It seems like it's being used more and more as a tool to deny things people don't like, from people like Limbaugh right on down to one's unhinged, fair weather uncle. If you're talking politics and someone tells you something that is false about "the other side" and someone else later tells you that reports came out proving it is false, it's just easier now to claim it's fake news. Why be objective? After all, the only objective people are select folks from "my side" whose opinions I unconditionally choke down as fact!

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semi related:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/12/if-state-lawmakers-have-their-way-california-schoolchildren-may-be-taught-how-to-spot-fake-news/?utm_term=.2d31dba94d99

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[Virginiá]

Obviously terrible, but what's perhaps just as bad is the belief that only people on the "other side" believe fake news or anything that isn't actually true. Unfortunately, the impulse to believe what we want to be true (or what will promote a narrative we like more) over what is actually true is extremely prevalent, and not limited to one party.

That's true. For what's it worth (regardless if you were implying me or not), I did try and "de-partisanize" my posts here, even if the worst of the fake news absurdity I've seen as of late has been conservative-oriented. It's a lazy feature of the human mind, and now that it's become "a thing," people have found it easier to abuse. Even worse when high-profile people seek to use this to tarnish things they know to be true but simply don't like.

Not even being able to agree on basic facts in an age of unparalleled access to information is an extremely troubling sign of society.

[Virginiá]

Long before Donald Trump came along, everyone knew CNN and FOX were incapable of producing an objective viewpoint.

It's not really about biased/slanted news. I mean that is an issue, but lets be honest, we're always going to have that problem. The issue at hand here is people essentially saying that things that upset their political views (true or not) are "fake."

I don't have an actual Facebook account anymore (but a dummy one to view stuff), but I do bookmark profiles of some of my friends so I can see whats going on once in a while, and prior to making this thread I somehow chased a conversation down the rabbit hole between two of her friends and it inevitably devolved into one person calling parts of the Trump University scandal "fake news" in a completely serious manner. Like the guy really didn't believe Trump had a "university" like that, and yes he was a Trump supporter. It gets on my nerves because now I see so many retreating into their bubbles, calling everything that is even well-documented "fake" because there is no good way you can defend your God (trump) if that stuff is actually real. I've noticed this behavior more and more over the past 2 months now.

Two things I learned from this adventure:

1) The belief that the Internet would deliver to us a highly-informed society is starting to look more and more like a failure, but not for lack of information. We have too much information now, and humans tend to develop belief systems that are remarkably difficult to challenge, no matter how misinformed, and they latch on to anything that will bolster their POV. The Internet has now delivered copious amounts of conspiracy theories, legitimately fake crap and extremely biased opinions that make it easier than ever to ignore reality - all in á la carte fashion. We can no longer even agree on basic facts that are proven, sometimes by actual video/audio.

2) I really need to get a life