Ep 30: Misinformation in the Information Age; Are You Caught in a World Wide Web of Lies?

Welcome one and all to Professor Metal's Irate Debate and Calamitous Commentary with the Philosophical Chain Gang

 

Today's Episode is Misinformation in the Information Age: Are You Caught in a World Wide Web of Lies?

 

The Philosophers talk about how we determine our willingness to believe information

 

The Philosophers work together to find a working definition for the term Critical Thinking

 

Ryver explains confirmation bias

 

Sean and Ryver discuss the problems found in the massive amounts of information media in modern culture, as well as a few possible ways of verifying some of these sources

 

Bruce expands on some of the means of source verification

 

Sean explains the philosophical position of skepticism and epistemic goals

 

Bruce talks about how extreme skepticism can lead to relatively implausible conclusions

 

Ryver and Bruce break down this concept in terms of the JFK assassination and stress the importance of being willing to admit and/or accept ignorance as to the facts of the matter

 

Sean explains conspiracy theories in terms of memetics

 

Bruce posits that part of the draw of conspiracy theories is that there is some comfort in having someone to blame for major tragedies rather than them having no clear villain save for, at best, incompetence

 

Sean expands on these ideas

 

The Philosophers talk about the draw of conspiracy theories on a psychological level

 

Sean and Ryver talks about how all the ideas presented thus far pertain to Marketing

 

Bruce and Sean talk about the industries that get away with outright falsehood in advertising, such as “supplements” and homeopathic treatments

 

The Philosophers talk about how the “As Seen on TV” products prey on our natural tendencies toward believing things

 

Bruce explains the signal-to-noise ratio and how this pertains to the fact that all opinions, no matter how outlandish or thoroughly falsified, can be found somewhere on the internet

 

The Philosophers talk about the pitfalls of information homogeneity and whether or not having the gatekeepers of old were better than what we have now

 

Bruce expands on the epistemic goals that Sean raised earlier

Sean explains the idea and benefits of lateral media transmission

 

Bruce talks about the importance of set goal posts for skepticism and looking in to our own bias

 

Bruce takes the last word to explain the Illuminati. Bruce also explains that if the Illuminati existed, which they do not, they would be the good guys, as well as the history of the Bavarian Illuminati, which did exist.

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