JimBowie1958
Old Fogey
- Sep 25, 2011
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There has been some discussion of Alt-Facts lately and of course the media dismisses the whole notion of alt-facts because that is in their interest. And here is why.
'Facts' are things used to form a narrative, strung together by some connecting set of arguments or logic. For example, one can assert that "the best NFL quarterback on record was Peyton Manning because he has the most career passing yardage at 71,940 yards."
A fake fact would be to assert that Dan Marino had the most passing yards at 61,000, and that would be a fake fact simply because it is inaccurate.
An alternative Fact or Alt-Fact would be a fact that is used to build an alternative narrative with different facts and arguments, such as "Aaron Rodgers is the best quarterback of all time because he has the best career QBR of 104.1." Still another narrative could be made that "Tom Brady is the best career QB because he has four and soon to be five Super Bowl rings." These are not falsehoods, but simply different facts used in a different narrative than the one used by the people who tend to form a consensus or the predominate opinion.
The major media of the five major news networks and a few newspapers have long held the advantage of being able to set the predominate narrative on events for decades now, nearly a century. And I think it is accurate to say that ever since Edward Bernays influence in the US media, the main goal of the US Oligarchs and their owned press has been to head off populism in just about all its forms and to make the more educated public feel that populism was to be equated with the evil of fascism and the Death Camps.
But we have new voices finally in this country that does not share this fear of the popular will and they unashamedly advocate the Will of the People, unfettered by the blinders of the media or the harness of the Oligarchs. They will now run the government of the USA for the benefit of the people of the USA and none other. This has sent the Oligarchs and their bought and paid for media into deliriums of phantasms of fascism and doom, but so be it. As long as their is no attempt to form a coup that is quite fine, duke it out in the political arena as a democratic process is meant to be done.
When the media crow about Trump having the smallest turnout in his inaugural address in decades, far smaller than Obamas, and show pictures taken nearly an hour before the oath of office was taken by Trump, they are using facts, how ever irrelevant they maybe, to form that narrative that Trump is unpopular.
But when Trumps team comes back with alternative facts, such as his total audience from all forms of media is a record setting audience for his inauguration, it is not a falsehood, it is simply an alternative narrative with its own set of facts, an alternative set of facts to the set of facts the major media want to use to spin their narrative instead of Trumps.
Thus we have Alt-Facts that are not false facts.
'Facts' are things used to form a narrative, strung together by some connecting set of arguments or logic. For example, one can assert that "the best NFL quarterback on record was Peyton Manning because he has the most career passing yardage at 71,940 yards."
A fake fact would be to assert that Dan Marino had the most passing yards at 61,000, and that would be a fake fact simply because it is inaccurate.
An alternative Fact or Alt-Fact would be a fact that is used to build an alternative narrative with different facts and arguments, such as "Aaron Rodgers is the best quarterback of all time because he has the best career QBR of 104.1." Still another narrative could be made that "Tom Brady is the best career QB because he has four and soon to be five Super Bowl rings." These are not falsehoods, but simply different facts used in a different narrative than the one used by the people who tend to form a consensus or the predominate opinion.
The major media of the five major news networks and a few newspapers have long held the advantage of being able to set the predominate narrative on events for decades now, nearly a century. And I think it is accurate to say that ever since Edward Bernays influence in the US media, the main goal of the US Oligarchs and their owned press has been to head off populism in just about all its forms and to make the more educated public feel that populism was to be equated with the evil of fascism and the Death Camps.
But we have new voices finally in this country that does not share this fear of the popular will and they unashamedly advocate the Will of the People, unfettered by the blinders of the media or the harness of the Oligarchs. They will now run the government of the USA for the benefit of the people of the USA and none other. This has sent the Oligarchs and their bought and paid for media into deliriums of phantasms of fascism and doom, but so be it. As long as their is no attempt to form a coup that is quite fine, duke it out in the political arena as a democratic process is meant to be done.
When the media crow about Trump having the smallest turnout in his inaugural address in decades, far smaller than Obamas, and show pictures taken nearly an hour before the oath of office was taken by Trump, they are using facts, how ever irrelevant they maybe, to form that narrative that Trump is unpopular.
But when Trumps team comes back with alternative facts, such as his total audience from all forms of media is a record setting audience for his inauguration, it is not a falsehood, it is simply an alternative narrative with its own set of facts, an alternative set of facts to the set of facts the major media want to use to spin their narrative instead of Trumps.
Thus we have Alt-Facts that are not false facts.
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