In order to 'stop fake news' all government produced (tax payer funded) research from academic institutions and / or government agencies should be free to access, reproduce and copy

submitted by dontbuyanylogos from self.wildideas

Those in the mainstream clamour on incessantly about the 'fight against fake news' but their solutions seem to amount to censorship or 'content moderation' and the 'regulation' of social media or more establishment propaganda. However, there are far better and less totalitarian responses to rumour, gossip, propaganda and hoaxes.

There are good arguments to make to say that academic research should be free and without copyright. First of all, it is entirely funded by the tax payer presumably for the good of the public as a whole, so the public has every right to demand privileged access to it.

Secondly, the lack of accessibility of official, high quality information might be why some people are drawn to fake news. Not only is academic research often behind a paywall, the publishers have not made a great effort to take advantage of the internet as a public education tool. If academic research were published on an educational platform, where users could comment, debate and post videos analysing academic research, then the public would be more readily disposed to accessing high quality information.

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[–]zyxzevn 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I agree that the science needs to be free to access. Additional some additional eduction to know what the science means, so people can understand it better.

You can access a lot now on sci-hub, which is on different places due to the constant pressure.

But there is a big problem:

Sadly the "academics" are often producing fake news themselves.
Didn't you read the news the last 4 years? Or Critical Race Theory?

A lot of academic science is based on circular reasoning and even in physics I can find some of that bad science.

I think that science should not only be free, but there also need to be open discussions.
Logical fallacies should be avoided in these discussions.
Without discussions, even on old topics, science does not evolve and gets stuck.

[–]dontbuyanylogos[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes there are actually some places to get high quality information like sci-hub. It would be really great however if the universities had the freedom and creativity of the developers in Silicon Valley and could design fast and open education / entertainment (because often the line is blurred with very good quality education but also very bad) content sharing social media platform. With a financial incentive and the creativity of having free reign over public intellectual property, the hundreds of people interested enough to create high quality content could make some wonderful things. Langfocus on Youtube is an example of someone who, through their own interest of academic matters, has created a first class education platform that is not only education but also fun.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

But some scientific institutions are only there for money, and there are scientists that only care about money, and these people can infiltrate important positions and guard each other against criticism.

In the past, to get money, scientific institutions had to give promises and results. Now, when the government just buys everything, hard science become an unnecessary liability, since it's expensive.

[–]zyxzevn 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think that every person in the chain is bending the facts a bit.
In the laboratory they want to finish the research quickly,
the researcher only wants to look at the good parts of his "invention",
the tester makes the tests easier for quick and positive results,
the leading scientists wants to finish the research quickly to keep the funders happy,
the assistant only adds positive input to get a faster promotion,
the management wants to get the product out quickly,
the sales department wants to overrate the product so it sells better,
the journalist wants to write a story that makes people like the product,
the politician wants to please the public with false promises,
the health/safety agency person wants to promote to a better position with the help of his friends.

So they all lie, most of them a bit, but together it becomes a very big lie.
This causes Boeing to produce bad planes, or medicine industry to produce bad medicine.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Indeed, but there are people that actually like the product. They would pressure everyone to not cheat. Until they are driven out.
People tend to be good at doing what they love.
A system that lets good people rise to the top, can't exist. Unless you remove the money. And then, they can't eat.
We'd want a situation where survival is easy and everyone has time and resources to spend on their hobbies. Currently, such situation is possible, but only for a small group of people.