Social Networks and the spread of false information

An article appeared in Wednesday's edition of the Times Online about how bosses are cracking down on social networks amid leaks of company information:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6801245.ece

We live in a virtual world where false information is passed from one person to another. If that information makes the receiver feel good, the fact that it is false is deemed to be acceptable. Why is this? False information is false information. By making false information acceptable, don't we run the risk that those wanting to influence us for our votes (local councillors, politicians etc.) will give out false information to make us feel good. If we deem that to be acceptable, isn't that what we will get?

Shelagh,

A very unfortunate situation.

Yes, indeed, Alice. It is unfortunate that people are willing to overlook false information as long as it makes them feel good about themselves. The 'net is full of helpful and useful information. However, it is all too easy to give out information that is misleading, especially through email messages on social networking sites and forums.

I belong to a PD forum. It is downight scary--they are able to write long diatrbes about why we shouldn't have healthcare-- how we can't afford it, how wretched they are, but are unable to answer how they would exist without their healthcare and why every other country in the world can afford it.

Are they expressing their own opinions or are they spreading ill-informed information through email messages? We are all entitled to our opinions but, for some, expressing them once is probably once too often!

They are scare-mongering, spreading lies. They make no sense. Everyone is out to kill the old people etc.

I finally said the best thing that could happen would be if we all lost our health care--after all, we are all supposed to be equal.
We might get more interested in a solution if we are all in the same boat. Stony silence.
They are probably plotting the end of me.

Dear Alice,
I never had health insurance until I got Medicare with Social Security.

I could not afford the 4-5 hundred a month and so I went with the local clinic that is set up for migrant workers. I could pay 40 dollars to visit and if I had a need for an anitibiotic they prescribed it. They have no great equipment to diagnose, but they do have the drugs you need to get well. They saved my life many times.

Once Medicare kicked in, I was sent for every test they could get paid to test me for. I believe in the government program. I am not sure how it works, but it works. If I need a heart transplant, it will cost me 250.00. Everyone gets paid, and it does not get better than that. I wish the government would take over home owners insurance.


A lot of drugs like penicillin are available for animals at the local feed stores. I have taken them. They have to be pure for animals as well as humans. I know all the reasons why you should not diagnose yourself. But, you often do what you can afford to do.

Love,
Betty

I took a course many years ago in political acumen. It had nothing to do with the truth. There were named techniques to confuse the public, to promote an idea that appealed to one lobbyist group with the big check, to stop progress, to incite revolt, etc. etc. all excellent brainwashing techniques.

My favorite was to lie until it becomes the truth. Accordingto my class, there is no room in politics for absolute truth. If a politician is accused of a dastardly deed, the rule is to lie it away and move public discussion to a hotter topic.

If a fact is interfering with a political agenda, then make sure it is refuted with such repetition that the original fact is lost.

To promote a lie, repeat it ad nauseum until it filters into the subconscious as something heard so often, it must be the truth. Then dress it up with celebrity speakers for the final kill.

There were many more. As long as the word "political" is part of the activity, honesty is hard to come by.

DK,

Too true.

Betty, I paid nothing for my triple bypass. I feel the pain and suffering and drug withdrawal is enough for anyone to pay.

I can get few folks to agree with me.


Frustrating in the extreme.

Free health care is something I grew up with living in Scotland. Every year millions across the UK are treated and save from an early grave and each year the oppisition party accuse the government of undermining the health system. Still we have free health care for all that need it. Without it we would be no better off than the third world nations. Are the politicians trying to turn the clock back to the bad o' days before the National Health System? Probably as then they could pay themselves bigger back handers. Will they ever get away with it? Possibly but it will take years for them to succeed, as it has become something we expect in this country and would cause to much trouble for which ever Prime Minister bisbanded it. Can private health care help everyone? No because many of us could never afford it and so would find, as in the past, that we wouldn't bother a doctor unless we were carried to him on a stretcher.

When I was in Virginia, the subject of healthcare came up. The person bringing it up was of an obvious political persuasion since they are all singing the same tune. The comments made were, "standing in long lines, substandard care, anything the government runs doesn't work, etc." I explained that I had a great healthcare program that was government controlled - and it works. No long lines, choosing the doctor of your choice, etc., and every one is covered. They are charged a fee based on their income. The government doesn't run it, it controls it. There are private healthcare companies that compete with one another to offer their program. What the government controls is the fact that no one can be turned down for any reason and they also influence the cost. The competition is also a factor in cost control.
I asked the man if he had a good program and he said yes. Then I asked him if he would have the same program if he became unemployed and he said that he would find a program if that ever occured, which he didn't think it would. Once one begins to talk hypothetical, any scenario can be employed to make a point. The fact is that government programs do work. How they are administered can make them work or fail.

For me, it's very simple. Those who have adequate employment and health insurance don't want change. Those who have none or inadequate or exhorbitantly priced insurance and medical bills have no voice. When someone speaks up for them, the speaker is labeled with some ugly word that encourages angry people to shout and and scream and drown reason.

I have no hope for health care reform in the U.S. President Obama had good intentions and so did his administration, but the American people put on their change hats to put him in office (because we were in such a downward spiral we had no other hope), but now there is a rallying point to keep him from doing good and staying there.

There are too many hands in the pot: the legal system earning exhorbitant fees from malpractice; malpractice insurers earning phenomenol profits from doctors afraid of legal fees; the pharmaceutical industry that does its "research" on the backs of the American public while spending $billions on television advertising of the newest drugs that are more expensive and work no better than exisiting generics and other drugs (and have you seen the "salesmen/saleswomen" they send to doctor's offices to push their education and drugs; they look like models); these same pharmaceutical companies have no trouble pushing their drugs off on undeveloped countries when the FDA doesn't pass them; the doctors pay horrific fees for equipment to test patients to death rather than face potential malpractice; the doctors have thousands in medical training loans to pay off so they expect the good life with their high fees; the hospitals charge the costs of processing insurance and the doctors charge the costs of processing insurance as part of their patient fees as well as recouping the costs of serving the uninsured. The shortage of nurses has finally run their wages to a deserved level, but that does add to the cost of care.

There's no hope.

DK said it all.

It's a shame that the American people can't have what many in this country take form granted.

dkchristi wrote:

For me, it's very simple. Those who have adequate employment and health insurance don't want change.

As someone in that category, what I "want" is for my health care quality and experience to remain the same. What I don't want is a muddy, meet-in-the-middle solution where everyone is covered, but the quality and experience is that of a free clinic. Yep, I'll vote anything down that results in that. The illegal aliens, people who can afford insurance but deliberately forego it and folks whose lifestyle choices are largely responsible for their problems aren't, well, my problem.

I agree 100% with DK. She said it very well.

I spent a great deal of time on this site yesterday.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2009/08/health/map.health.global/index.html

It is fascinating.

I recently fell into the "donut hole" of prescription drug coverage for seniors. Medicare has worked fantastic as did my drug coverage up to this point. Now I have to pay for my $400 medicine each month myself, which fortunately I can, and then submit the bill, refusal from the normal drug coverage insurance, and a detailed form to another insurance company.

When some people reach this point, they stop taking the medicine because they can't afford the big price tag. Their lives are shortened.

When they come up with the argument the plan will decide who shall live, my response is that we are already deciding that.

With insurance coverage and doing all I was supposed to, I waited four months for a diagnosis. Appointments between specialists, while cancer spread throughout my body, were spaced out a month to six weeks, the best available for anyone. Mayo clinic got me in in three weeks and in a day and a half of testing found the problem.

We already wait in lines, wait weeks for appointments. Some of those things we are supposed to be afraid of on a new plan are already happening on the old.

I can get really carried away on this subject. I want everyone to get health care. Cancer patients can be given long lives, but only if they can afford the care. Many are turned down for pre-existing conditions, or because they've lost their jobs and insurance because of their illness.

Carol

Carol,

Another similarity--I am so sorry. I am in the hole too.

My meds are imperative.

I want everyone to have health care coverage too.
People refuse to listen.

They scream and yell. they remind me of toddlers who are mad because they can't play on the freeway.

I cannot agree with LC.
We are our brother's keeper. In fact, we are in charge of our brothers keeping. I am not talking biblical stuff here, just common sense.

Back in the 30's and early 40's. people were dying from polio, diptheria, whooping cough. scarlet fever, measles, mumps, and until the whole country got into the effort, little could be done to help. Not one person in those days could do a lot to help alone, but the mass of people could.

That is why America is the greatest nation on this planet. People care past their own look out.

Love,
Betty

It used to be that way, Betty. The majority today agree with LC: "I've got coverage so who cares about you!"

Carol added the finishing touches to DK's post. For many years the insurance companies have decided who lives and who doesn't. They are in it for the money, nothing else. Hope they don't say no to you someday, LC. Keep your fingers crossed.

Dear Dick,
I hope not. In this small community that I live, people are a lot like LC. They have had it all, all of their lives. Now, what they have is just a lot of land and not any income.
Farming has shit the bed. They could sell their land, but they have had it so long and lived on it so poor to keep it and it never crosses their minds to give up . They have no insurance. They have medicare and VA. They are old, like me. Worked so hard all of their lives. Paid in lots and lots and lots and lots of taxes when the going was good.

Out here, though, we all know we are our brother's keepers and we stand by that.
Love,
Betty

Dick Stodghill wrote:

It used to be that way, Betty. The majority today agree with LC: "I've got coverage so who cares about you!"

I didn't say that. Of course there needs to be a minimum standard of care for everyone. Immunizations are part of that. What I am saying is that people who can afford it get better everything else -food, schools, housing- and I'm not sure why health care is any different.

BTW, if it ever used to be different, it was probably because it was so much cheaper then, too.

Balderdash!

LC wrote:

Dick Stodghill wrote:

It used to be that way, Betty. The majority today agree with LC: "I've got coverage so who cares about you!"

I didn't say that. Of course there needs to be a minimum standard of care for everyone. Immunizations are part of that. What I am saying is that people who can afford it get better everything else -food, schools, housing- and I'm not sure why health care is any different.

BTW, if it ever used to be different, it was probably because it was so much cheaper then, too.

I am quite tired of the rich having more and better everything.
I say since they have better food , houses etc.,let them suffer a bit.
Maybe they will get the point.

The problem is that often medical care is not affordable. Years ago my husband's insurance didn't pay for doctor's appointments or babies' births. We knew that and were able to pay for them, usually saving while I was pregnant. Now those fees are so high only the rich could pay for them.

Even with medicare, a certain amount is taken out of our social security and we pay for supplemental and prescription drug insurance. We also pay for co-pays and Mayo Clinic cost me about $800. So medicare is not a free ride, but it is affordable.

We are a country filled with creative minds. Why can't we get together, care, and solve this problem? That is what troubles me the most.

Love, Carol