caution, confusion ahead

On the last Friday of each month, without any assistance from Gen AI, I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

Disinformation, Misinformation, or Propaganda?

1. A video posted directly by Israel’s Defence Forces claimed that it had found Hamas weapons and technology, as well as a “list of terrorist names” in Arabic, showing each agents’ rota guarding Israeli hostages under the Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital in Gaza. However, a translation of the document shows that it contains no names but instead a calendar of the days of the week. Vedika Bahl explains in this episode of Truth or Fake. —France24 2023-11-16

2. Before [Preston] Manning’s real Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel of 2023, there was his imagined COVID Commission of 2023.

To read both is to behold the fantasy evolve into reality. Although the Smith government gave him a panel and a $2-million budget for research and support — they also endowed him with the restraints of reality, one supposes — many conclusions essentially remained the same. —CBC 2023-11-23

3. Right-wing U.S. media covered fiction as fact: A non-existent terrorist attack from Canada at Rainbow Bridge — “I have been sounding the alarm bell about the northern border for a long time,” said Vivek Ramaswamy [US Republican Presidential candidate] during a lengthy interview about an incident he did not witness, was not a subject-matter expert on, and had no insight into. —CBC 2023-11-22

“The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders.” —Eric Hoffer (1955) The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms

A discussion with Naomi Klein on wellness culture: ‘We really are alive on the knife’s edge’ — 2023-11-15

Whenever you are working within a system of a hierarchy of humans and bodies, then you’re in fascism territory. I think that it made perfect sense that Nazis were body obsessives who fetishized the natural and the hyper-fit form and genes.

There is a connection between certain kinds of new age ideas and health fads and the fascist project …

… When we moved back to Canada and started doing election campaigning, my partner Avi knocked on a door and met a very fit person who looked like I could have taken an Ashtanga class with her. And all she wanted to talk about was vaccine passports and how she was opposed to vaccines. She said: “I have a strong immune system.” And he, very tentatively, said: “Well, yes, but not everybody does.” And she said: “I think those people should die.”

AI Companies are running out of training data

Considering that most of the AI datasets that are currently being used to train AI systems are made from internet-scraped data originally created by, well, all of us online, data partnerships may not be the worst way to go. But as data becomes increasingly valuable, it’ll certainly be interesting to see how many AI companies can actually compete for datasets — let alone how many institutions, or even individuals, will be willing to cough their data over to AI vacuums in the first place.

The Perfect Pedestrian; or, making the world safe for motocracy — Punch 1927 via @ccferrie

Agnotology: the strategic & purposeful production of ignorance —danah boyd > an understanding of my confusion