‘Merica’s addiction to fake

[arewethereyet]

Well...good point.  I love, love, love my Harley boots in the cold weather but I don't own a Harley and didn't ride when my husband had one.

I didn' t like my riding boots in the winter....

Steel toed boots suck in snow.....

Snow isn't usually an issue here. The boots I have remind me of my jump boots when I was in the Army.  I didn't jump either, but the boots looked cooler than the regular ones.

[Angrboda]

Life is an obstacle course. If you make it to the end without dying, you win! What do you win? Eternal slumber.

[tackattack]

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Some people do see them as entertainment.  Just because you don't doesn't mean that follows for everyone.

Do we really need warnings on everything?  I am bright enough to know not to use my hair dryer while I'm sleeping or use the toaster in the bathtub.  I also know that FOX isn't the place to go for unbiased news.  Do we really need to be babysat on everything.  Parents should monitor what their kids take in, but damn, as an adult I am capable of making decisions....I may make the wrong one sometimes but I think I've earned the right to not have someone dictate every little thing.

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Fair point. You've more than earned your right, as an adult to have your freedoms. But what if your decisions aren't your own. We all drift around on autopilot, on our phones, How many of the free decisions you make are actually free of marketing bread (breeded??? ) biases and influences? If you’re (not you specifically, just generally) decisions aren't completely free.. then how are you different from the children who's parents should be monitoring them?

You paint a picture of free adults walking where they want and doing what they want, but all I see is a dog show with American's being led on a leash by marketing campaigns.

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Should the ftc expand advertisements to news?

This has become a tricky thing.

Liberals, who formerly stood up for a free press, have started demanding that the government or zillion-dollar corporations (Facebook, Google) censor what people post. Or at least they did when Trump was in; Biden's lies generate less concern. 

In practice this has caused even more fakery. For example the big news people supported Biden over Trump, so they dismissed certain news stories as Russian propaganda. Yet a lot of them turn out to be true. (e.g. Hunter's laptop was real.) If you cast doubt on early statements about Covid (e.g. you won't get it if you're vaccinated) your doubts were flagged as misinformation, but it turned out that doubt was warranted. 

I suppose it's human nature: we want to believe what suits us.

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Fair point we want what suits us, but when does the child that doesn't know better, not prefer candy for dinner? How can we know better when there is no truth in advertisement, news, life?

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Fake news, fake food, influencers, “reality” shows, fake body parts…. I mean even influencers are going virtual. I mean when the people faking a fake life can’t even have the decency to be live people isn’t it a little extreme? Why does America have an obsession with the fake and how can it be mitigated? If Alex jones can be guilty why can’t trump?

There is a perception that americans tend to play a part. If you come from texas odds are you will wear a stetson, cheer leaders wear the work out kit all the time. If you are a christian they can be aggresively christian. An old boss of mine met an american christian whose first interaction with him was while shaking his hand to say "are you sharp for the lord?" so americans are seen as tending to be more shallow, or as one french girl friend I had said when some brash tourists went by, (as we drank wine outside a cafe in Paris) "America is a nation of children"

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This... so this. Were we always so shallow, always playing a part? how do you get the dog being walked in a dog show to see himself as more than a dog?

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Maybe so many people are addicted to ‘fake’ is because ‘real’ has become so bloody terrifying.

Boru

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This too.... wow. The truth is hard to deal with usually. Is is because it makes uncomfortable to see ourselves/others, Or a lack of having intrinsic value and worth in others and ourselves? Does our skepticism in nothing's real devalue our lives to the point nothing is worth attaining?


All good food for thought. Thanks everyone for participating.

[arewethereyet]

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Some people do see them as entertainment.  Just because you don't doesn't mean that follows for everyone.

Do we really need warnings on everything?  I am bright enough to know not to use my hair dryer while I'm sleeping or use the toaster in the bathtub.  I also know that FOX isn't the place to go for unbiased news.  Do we really need to be babysat on everything.  Parents should monitor what their kids take in, but damn, as an adult I am capable of making decisions....I may make the wrong one sometimes but I think I've earned the right to not have someone dictate every little thing.

---

Fair point. You've more than earned your right, as an adult to have your freedoms. But what if your decisions aren't your own. We all drift around on autopilot, on our phones, How many of the free decisions you make are actually free of marketing bread (breeded??? ) biases and influences? If your (not you specifically, just generally) decisions aren't completely free.. then how are you different from the children who's parents should be monitoring them?

You paint a picture of free adults walking where they want and doing what they want, but all I see is a dog show with American's being led on a leash by marketing campaigns.

I'm 65 years old.  The fact that I am not an idiot and that I also learned through experience means I don't need a keeper.  
I understand what marketing is, thank you very much.
You underestimate me, sir.

[Neo-Scholastic]

And the (in retrospect bizarre) idea from the '60s that any sort of illusionism or subject matter in painting -- other than making the paint itself the subject -- was somehow fakery. He would have found that insane. 

Very true. Ruskin was not opposed to illusions so long as they were transparent and obvious.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Well...good point.  I love, love, love my Harley boots in the cold weather but I don't own a Harley and didn't ride when my husband had one.

I didn' t like my riding boots in the winter....

Steel toed boots suck in snow.....

‘Dress for the slide, not for the ride.’

Boru

[tackattack]

I'm 65 years old.  The fact that I am not an idiot and that I also learned through experience means I don't need a keeper.  
I understand what marketing is, thank you very much.
You underestimate me, sir.

I don’t underestimate anyone here. You said you’re not an idiot and I agree. It’s not about IQ though. Unfortunately, I’ve begrudgingly realized intelligent people can believe dumb ideas. All humans are to some degree intellectually lazy, irrational in decision-making, have multi layered confirmation biases, and other natural impulses that often obstruct critical thinking. Come on! On a forum of atheists no one has ever thought, “a lot of people are really stupid”?

I thought the prevailing opinion was that religious thought was heavily tied to anti-science / anti-intellectual beliefs. Colloquially, do we commonly perceive that people from other countries that are less religious are “smarter”?

[Belacqua]

Fair point we want what suits us, but when does the child that doesn't know better, not prefer candy for dinner? How can we know better when there is no truth in advertisement, news, life? 

And not just the child! 
The fact that we live in a post-truth society is bad for everybody.

[Belacqua]

I'm 65 years old.  The fact that I am not an idiot and that I also learned through experience means I don't need a keeper.  
I understand what marketing is, thank you very much.
You underestimate me, sir.

I don’t underestimate anyone here. You said you’re not an idiot and I agree. It’s not about IQ though. Unfortunately, I’ve begrudgingly realized intelligent people can believe dumb ideas. All humans are to some degree intellectually  lazy, irrational in decision-making, have multi layered confirmation biases, and other natural impulses that often obstruct critical thinking. Come on! On a forum of atheists no one has ever thought, “a lot of people are really stupid”?

I thought the prevailing opinion was that religious thought was heavily tied to anti-science / anti-intellectual beliefs. Colloquially, do we commonly perceive that people from other countries that are less religious are “smarter”?

I think people tend to overestimate themselves. No one is immune to propaganda, advertising, confirmation bias, etc. etc. 

Saying you live above all that just means you haven't recognized how deep we're submerged in it. To manage it wisely, you have to admit you're in it.

[arewethereyet]

I don’t underestimate anyone here. You said you’re not an idiot and I agree. It’s not about IQ though. Unfortunately, I’ve begrudgingly realized intelligent people can believe dumb ideas. All humans are to some degree intellectually  lazy, irrational in decision-making, have multi layered confirmation biases, and other natural impulses that often obstruct critical thinking. Come on! On a forum of atheists no one has ever thought, “a lot of people are really stupid”?

I thought the prevailing opinion was that religious thought was heavily tied to anti-science / anti-intellectual beliefs. Colloquially, do we commonly perceive that people from other countries that are less religious are “smarter”?

I think people tend to overestimate themselves. No one is immune to propaganda, advertising, confirmation bias, etc. etc. 

Saying you live above all that just means you haven't recognized how deep we're submerged in it. To manage it wisely, you have to admit you're in it.

I bow to your superiority....

...if for no other reason other than to make it easier for you to kiss my ass.