Re: COVID-19 vs. our Networks

[Alexandre Petrescu <alexandre.petrescu () gmail com>]

Le 16/03/2020 à 15:22, Mark Tinka a écrit :
> On 16/Mar/20 16:04, Alexandre Petrescu wrote:
>
> > There is no other way to do that information filterning now. Nobody
> > has any authority of knowing better than others.
> >
> > MUAs filters yes. (mail user agent)
> >
> > Look at all data you receive, identify patterns, then act. That's all
> > one can do now.
> >
> > There are easily identifiable patterns.
> >
> > Develop trust.
> I'd say "develop brains" :-).
>
> A lot of people are only too happy to be led, they want to believe
> anything that comes out of a leader's mouth, especially if that leader
> said it on TV, or on Twitter.
>
> Worse, a lot of people want to be "the 1st" to show that they knew
> something before anyone else, so they can come off as "the source of
> truth".


I must say I agree with you on that 'be the 1st to know' thing. Some 
behaviour like that of blogger (no offence, sorry), or of a person 
looking to create reputation quickly, ie create a safe situation quickly 
for self, is happening.  Whistle blower is one such case too.  I myself 
find myself often in such situation and, humanly, inherently, look some 
times to improve reputation.  I admit that for myself.

Some of these whistle blowers also some times act out of conviction, 
which is laudable.   Some law protects them.

But also, there are other things.  Under these circumnstances, there are 
many such people - 1st announcers.  But too many of them are in 
private.  Some worry their gov't might chain them, others worry it might 
not really be so, so their reputation is at risk, others worry to talk 
about their private data to public lists. Some look to reinforce their 
leadership position, others to go up on the ladder, others look to save, 
and probably more other reasons.

Despite all that, I believe it might be that there might not be enough 
of them, these "1st to know" announcers.  I still think that at this 
time there are still a majority of people that dont believe this is 
true, or that it is a conspiracy, or that it wont affect me, or tha 
tit's just a 'flu' (from Influenza).

For my part, I have a hard time to persuade members of my immediate 
circle of people about the dangerosity of this.  It's in steps: they 
accept some danger but not bigger, accept bigger but not even bigger.  
Few if any accept to go from 0 to total acceptance of what's happening 
in 1 day or so.  One can see that acceptance time in the time difference 
between the 2 weeks of inception, to the 3 months of the event up/down 
in China.  Looking now retrospectively, some question the following: if 
China quickly closed everything in 2 weeks after the first cases, would 
we still be where we are now?

But, as someone adviced on this list, I also look to save my energy.

Alex

PS: By this I also respond to another topic, to another poster on this 
email list, that I know from IETF, to share that a cousin of mine just 
got her long time planned surgery cancelled  (reported to a new date do 
be defined).  IT is a condition on which the bad thing can evolve badly, 
and shes unhappy no surgery now.

>   That is why the moment someone receives a fake "official memo"
> from the Ministry of Education of some country saying that all school
> lessons have been banned on a Sunday following the Friday the president
> gave an official statement about the state of the Coronavirus in said
> country, they can't take 60 seconds to see that the date on that letter
> is 2 days before the president gave his statement, nor can they reason
> as to how such a letter could be sent after the president never
> mentioned a thing about shutting schools down during his official
> presser, without a copy of it being on the government's official web
> site or announced by the national news broadcaster.
>
> We see folk potentially becoming presidents because they spent more
> money and made the loudest noise. Nobody has time, anymore, to listen to
> the issues and make up their own minds. They just want to be told what
> to think based on who retweets the loudest.
>
> People want to believe anything. People want to share everything. That's
> one of the biggest consequences of the ubiquity of the Internet today,
> and the Coronavirus has just amplified what has already been happening
> for a few years now.
>
> Mark.