In this episode, Don and Rob are joined by Jack Ward to discuss the book Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday and the implications that come with his tell-all book about media manipulation. The three delve into the techniques used by Holiday and media manipulators, how the media hacks human psychology, and why fake news may have always been with us. All this, and the startling truth about the reptilian invasion, is waiting for you in this episode of The Department of Nerdly Affairs.
Closing Music:
Ode to Joy performed by Oliver Eckelt
Things Discussed:
Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday
“You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” – William Randolph Hurst
Source Amnesia
The Thunderbird Photo
The Backfire Effect
Yellow Journalism
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
James O’Keefe
Andrew Brietbart
D&D Satanic Panic
The Internet Research Agency (Russian Troll Farm)
A Russian Facebook page organized a protest in Texas. A different Russian page launched the counterprotest.
Gawker Media
4-chan
8-chan
Nick Denton
Jezebel
Freakonomics
The Lumiere Brothers
The New York Sun / Benjamin Day
Mutual Audio Network
Scott Adams (Created Dilbert)
Kinda Racist? Try Diet Racism! (Collegehumour)
This Video Will Make You Angry
What is an Influencer?
Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
Quora
Jordan Peterson
The Year 2525
The Congress (film)
Haven’t heard the whole podcast yet, but I think you discussion omitted the Gell-Mann-Amnesia effect. This is not a new phenomena, I remember having discussed this issue when I was an English major way way way back in the 1980s
https://calhounpress.net/blogs/blog/78070918-wet-streets-cause-rain-michael-crichton-on-the-gell-mann-amnesia-effect
Yeah… there’s a lot of weird things that come into play when it comes to our media consumption. Some of them…. like this one…. are counter-intuitive. MAYBE. What they elude to is that what we THINK we get from our entertainment and news isn’t what we REALLY get. So in this case, we develop a…. I dunno, let’s say fondness…. for the media in question perhaps ‘cos the poorly thought out article…. and our noticing it as such, gives us warm fuzzies that we associate with the publication IN GENERAL. Thus giving us an all around more positive view of it.
Tying the counter-intuitive thing in to the book review, it’s weird that we’ll consume a LOT of media that makes us angry…. unless you take the perspective that getting mad FEELS like we’re engaged and active, makes us feel productive and maybe even important; so we seek out rage inducing stuff.
Don C.
Here’s an interesting statement (commenly attributed to Mark Twain) which is appropriate to the discussion:
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.”
Finally got around to listening to this fascinating discussion!
Just ordered the book from my local library and once it comes in, my wife and I both are going to devour it.
Per Jack’s optimistic comments near the end of the discussion (about how people who are smart enough to build an AI wouldn’t be stupid enough to let it get out of control)… yeah they’ll absolutely be that stupid.
I work in Silicon Valley and some of the most brilliant coders I know are absolute technocrats who believe that building any new computer tech is bringing us closer to some form of techno-evolutionary utopian enlightenment… no matter what it is or how it is used.
And that doesn’t even bring into the equation the growing number of flat-earthers that I keep having to hear arguments from.
Without hyperbole, I know a person who is now working at Google who is working on types of AI who is both a flat-earther, a survivalist, and someone who actually believes the modern conspiratorial conception of an Illuminati exists.
Lothar,
I’m glad you enjoyed the episode. Unlike Jack, I really do believe AI will be the end of humanity. Heck, maybe it already has been and we’re living in a virtual theme park where AIs watch us for their amusement. (See litRPG episode!)
Definitely check out the book! Trust Me, I’m Lying! is a real eye-opener about media and humanity. I can’t recommend it enough!
>some of the most brilliant coders I know are absolute technocrats who believe that building any new computer tech is bringing us closer to some form of techno-evolutionary utopian enlightenment
One of the problems you get from dedicated folks is that they tend to see their “thing” as THE Thing. So…. if you’re a computer person then computers are OF COURSE gonna save us all! (If you know anyone into cross-fit, then you’re familiar with this phenomenon….)
>I know a person who is now working at Google who is working on types of AI who is both a flat-earther, a survivalist, and someone who actually believes the modern conspiratorial conception of an Illuminati exists.
Yeah…. we kinda cover why this is so prevalent in our “Culture War Profiteering” episode.
>I really do believe AI will be the end of humanity.
Hmmmm…. dunno if I think it WEILL be the end, but I can see it happening, and I think it’ll be a lot stupider than anyone has ever imagined. (For the last few years I’ve pictured the end of humanity being less “Terminator” and more “Idiocracy.”)
Don C.