Quote:
Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan
Safe to say that Elon is the biggest liar/pusher of misinformation on the planet today? Is it even close?
|
He's top 5 for sure, but dunno if I'd put him first.
For me the runaway number 1 is Putin and the Russian machine. We know they have whole farms putting out misinformation. A large amount of it slants right as that's what they want in their own country, but some slants left too. Basically it's biggest purpose is to make us in the West angry at each other and de-stabilize our people and countries. In fact, most of what Musk and X pushes, originates from there.
Fox News and their old cronies are up there for me too. The problem with them is they have the reputation of a real news outlet when everything they push is for their bottom dollar. They figured out a long time ago that conservatives didn't like real news and science from the whole climate change problem and they just RAN WITH IT. It was no longer news, it became: tell us what we want to hear and what will scare us. I'll admit, all news stations do this a bit since the advent of the 24 hour news network. But they were the first to make misinformation, political pandering, and angry panel 'journalism' an art form. There was a reason a lot of us were calling them 'Faux News' 20 years ago!
Add to the fact you have ex-Fox hosts like Tucker Carlson who didn't have enough journalistic integrity to even stay on that station, but has now followed the money all the way to Russia still spouting blatant lies that our own Premier holds in high regard, and two or three even more alt right stations like NewsMax and AmericaOne born from Fox's business strategy, and they are easily up there in one of the worst misinformation spreaders.
(Weird to think all lot of our social ills stems from one savvy and unscrupulous Australian, but I guess someone was going to do it.)
The last I hesitate to put up because I don't think his organization does it with the same malice or greed or political ideology, but it's a big spreader of misinformation and conspiracy theories all the same... Is Joe Rogan. What was once fun 'don't trust the establishment', and 'keep your mind open to everything,' has become the biggest source of misinformation for millennials and gen Z. All under the guise of 'we're only asking questions'. It's pseudo intellectual garbage, that poses as real science and politics and philosophy. It's worse for facts than Wikipedia is, and yet is held up as a great place for intellectual debate. I guess my problem with his show is that for as big as it has become, he needs to be more responsible with it. It's the rebel that has become the establishment. Guess what, when you get paid 900 million by Spotify, you're no longer the rebel. You're no longer the free thinker. You're the establishment pushing the same old pro corporation, pro conservative think tank bullplop. You're being used, and the listeners are being used.
So yeah, there's 3 others I'd put up there with Musk. Musk is such a needy whiny creep with his misinformation though. It's definitely next level for some weird reasons.