Hacker News: franklinter

New comment by franklinter in "Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers"

franklinter — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 21:10:21 +0000

Yes but totally insane that so many on this site seem to approve such a ban.

New comment by franklinter in "When Virality Is the Message: The New Age of AI Propaganda"

franklinter — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 20:04:39 +0000

My point was that people of all levels of intelligence can be influenced by propaganda. Nothing you have said refutes this. To the contrary, thus far you have only supported my points.

New comment by franklinter in "When Virality Is the Message: The New Age of AI Propaganda"

franklinter — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:00:30 +0000

>All you did was describe the fact that people who present as intelligent aren’t actually intelligent

This is false.

> I’m very well aware of a lot of people who are not subject to propaganda ... [for example] a monk

This supports my point. Monks are not known for trying to "stay informed" the way many people (yes, including intelligent people) do.

New comment by franklinter in "When Virality Is the Message: The New Age of AI Propaganda"

franklinter — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:30:43 +0000

Propaganda works very well on smart people too. Here's how it often works: smart people like to be well informed. They drink a steady drip of "news" covering a wide range of topics. They therefore have a wide but shallow understanding of current events.

The topics are usually chosen for them (editor or algorithm). The news is packaged up for them to form an opinion at a glance (headline/social media post). They lack a deep understanding and so most things pass as largely believable, if at times a bit of a stretch. Topics they know deeply are almost always "covered poorly," but not the topics they don't know deeply.