Senegal 25, Egypt 23: Fake news and the AFCON final

By chance, I was away from DSTV on the day they played the Afcon-2021 Final. and so tried to follow the Senegal-Egypt match online.

It was a big mistake. Many websites advertised themselves as showing the match “live”. Yet, almost all of them were showing simulations of the match, and not the real thing! This meant they were copying the match as it took place and transforming the action on the field electronically into action by avatars!

The avatar action did look amazingly authentic. Until you looked hard at the faces of the “players”.

They had eyes that looked “dead”. And the movements of some of them were very stiff. The overwhelming impression I got, though. was that the “Artificial Intelligence” [“AI”] software used by Western websites does not flatter black faces but invariably turns blacks into more ugly creatures than they actually are. In fact, representations of some of the Senegalese players looked positively repulsive.

So I now understand why some people have been accusing the “AI” manufacturers of being “racist” and turning blacks, generally, into criminal-looking objects on the screen! That means that once a black criminal has had his picture posted online as a “WANTED” person, many other blacks who do not really look like him, or live anywhere near where the “WANTED” person was seen, could become automatic suspects and be pulled in by racist police to undergo a process of “identification by elimination. In other words, one could be pulled in and then given the nous of proving that one was NOT the suspect! I hope the blacks who patronize these “gamed” football matches played by artificially constructed avatars know what they are doing.

I was surprised to find that apart from the looks of the avatars, the websites had the obnoxious habit of sometimes camouflaging the game itself according to their predilections! They enticed viewers to watch the match “LIVE!” but they then went on to produce a “fake result.”

On one website, the game proceeded along the lines of the real match. Until the end of “extra time”. During the penalty shoot-out that followed, Senegal and Egypt each kept scoring. There was no “sudden death” and the scores kept rising and rising! Each team had scored about 21 penalty goals (!) by the time I realized I was being duped and decided to check the website's results against those of other websites.

When I discovered that I had been taken on a journey into “alternative reality” and that the real result was Senegal 4 Egypt 2, my shock was immense. Suppose I were not a skeptical person but had accepted the website's unusual result of the game? Ok, Manchester United had recently been beaten 7-8 on penalties, but a score in excess of 21?

I tried to unravel the possible motive for the website's action. Suppose it was operated by Egyptians who did not want to admit that Senegal had beaten their country and become African champions, of what use would a “pretended” or “fake” result be to them? Alternative reality might satisfy their egos for a while, but after the initial satisfaction, what then?

I mean, is humanity so base that people actually enjoy misleading others into believing what their own fantasies had created as the reality of a certain situation? I've read somewhere, in fact, that sadistic, military-prone humans can take this creation of “alternative reality” into the political sphere.

Some of the followers of Trump were deliberately fed by websites that created deliberate “lies” about the results – and processes of declaring the results – of the last s US election. They cast doubt on authentic results by charging that state and local election officials had either altered or suppressed the authentic results and thereby “stolen” the election from Trump!.

In other words, they created an “alternative reality” and then charged their opponents, rather, with manufacturing such a reality! They created enough doubt (in other words) to make reality itself matter of opinion, not of fact! How dangerous is that in an era of instantaneous electronic messaging, I ask you?

In a self-centered belief that Trump had been cheated of victory, some of the victims of alternative reality armed themselves and attacked the US Capitol building, from where they believed REAL manufacturers of lies were operating from! Others attacked post offices and other establishments that dealt with election issues.

In other words, we must expect, in the future, a “digital new world”, will be created, whereby “real reality” can be distorted or altered to mean whatever anyone wants it to represent. One website says Trump lost. Another says Trump won. Which is correct? And if the world is not careful, the answer will be provided by armed force.

But you say, “Oh, you can check your 'alternative or fake facts' against the facts produced by “The mainstream media?” Well, what guarantee do we have that the “mainstream media” are not part of the “conspiracy” to alter reality? If “avatars” looking like real footballers can be manipulated to play a fake, “alternative” football match that produces a fake, alternative result, what else cannot be invented?

What prevents the owners of The Washington Post or The New York Times from acting as the owners of Facebook and Twitter and publishing fake news and only taking it down (if they do!) after they have received complaints?

This new “reality” situation which our world has entered has already been partly exploited by filmmakers. One scenario can be found in the film, The Manchurian Candidate. It won't be fair to disclose the plot (if you don't know it already!) as that would spoil the fun in case you decide to check up on it online.

Wikipedia has a whole, long article on it. If you're unaware of it, then have fun looking it up!

Going back to the Egypt-Senegal match, some people have suggested that Mo Salah was upset when the winning penalty goal was scored by his Liverpool club-mate, Sadio Mané. That report is fake, of course. The two players do not employ each other and their joint loyalty is to Liverpool Football Club and not to each other. As soon as they leave Liverpool's ambiance, they are free agents and they must revert to the original loyalty that they owe to their different nations.

By the way, there is one most interesting recent occurrence in the sports world to which I want to draw your attention. No, it is not the winter Olympics in China! It is this: a West Indian cricketer, Jason Holder, took four wickets in four balls in a match against the old enemy, England, on 1 February 2022. Here is a report on Jason Holder's incredible feat:

QUOTE: Jason Holder Creates History For West Indies By Taking Four Wickets In Four Balls

“West Indies cricketer, Jason Holder, created history by taking four wickets in four balls against England in the last over of the 5th and final T20I. Holder produced a record-breaking performance to lead West Indies to a 17-run victory in the decider against England.

“He became the first West Indian male cricketer to take a hat-trick in T20Is... Holder etched his name into the record books with his final over of the match, with England [needing] 20 runs to win, when he removed Chris Jordan, Sam Billings, Adil Rashid, and Saqib Mahmood off consecutive deliveries ....at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados."

It is most unusual to get a “hat-trick” [three wickets in three balls] in cricket, but it does happen. To get “four-in-four” is extremely rare.

In fact, Jason Holder became the first West Indies bowler to take a hat-trick in T20 Internationals and only the fourth player of all time to grab four wickets in as many deliveries.

Good to see the West Indies making positive news again!