Twitter is randomly inserting tweets from people I do not follow and this seems to be increasing. That suggests fewer and fewer people may be posting content on Twitter, or at least posting less. In order to continue providing content and making it look like Twitter is being used, Twitter’s algorithm is inserting more random Tweets from people we do not follow.
Tom Brokaw, former NBC TV news anchor, now retired, notes that today’s media (and culture) has devolved to 24 x 7 rage, or what I call, “The culture of perpetual outrage”. He has several very good observations and comments. Social media frequently takes its cues from media. Thus, the rage and bitterness that has become common in the media gets amplified by sharing and discussion – or may be just shouting – on social media.
After Boeing’s internal records show employees criticizing the safety of the 737 MAX, Boeing insists “this is not who we are”. This is known as the “begging the question” fallacy, which is to assert that something is true, in spite of actual events, and assert everyone agrees with this. This method is extremely common in corporate and government propaganda efforts.
The graphic shows the equivalent square miles to the acreage burned in Australian wildfires. Its a huge mess of fires but this provides tremendous context to the scope. ABC (US) News ran a graphic implying that about one third of Australia was on fire 🙂 The accurate portrayal, in this Google Map, was created by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Update January 10, 2020: 1.1% of Australia’s land mass has burned, 98.9% has not yet burned. This compares to 15% of Australia’s total land mass burning in the summer of 1974-1975.
CNN and many media outlets falsely reported on a confrontation that occurred in Washington DC in January 2019. The media had the story backwards, reversed from what actually occurred, with many media outlets falsely accusing students of racism. Today, CNN has settled the lawsuit filed against them. Several related lawsuits remain pending.