Mastodawn

Richard Littler

If you're wondering about the welfare of facts on Facebook, this screenshot from Doctor Who was posted as a purportedly genuine photograph of a supernatural event. 100s of thread repliers now seem to wholly accept the claim, even though discovering the image's true source would take a few seconds.

Richard Littler Jul 2, 2025

CUT TO: 50 years from now.
ChatGPT / AI: "Due to the sheer volume of corroborating sources, it's likely that this photo captures a genuine supernatural event, most likely the ghost of someone who had been a doctor during their lifetime."

stealthradek Jul 2, 2025

@Richard_Littler I very much like your fictional visions of the world, but I'm definitely not a fan of those accurate predictions. Well, maybe except 50 years timescale is a bit wrong, or dare I say, "conservative".

blueorangeblue Jul 2, 2025

@Richard_Littler Facebook: I want to believe

Hugo Mills Jul 2, 2025

@Richard_Littler Wait... are you claiming that Doctor Who isn't a documentary? What kind of weirdo are you?

Unix Herder Jul 2, 2025

@Richard_Littler I've not been on Facefuck for ages (I call it that to myself because it's only remaining purpose seems to be to spaff billionaire funded fascist proaganda jizz down the apparently willing throats of those still on the platform whilst stealing their personal data, mining their personal connections and using it to shovel more propaganda in their direction - I'm not one to kink shame but that isn't my idea of a good time).

Fuse Jul 2, 2025

Don't hold back...
Tell us what you really think about Facebook. 🤮

@Richard_Littler

Unix Herder Jul 2, 2025

@TimePencil @Richard_Littler well at least it isn't the social network formerly known as Twitter 😀

Harry Wood Jul 2, 2025

@Richard_Littler Have you noticed that easily corrected misinformation actually does rather well for engagement on these platforms? I guess it's because it encourages replies, and spending time browsing through the replies.

Tom Walker Jul 2, 2025

@harry_wood @Richard_Littler There's also the relatively well known trick where they hide any comment saying that it's misinformation, just leaving all the credulous ones

Amber Or Bust Jul 2, 2025

@Richard_Littler the Watcher always makes me sad because he’s a harbinger of the end of Tom Baker :(

Amber Or Bust Jul 2, 2025

@Richard_Littler the Watcher always makes me sad because he’s a harbinger of the end of Tom Baker :(

not a martian, honest Jul 2, 2025

@masp @Richard_Littler but it's a harbinger of the arrival of Peter Davison, so...

Amber Or Bust Jul 2, 2025

@kyonshi @Richard_Littler yeah, a bit of good, a bit of bad :)

David Cohen Jul 2, 2025

@masp @Richard_Littler All well and good, but in universe I remember being confused. That’d never happened before. Why the fourth Doctor? Where’s the celery?

Amber Or Bust Jul 2, 2025

@davidbcohen @Richard_Littler that neatly brings up my compelling theory about the Watcher: the Watcher is (not unlike his Marvel counterpart) present (and actively meddling) in many universes: and is always played by Peter Davison! To support my theory, I give you: 1. The Watcher, transparently keeping an eye on Tom Baker in order to help him regenerate; and 2. The Ameglian Major cow, encouraging Arthur Dent to eat him in order to move the plot along :)

David Cohen Jul 2, 2025

@masp @Richard_Littler The flaw in your theory is that would mean the Fifth Doctor needed to be influenced by Peter Davison in order to regenerate. But he was Peter Davison! That would need him to meddle with himself, which was most definitely not allowed on a teatime BBC show in the early eighties.

@Richard_Littler I can almost hear the Cloister Bell ringing just looking at that picture 😀

tripleman, a 🇨🇦 in 🇩🇪Jul 2, 2025

@Richard_Littler Also: looks like a dude just standing in a field?

There's nothing remotely supernatural looking about it.

People are so broken.

In the immortal words of Chuck D, 'If you don't believe in something, you'll fall for anything'.

Katy Swain Jul 2, 2025

@Richard_Littler It's the end, but the moment has reach and engagement.

Colorblind Cowboy Jul 2, 2025

@Richard_Littler I thought this was a George Segal sculpture, and I refuse to believe it’s not — despite claims that it’s a Dr Who screen cap.