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[oti]

Cancel Twitter. Just....cancel it.

(mostly joking. Mostly)

What if you had to apply for a Twitter account? Like for a driver's license you'd have to past a test and nothing would be anonymous.

🤔

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

Man, it's amazing what Metal Gear Solid 2 predicted.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Seriously, I'd love to stop hearing about both as if they were paragons of original thought. Read some history, read some older literature, etc.

You guys do know that using propaganda to disrupt social stability, credible information, and a nudge for governmental upheaval (even in the modern age) predates Hideo Kojima games, right? Idiocracy was no scrying pool either.

Errh that is already what a historian has to do. Anyone thinking that fake news, propaganda and meme like content is somehow a new phenomenon is sorely mistaken.

The amount of noise you have to sift through in historic sources is astronomical, regardles of era. The tools to sift through remain the same, so its not like its becoming harder to identify bullshit from genuine worthwhile sources.
If anything, the acceleration of content is helping in determining fakes.

The real problem is confirmation bias.

Kojima's bizarre manifesto was not about creating propaganda, but about destroying propaganda en massse to curb the proliferation of digital content. The Patriots existed to (wiki quote), "simulate and control human behavior in order to prevent society from dumbing down due to trivial information drowning valuable knowledge and inconvenient truths."

I just find it to be incredibly on the nose, especially for a game with otherwise nonsensical themes set so early in the 2000s.

Spoiler

I actually hate MGS2 as a game.

Especially given some of the reactions to Twitter in this thread. And especially given we have this very obvious example of someone who should know better and actually matters in the public eye making such a brazen, half-cocked assertion based on fake news. Hell, our current president elect and his staff regularly retweet fake news.

Primary sourcing for historical theses (which I've done, I minored in history) is going to be dramatically different as we move away from physical media.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

Technically the UK submarine commanders are to check the letters of last resort from the Prime Minister, to see what orders they should follow.

I cant help but think they're given "do what you think" or go to allied. I can't think of the hubris of a UK PM who orders the end of the world.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I cant help but think they're given "do what you think" or go to allied. I can't think of the hubris of a UK PM who orders the end of the world.

I heard that one order they had was surface and tune into the archers on radio 4. It it wasn't on then launch.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

I heard that one order they had was surface and tune into the archers on radio 4. It it wasn't on then launch.

I'm sure that's not the only thing. It's to confirm the government doesn't exist. So if the military isn't broadcasting checking other ways.

The issue with that being the only one is I'm sure it's easy to fake.

 

[E92 M3]

You guys are so dramatic. Twitter is fine. Stupid people always existed.

 

[astroturfing]

i just read about the Macedonian teenagers in that small town (Veles?) who pump out fake news as a job so they can buy new iPhones and expensive vodka and shit with the ad revenue...

that in context with this is just.. the world has gone insane. we're dumb as shit on a collective level, we shouldn't have even developed language. or invent fire. all of it was a mistake. millions of other species got completely fucked over by one primate that accidentally evolved a brain that was just a little too powerful for its own good..

 

[DarthWoo]

You guys are so dramatic. Twitter is fine. Stupid people always existed.

While technically true, it is only within about the last 50 years that some of those stupid people gained access to the means of killing millions at the turn of a pair of keys, and only within the last few years could it be based on so easily abused a system of information proliferation.

 

[Wag]

Fake news is the only news Trump gets, so be prepared...

 

[zeemumu]

It was so much easier when the only fake news you had to worry about were those tabloids next to the checkout aisle on the supermarket.

My favorite one was "Weapons of Mass Destruction Confirmed To Be Dinosaurs."

 

[jstripes]

Can we just turn off the internet at this point?

 

[ManDudeChild]

It was so much easier when the only fake news you had to worry about were those tabloids next to the checkout aisle on the supermarket.

My favorite one was "Weapons of Mass Destruction Confirmed To Be Dinosaurs."

Plutonium inside the eggs?

 

[Demoskinos]

All those theories about civilizations wiping themselves out before they can achieve Type II status were correct, weren't they?



Why would Russia nuke us when Putin can just call Trump up and ask for whatever he needs?

Yeah, Putin won't nuke us as long as he can influence Trump like the puppet he is.

 

[capitalCORN]

Yeah, Putin won't nuke us as long as he can influence Trump like the puppet he is.

Once he finds out the Russians are laughing en-mass about him tho...

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

In an all out war where nuclear weapons use is authorized, anything short of your own utter destruction is acceptable. When the base country is anhilated within minutes, nuclear submarines MAY launch their second strikes based on what their war doctrine is, but what would they really achieve unless they launched enough to destroy the other country. The letters of last resort of the UK depend on what the prime minister says. If the UK is destroyed they will either launch, do nothing, go under allied command etc. Other countries have similar doctrines.

You're not really getting what I'm saying. We're not talking about winning points on some scoreboard, we're talking about whether or not a state contemplating nuclear action against another state would need to factor in their nuclear arsenal if it wasn't large enough to guarantee total destruction. Nobody is saying "oh, only my 20 largest cities would get hit, completely wrecking the country, all major industry and killing a quarter of its population in the first 48 hours, this seems like a good idea". In order for somebody to consider that an acceptable level of loss, something truly extraordinary would need to be on the line, some alternative that is worse than that scenario. Hence, it is a credible and effective deterrent, even without guaranteeing absolutely total destruction. You would think very long and hard about attacking the UK, or China, or even Pakistan, even if you thought you could take out large portions of their arsenal in a first strike. The few that got through are not "good" losses, and if they can guarantee more than "a few" will get through by the use of hidden launchers, round the clock bomber patrols or submarines, then only in the most absolutely extraordinary of circumstances would you consider an attack on them. It is deterrence, without totally assured destruction.

 

[Pomerlaw]

Maybe they can learn from that episode and stop taking Twitter seriously.

 

[Corpsepyre]

Pakistan's a fucking joke. I live here, but I dream of escaping every day. There's not one positive thing I can tell someone about the place.

People here, politicians and all too, hate Israel and Jews with a passion. They make threats to them on a constant basis without cause. This is nothing new.