>John Stuart Mill’s notion that a “marketplace of ideas” will elevate the truth is flatly belied by the virality of fake news.
Wow. I think this sentence is a great example. The author makes no attempt to convince us that fake news is actually winning out over real news - they just assert it along with their primary claim in the hope that we will be carried along into both by the momentum of their article.
Yellow journalism goes back to the beginning of press freedom and lying goes back to the beginning of speech. We've had ways of combating these things for generations - ways that can't be used to make false statements - but people have always wanted to reach over and silence their opponent through (sometimes abstract) force. The problem with that? Your opponents can sometimes do it to you, too.
Wow. I think this sentence is a great example. The author makes no attempt to convince us that fake news is actually winning out over real news - they just assert it along with their primary claim in the hope that we will be carried along into both by the momentum of their article.
Yellow journalism goes back to the beginning of press freedom and lying goes back to the beginning of speech. We've had ways of combating these things for generations - ways that can't be used to make false statements - but people have always wanted to reach over and silence their opponent through (sometimes abstract) force. The problem with that? Your opponents can sometimes do it to you, too.