NORMAN FENTON—So, suppose the laptop statement is one of those used to train the algorithm and the vaccine statement is one of those used to test the algorithm. Then, because the laptop statement is classified as misinformation, the algorithm learns that people who repost or like a tweet with the laptop statement are ‘misinformation spreaders’. Based on other posts these people make, the algorithm might additionally classify them as, for example, ‘far right’. The algorithm is likely to find that some people already classified as ‘far right’ or ‘misinformation spreader’ – or people they are connected to – also post a statement like “The COVID vaccines can cause serious injury and death”. In that case the algorithm will have ‘learnt’ that this statement is most likely misinformation. And, hey presto, since it gives the ‘correct’ classification to the ‘test’ statement, the algorithm is ‘validated’.
CULTURE & CRITICISM
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EDITORS—Aug 31, 2024
Massive, maybe even wilful, ignorance underlies the attitudes of many colonialist setters, suggests this interview with a true believer in the cause of Israel. -
ED CURTIN—When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a presidential aspirant, folded his cards and conceded the current pot to Donald Trump – what he euphemistically called suspending his campaign for the presidency – he let his justifiable hatred of the Democratic Party, their undermining of his campaign, and their pro-war and genocidal agenda get the best of him. His trust in Trump is naïve in the extreme. With the issue that Kennedy has made central to his work in recent years – Covid and the “vaccines” – Trump is in the opposite camp.
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ERIC ZUESSE—America’s version of capitalism is this, corrupt capitalism; and another name for it is fascism. But America’s version of it is the worst type of that: it is imperialistic fascism. And this is the reason why honest political discussion of America’s imperialism, and even merely referring to “the U.S. empire,” is prohibited throughout all of the billionaires’ ‘news’-media. So, here, from a news-medium that is not controlled by any billionaire, is a knowledgeable expert discussion of that:
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EDITOR—Garland discusses the place of nonconformist thinking—including “conspiracy theorists”— has in a healthy society, especially as it relates to the questioning of narratives and concepts bolstering a particular social arrangement or ruling class, and the reasons why the term has become a way for the establishment to denigrate and contain such individuals, thereby preserving the status quo and normalcy. Examined questions: who has the right to revise the laws? Social deviancy. Conspiracy theorists. The nature of mainstream beliefs. The role of media. Collective belief system organised by the ruling class.