Can You Get Up Off Your Knees?

The Medium is The Message

Where is the information coming from?

“As AI continues to improve, it’s getting harder to deny that artificial intelligence is now the mastermind behind our media consumption. From the ads we see to the YouTube rabbit holes we go down, AI algorithms personalize our content, proving that the medium (AI-driven platforms) shapes our experiences and choices.” -- Angie Pitts, Medium

The assault on the American population of disinformation (fueled by Russian propaganda) is out of control. Social media platforms have diligently blocked efforts by researchers to mine data in their sites to expose misinformation.

XChan charges researchers $42,000 per month to access data for large-scale research. The owner, Elmo Musk’s own AI has labelled him as one of the largest spreaders of misinformation on the platform. When he purchased Twitter, it was all about “Free Speech!”

“At the center of it all is Musk, whose turn to hard-right ideology has led him to spout and amplify untruths with abandon, algorithmically forcing them onto an audience of millions. But he wasn’t always so deep into the reservoir of easily debunked rumors and bogus claims. In this timeline, we trace how he turned X into a misinformation machine.” –Rolling Stone

Meta has made it nearly impossible for journalists and researchers to access data. TikTok is a joke. The platform is filled with non-stop misinformation and lies and zero moderation.

Prebunking Lies

Prebunking is a strategy of inoculation and intervention…cutting off the lies before they have a chance to spread. Again, it is difficult because the platforms rely on user engagement and have shut down ways for researchers to access data and counter misinformation and they have no moderators.

“Efforts to quantify and understand misinformation on social media are hampered by lack of access to user data from social media companies.” -- 8 recommendations for countering misinformation (APA)

Thus, “doing your own research” can be monumental. Most misinformation is easy to spot because it is so dumb. Misspelled words or outrageous claims stand out and can be easily fact checked. What does gold in Germany have to do with candy in Britain? Open your eyes sheeple!

“Give readers their candy, not their vegetables.” ― Barbara McQuade, Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America

Prior to the current avalanche of misinformation, you could go to a site like Snopes and ‘research’ the veracity of something you saw online.

For example, a current post making the rounds on social media is one that claims Trump has an IQ of 73. While this certainly sounds true, the data behind the claim is false. If you see the post and think, “Yeah, sounds about right to me,” and you repost or reshare the meme, you are contributing to the cesspool of false information flooding the internet. Snopes also hosts a fake website directory.

The goal of misinformation is to divide the country so that the oligarchs can more easily pick our pockets. If you are getting fired up over some ‘post’ you saw online, you are looking at the left while they fleece you on the right.

The other problem with Prebunking is the sources. Many fake websites purport to be purveyors of “truth” while they are set up to promote lies and falsities. While dated, you can check places like FactCheck.org and their Misinformation Directory, which lists these websites that are set up as warehouses of misinformation. Like Snopes, they have a Debunking Viral Claims page that helps you find out the truth behind a viral meme.

The Worst Offender: The Manosphere

“Now, other right-wing manosphere influencers are repackaging Tate’s odious rhetoric for their own audiences. They are using social media to spread their messages and are diversifying their content strategies, posting on various platforms, and are pushing the limit on how far their hate speech can go (and often evading social media bans in the process).” -- Beyond Andrew Tate: Meet the misogynistic “manosphere” influencers proliferating across social media

Yes, Thomas Jefferson actually said this. And yet, we are forced to look at all data online as suspect. Jefferson also said of boys: “The boys of the rising generation are to be the men of the next, and the sole guardians of the principles we deliver over to them.”

There is no area of the internet more destructive right now than the Manosphere. Young male minds are being polluted/radicalized by “influencers” that peddle misogyny, violence and racism. After all, “We’re just bros.”

The “bros” helped to get an adjudicated rapist elected president and they pose a clear and present danger to women. This has gone far past the 1999 “But I’m a Cheerleader” motif with the famous line: “Silly f*ggot, d*cks are for chicks.”

It is the “Alpha” male versus the “Beta Cuckhold” and appeals to the INCEL community which is violent, antigay and misogynistic.

The Manosphere ‘Bros’ are radicalizing a generation of men setting them up to be terrible “guardians of the principles.”

One of these creepy Manosphere dudes is now running T***p’s scam crypto business. Zachary Folkman. “Folkman ran a company called Date Hotter Girls, offering advice under a pseudonym on how to pick up women at bars.”

Not only are these “influencers” radicalizing the young men of today, but they are also grifters who are taking financial advantage of the disgruntled young males and furthering the divide between the sexes.

Women are getting educations and good paying jobs while the Manosphere ‘Bros’ are hawking crypto coins and promising INCELS that they “can make millions.”

“But despite this, influencers continue to profit off of promoting toxic masculinity and violence against women, creating content associated with the "manosphere" community, which includes incels—the most aggressive faction, according to the ADL.” --Salon

The entire Manosphere was born from early influencers peddling misinformation. Sadly, young men being radicalized into the Manosphere cannot use Google and educate themselves as to how far out of the mainstream and how much bullshit these ‘influencers’ sling.

We can no longer rely on places like the Southern Poverty Law Center to expose these sites. There needs to be a concerted backlash of quality information that counters this movement. It is no longer fringe; it has been mainstreamed into the culture.

Blocking INCELs on Reddit or creating ‘safe spaces’ for women is not enough. The “bad” information being pumped out by the Bros needs to be counter-programmed to give young men alternative sources and help educate them to be Guardians.