Skepticism and Cracked.com

dropzone said:
You kids will not remember when Cracked was still on the newsstand shelves. You probably don't recall news stands, that sold the latest pulp crap to yo. At the time, Cracked was what you bought when Mad was sold out: similar, but second-rate, "humor" for retards who missed the boat.

Cast your thoughts into the Internet Age. Suddenly Mad is second-rate crap, and Cracked is some first-class satire.

Truly, the Internet giveth and the Internet taketh away. Or something that describes the problems inherent in resting in ones heralds. Either way I make a profit from you rubes.
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Resting in heralds can be quite comfortable, you just need to separate the pages and crumple them up first.

Glad to hear you are doing well though!
 
Good article, but I think those baby "porcupines" are really hedgehogs.

Also, best use of a screenshot from Oregon Trail ever.
 
I remember having a hardcopy of Cracked magazine, now I just check the site daily. :D
 
I'm a big fan of the website.
Sometimes the accuracy is off, but many of the relevant contemporary/serious stuff is pretty close it seems.
 
Cracked graduated and went on to become a (productive? non-productive?) member of e-society. Mad didn't get it and got stuck in the 11th grade (forty-two times, now).
 
Thanks for the kind words, just to clarify I'm the Senior Editor of the site, there's a guy above me named Jack O'Brien who is the Editor in Chief and he's my boss. I don't know if anybody cares but I just wanted to clear that up.

I actually found JREF while researching this article on 9/11 Conspiracy Theories (warning: NSFW language):

http://www.cracked.com/article_15740_was-911-inside-job.html

And threads here assisted me in the research of this one on the psychological origins of monster myths:

http://www.cracked.com/article/177_6-popular-monsters-myths-that-prove-humanity-doomed

And this one on brainwashing techniques:

http://www.cracked.com/article_16656_6-brainwashing-techniques-theyre-using-you-right-now.html

But make no mistake, at the end of the day we're a comedy site written by comedy writers, and should not be relied upon as experts. We try very hard to make sure we source every claim (and I don't mean "sourcing" to an email forward or some anonymous blog, either) because I have a deep disdain for people who spread harmful or false information purely for entertainment purposes. But I have no doubt we have taken stands on issues where you could also have found an equally good source going the other direction. We are trying to do "make you think" comedy, but our fact-checking is more The Daily Show and not The New York Times.

Unfortunately I don't think I've brought all that much to the discussions here because sometimes I feel like some sections (specifically conspiracy and politics) are kind of dominated by trolls whose only mission is to keep their inflammatory subject line at the top of the page. But that says far more about my bad temper and low frustration tolerance than it does the moderation policy of the site. The moderators must be doing something right because I have benefited tremendously from my time here.

Again, thanks for the kind words everybody.
 
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Wait, one more thing:

It almost makes me sad to see "skeptic" thrown around as a distinction, as if it's a rare, singular group standing up for one specific position. Not that it isn't true, it just makes me sad. I've noticed that on the internet there is this natural tendency for information to get passed around purely based on how striking or shocking it is, regardless of whether or not it's actually true.

I realize that's obvious, but beyond that I've noticed bits of news becoming less true as they hop from one source to the other. Each one trying to make it a little more inflammatory to try to get it to travel:

A scientific journal publishes a story about some new artificial hormone that limits obesity in rats, and notes they have several more years of study before they can even attempt to test it on humans.

AP Headline: "Anti-Obesity Breakthrough - Hormone Helps Rats Keep Pounds Off"

Fox News Headline: "Obesity Cure Found?"

Digg.com headline: "Obesity Cure Found."


So to be in a position where we actively try not to fall into that same information decay and fight it (and by "fight it" I mean take an extra five minutes to find the original link), and to have that described as being a special thing ("you're one of those skeptics, aren't you?") is a little frightening to me. It should be automatic that people want to make sure their information is, you know, real. But I'm scared to death that the internet has made that harder, not easier. There's just so much noise.
 
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Well, keep up the good work.

ETA: So are you the one responsible for Boob Breaks? That really does help break the monotony of the dark articles :P
 
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I think the point to remember is, as David said, that it's a humor site/magazine. They haven't changed that from their original approach as a magazine.

A whole lot of us from the 60s/70s neglected that factor with The National Lampoon. We thought of it as Mad For The Counter-Culture, and just assumed they were all cool and liberal(radical) and stuff, ... just like us. We were later somewhat shocked to hear some of our heroes (the writers/editors) in the real world and learn that they were not just prone to making fun of Nixon and Agnew but also Hayden and Fonda (and what's not to make fun of in any of those four?), and one or two of them were, .... Gasp! .... conservatives!
(If anyone has a copy of National Lampoon's Radio Dinner lying around, check it out. No portion of the political/philosophical/sociological spectrum is considered sacrosanct.)
 
David Wong said:
So to be in a position where we actively try not to fall into that same information decay and fight it (and by "fight it" I mean take an extra five minutes to find the original link), and to have that described as being a special thing ("you're one of those skeptics, aren't you?") is a little frightening to me. It should be automatic that people want to make sure their information is, you know, real. But I'm scared to death that the internet has made that harder, not easier. There's just so much noise.
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I think it is overall easier than it used to be, for those that want to find out. It used to be you read a rumor or someone spun a headline in a way that interested them, and you had no convenient way of looking up the truth.

The drawback is that someone who is dedicated to a certain point of view regardless of its truth, also finds it easier to cherry-pick supporting information--just because there are cherries of every kind, all over.
 
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David Wong said:
Wait, one more thing:

It almost makes me sad to see "skeptic" thrown around as a distinction, as if it's a rare, singular group standing up for one specific position. Not that it isn't true, it just makes me sad. I've noticed that on the internet there is this natural tendency for information to get passed around purely based on how striking or shocking it is, regardless of whether or not it's actually true.

I realize that's obvious, but beyond that I've noticed bits of news becoming less true as they hop from one source to the other. Each one trying to make it a little more inflammatory to try to get it to travel:

A scientific journal publishes a story about some new artificial hormone that limits obesity in rats, and notes they have several more years of study before they can even attempt to test it on humans.

AP Headline: "Anti-Obesity Breakthrough - Hormone Helps Rats Keep Pounds Off"

Fox News Headline: "Obesity Cure Found?"

Digg.com headline: "Obesity Cure Found."


So to be in a position where we actively try not to fall into that same information decay and fight it (and by "fight it" I mean take an extra five minutes to find the original link), and to have that described as being a special thing ("you're one of those skeptics, aren't you?") is a little frightening to me. It should be automatic that people want to make sure their information is, you know, real. But I'm scared to death that the internet has made that harder, not easier. There's just so much noise.
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Hear, hear.

Sometimes, it seems, humor is the best way to present facts. I completely agree with you about the sensationalism with information nowadays, and I think you're right in that it is especially easy to find misinformation now. It is my opinion also that a lot of misinformation is backed with emotional appeal, mostly fear and anger, in order to add to the sensationalism. All three news channels are great examples of that.

If I may, I'd like share a personal story of how your site actually provided information that help cut the bull from the reality.

My girlfriend lives in Germany and has been trying to immigrate here now for a couple of years. A lot of people, including my parents, keep telling me to tell her to stop dragging her heels and just get here. A lot of my co-workers and friends have been telling me "just marry her - that'll solve the problem". People have even suggested to me that I break up with her because it's obvious to them that she's not really serious about getting here.

Then your site recently posted this article: http://www.cracked.com/article_18552_so-you-want-to-be-american-5-circles-immigration-hell.html which I now link to everyone who mentions that she's being slow or that she's not doing enough or that we should get married. The article even made my parents realize what needs to be done rather clearly and quickly, even though I have explained the immigration process to them over and over.

It's good to see that there is a site who tries to not only make you laugh, but tries to get the facts right.
 
Hey, I never noticed David Wong was a Cracked.com author. Good stuff, Dave.

Nitpick: in this article, you say,
Because it's not a flaw, necessarily. See, Resident Evil 5 doesn't want you to play with A.I. Sheva. They want you to play with a friend, in the co-op mode. Specifically, they want you to play with a friend who you forced to buy a second copy of the game. And Microsoft wants both of you paying monthly subscription fees for XBox Live.
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Actually, you CAN play in couch coop on the same copy, with split-screen. Just saying. ;)
 
I've always enjoyed reading Cracked.com, but i have a complaint about them.

Recently, whenever I go on their site, I get an annoying strip across the bottom of the screen that forces me to "like" them on FB, or it won't go away. I hate being extorted like this. I even tried to "Like" then "unlike" them, but it's still tehre. Very annoying and pisses me off. I hate being herded toward social networking sites.

p.s. Using the Firefox browser, with all the latest pop-up blockers, and it doesn't matter, the damned strip STILL shows up.
 
David Wong said:
Thanks for the kind words, just to clarify I'm the Senior Editor of the site, there's a guy above me named Jack O'Brien who is the Editor in Chief and he's my boss. I don't know if anybody cares but I just wanted to clear that up.

[...]

Again, thanks for the kind words everybody.
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Look, I'm a guy who posts on an internet forum, so let me tell you how to do your job better.

You say you're more concerned with the funny than being perfectly accurate. Fair enough, the opposite stance hasn't done much for CBS. But here's the solution to your problem:

Whenever you're considering a topic, just submit it to the JREF forum. We can pour over the issue in great detail, mostly irrelevant detail, but still. After 50 pages of bickering about tangential issues and revivifying old personal grudges between posters, we will arrive at something resembling a conclusion about the facts (note that it will be the same conclusion all posters had at the beginning of the thread, the next 50 pages are for saying the same thing with different words and calling each other *******).

There you go, fact checking DONE. And if you're into that Andy Kauffman sort of humor that makes you uncomfortable and only leads to laughter when you look back years later, you could just post the thread on Cracked.
 
Nursefoxfire said:
I've always enjoyed reading Cracked.com, but i have a complaint about them.

Recently, whenever I go on their site, I get an annoying strip across the bottom of the screen that forces me to "like" them on FB, or it won't go away. I hate being extorted like this. I even tried to "Like" then "unlike" them, but it's still tehre. Very annoying and pisses me off. I hate being herded toward social networking sites.

p.s. Using the Firefox browser, with all the latest pop-up blockers, and it doesn't matter, the damned strip STILL shows up.
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Hmm, I've never seen that. Use Adblock plus!
 
Nova Land said:
The fact that David Wong, the editor of Cracked, is a JREF forum member (and has been for close to 4 years now) might have some connection with that.

Edited to add: click the "About Me" tab at that link.
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This is very cool. I've been a fan of the site for a while but now I will visit more often.

Well done, David.
 
Nursefoxfire said:
I've always enjoyed reading Cracked.com, but i have a complaint about them.

Recently, whenever I go on their site, I get an annoying strip across the bottom of the screen that forces me to "like" them on FB, or it won't go away. I hate being extorted like this. I even tried to "Like" then "unlike" them, but it's still tehre. Very annoying and pisses me off. I hate being herded toward social networking sites.

p.s. Using the Firefox browser, with all the latest pop-up blockers, and it doesn't matter, the damned strip STILL shows up.
Click to expand...

Even with AdBlock plus disabled, and all scripts allowed, I'm not seeing this either. And I don't think I ever "liked" them.
 
Nursefoxfire said:
I've always enjoyed reading Cracked.com, but i have a complaint about them.

Recently, whenever I go on their site, I get an annoying strip across the bottom of the screen that forces me to "like" them on FB, or it won't go away. I hate being extorted like this. I even tried to "Like" then "unlike" them, but it's still tehre. Very annoying and pisses me off. I hate being herded toward social networking sites.

p.s. Using the Firefox browser, with all the latest pop-up blockers, and it doesn't matter, the damned strip STILL shows up.
Click to expand...

I spend hours on that site and have never seen this. Maybe you picked up an add-on from somewhere.
 
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