The era of fakes: how fakes are created, money is made from them, and how to distinguish a fake from an objective story

Fake is not what you saw, but what you felt. Arthur Fellig is a mid-20th century photography master specializing in shock content.

How I became a victim of a fake

Why are fakes needed?

Money

As a professional blogger I declare:

1 Information is a commodity.

2 Fake is easier to sell.

Bookstore shelves are full of fiction (including not the best quality), feature films are more in demand than documentaries. Religion is more interesting than science, and a fairy tale is more attractive than a scientific monograph.

The owner of the information broadcaster lives on advertising. His income is directly related to the number of subscribers. The number of subscribers is higher, the more attractive the information. Therefore, on my channel (and on any other), serious articles gain significantly less views than entertainment content.

Entertainment sells better, and fake is entertainment because it appeals to emotions.

There are fakes in nature: this is how a sundew lures a mosquito to devour it.

Manipulation

This concerns the creation of fakes for political purposes. The principles are the same, only the customer is not business, but the state. A fake is called "propaganda".

Shock content plays a big role in creating a fake. What scares you the most attracts. Between a piece of meat and a saber-toothed tiger, the brain will choose a tiger – this is more important for survival. Therefore, fakes are usually combined with shock content.

As a blogger, I do not have rights to create shock content (and rightly so): Zen blocks such materials. And the state has a complete monopoly in this regard, just like the church has a monopoly on sins.

Three rules to separate the wheat from the chaff

1 marker.

A fake has a distinctive feature – it is always on the verge of a sensation. Let us recall the words of the modern genius Carl Sagan:

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

If we come across something unusual, it makes sense to double-check it.

2 Another marker.

Emotionality. Shock content and other fake content is an appeal to emotions. When the plot presses on emotions, it makes sense to pay special attention to numbers and facts.

3 Check.

In the era of Tyrnet, it is easier to verify information than ever before: if there is a desire. Sometimes we are just too lazy to hit the keys a couple of times to get acquainted with an alternative opinion. But if the goal is to get closer to reality, then acquaintance with several points of view will allow at least part of the grains to be separated from the chaff.