Can we stop with the hyperbole? Please?

[Swammerdami]

[Rant]

Today my Google news feed shows:

First egg-shaped wind turbine is turned on: Result has experts in shock, as it has shut down all solar panels​

I'd seen this or something similar a month ago, so knew it was just gibberish. But it does elicit fond memories of better days, when editors edited, and factual reporters reported facts.

Are "the experts (really) in shock"? If so, I hope someone took them to the Emergency Room quickly.
And why did the wind turbine "shut down all solar panels" anyway? Would that be the result if they weren't synchronized properly to the 60 Hz waveform?

It doesn't stop there. Click on that "news report" and learn that "China and Russia want to blow up the moon." Did the Moon do something wrong? Lovers who spoon by moonlight will be disappointed when it's gone, all blown up.

Or, just scroll through the ads on the first page and find

This silent wind turbine for the home destroys solar panels: 1500 kWh of free electricity this summer.​

TWO completely different turbine designs to "shut down" or "destroy" solar panels. Sounds like a terrorist's wet dream. Is the FBI or NSA pursuing this?

I am reminded of such breathtakingly bad hyperbole by some of the thread titles right here. @RVonse started a thread:

The Democrats are becoming the Republicans and the Republicans are becoming the Democrats​

No they're not. It's possible that Mr. Vonse has some sort of point, but I can't be bothered to click a YouTube for a thread whose title is so inanely wrong.

In another thread, @barbos writes "I say there is a reason why PPP GDP was invented and that reason is that nominal GDP is utter shit."
I've paid little attention to barbos in the past, and I see now that was a good decision. Both GDP and PPP GDP are used by economists, and for different reasons. It would be nice to see a top-notch scholarly paper giving a good treatment of the circumstances under which either of the two measures is most informative. But barbos obviously knows nothing. Now that we know he suffers in spades from the Dunning-Kruger effect, it will be safe to ignore whatever he writes on any topic.


Suppose an Infidel were extremely bad at arithmetic, and finally learned that 2+2=4. It would be (sort of) understandable that he would celebrate his progress by starting a thread

2 + 2 = 4!​

(Never mind that mathematicians might think "4!" is 24.) But it would NOT be appropriate for this newly enlightened arithmetician to emphasize his new knowledge with an exaggeration

2 + 2 = 5!​

Yet precisely that sort of click-bait gibberish is what we see increasingly in Google headlines, and even here at IIDB.

[rant over]

 

[bilby]

Hyperbole is literally destroying everything. The entire universe is in immediate and dire peril from this unprecedented and devastating assault!

But first, a word from our sponsor...

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Number one rule of Clickbait... if it was THAT BIG OF A DEAL, it'd be mainstream news already. What bothers me about Clickbait isn't the hyperbole, it is that people apparently don't see it as obvious hyperbole.

 

[Elixir]

Great thread Swammi.
I get the sense that ‘Murkin thought processes have been significantly softened up by exposure to the erosive effect of The Apricot.
It’s tragic that one single badly flawed individual can have such putrifying effect on so many people’s brains, but here we are with our electric sharks, dog eating Haitians and Hannibal Lechter, all front of mind for tens of millions of emotionally crippled Americans.