An Ounce - For Your Consideration
Discover hidden stories from history—bite-sized, clever tales that challenge what you thought you knew. At An Ounce, we uncover the little moments that quietly changed everything, surprising truths, and fascinating facts you won’t hear elsewhere.
I’m Jim Fugate—retired firefighter, lifelong learner, and an outside-the-box thinker who loves sharing history’s hidden gems. These quick, engaging stories don’t take themselves too seriously, won’t steal your precious time, and might just make you feel a little bit smarter.
I hope you’ll join a community of curious minds who enjoy a fresh take on history—where conversation is always open and everyone’s invited.
An Ounce - For Your Consideration
The New Snake Oil: Outrage and Validation in the Digital World
Social Media, So-called News, Bots, Algorithms, and digital snake-oil salesmen—this episode of An Ounce exposes how misinformation spreads, why outrage sells, and how your clicks keep it alive.
Bots aren’t the villains—they’re the tools. The real players are the agenda-drivers who profit when we stop thinking. In this episode, Jim Fugate pulls back the curtain on the modern confidence game: how a single bot whisper becomes a viral foghorn of fake urgency.
You’ll learn how emotional bait hooks us, how algorithms reward fear and anger, and how to spot digital “bull snot” before you share it. It’s witty, a little dark, and all too true.
So grab a dose of skepticism—and a laugh—because the cure starts with awareness.
👍 Remember: verify before you amplify.
Subscribe for weekly stories that prove truth can be stranger (and funnier) than fiction.
Watch next:
Historical Facts? Myth vs Truth https://youtu.be/GDqhQF3nHgc
Discovering The Truth Behind Famous Historical Myths https://youtu.be/JpHTMQV-XPQ
#AnOunce #Misinformation #SocialMedia #Bots #CriticalThinking #DigitalAge
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📚 References
• Facebook Transparency Reports (2024) – estimated 3–5 % fake accounts.
• Pew Research Center (2020) – two-thirds of shared links from automated accounts.
• Carnegie Mellon University (2020) – bot activity analysis during major events.
• Independent analyses of Twitter/X bot prevalence (2017–2023).
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🕒 Chapters / Timestamps (estimated for YouTube)
00:00 Hook – The Digital Con
00:40 Meet the New Con Men
01:18 The Psychology of the Hook
02:11 The Recycling Plant of Lies
02:58 The Agenda Factory
04:33 The Scale of the Scam
06:20 How They Recruit the “Useful Idiot”
06:54 The Real-World Damage
08:38 Quick-Spotting Guide to Bull Snot
09:45 The Laughable Cure & Closing Reflection
10:22 An Ounce
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Credits:
Visual: An Ounce Studio, iStock, Getty
Audio: Music This is Not IDM and This is not a Ballad by True Cukoo via YouTube
10 second pre-roll promo for An Ounce Podcast on YouTube