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Social media is becoming infested with climate change denial and misinformation (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Buttflapper@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Asheville NC and Western NC has been destroyed by hurricane Helene and flooding. People are saying the same boring tired things there and sharing the same misinformation.

This is just ordinary weather which happens all the time.

The only thing we can do is pray.

Climate change isn't real

This is dangerous to say things like this because it makes people believe that there's no climate change, and that is ordinary and expected when that's not even remotely true. It's leading people to ignorantly become complacent, not contact their government, and when disasters like hurricanes happen, they don't evacuate because they don't believe it'll be serious.

I started commenting on everything telling people that climate change is causing these issues and got the most unhinged glue-sniffer responses ever like

'this has always been like this' or 'liberal snowflake tears'

and the worst ones are always religious.

'we can't do anything to save our planet, you need to pray. Send your prayers'

God didn't create this issue? We are ruining our planet!

Example 1. We now have to surround hospital in Tampa Florida with a literal fucking wall just for ordinary storms

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFSX8mRS/

@Kevin R. Sullivan:Hurricanes have nothing to do with climate change

Deranged comments like this are very dangerous and spread false misinformation

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[–] kyub@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes, it's a dangerous combination of media/IT illiteracy/incompetence within the general public and profit-driven proprietary social media algorithms that only aim to keep people engaged for the longest time, no matter the content they are being served. And usually, the more extreme the content is, the higher the engagement, the more revenue to be made from serving ads to the users and selling their collected data. This currently leads to a rise of misinformation, anti-scientific thinking, and so on. Which just so happens to align with extreme right-wing ideologies.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This currently leads to a rise of misinformation, anti-scientific thinking, and so on. Which just so happens to align with extreme right-wing ideologies.

It's not some accident that just happens. Fash are actively opposed to science, thrive on misinformation, and so on. And capital supports fascism because it profits.