Bill Gates opposes democracy?
Bill Gates blames changing political parties in control of governments for lack of climate change solutions. His words are bizarre as he appears to be opposing democracy itself.
Nope: “Is Mount Shasta really devoid of snow for the first time ever?”
This claim – no snow on Mt Shasta for the first time ever – is not accurate. No surprise – its on social media!
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is out with their annual fake report
Reporters are idiots. They fall for this story every year, year after year. And not one bothers to question the advocacy group’s press release. Not one.
Nigeria blocks all access to Twitter
Twitter argues that access to, apparently, Twitter is a “human right”. Yet Twitter itself frequently cuts others off of Twitter for bizarre reasons. This tweet by Twitter does not seem to have been well thought out.
Fake news headline of the day: “Infections are raging in India. Could U.S. be next?”
“Could U.S. be next?” is a click-bait question in a headline. The answer is “no”.
Talk about Spin: The official Minneapolis Police Statement after George Floyd was dead
The Minneapolis Police Department issued a press release after George Floyd died that was basically a lie, and omitted numerous critical details of the encounter. They later deleted the press release, apparently acknowledging it was not a true statement. The bogus press release is an example of pre-emptive propaganda, typical after police shootings – they release all the dirt they can find on the suspect, and then release a list of commendations and medals of the officers involved. In the case of George Floyd, the MPD left out crucial details – and this would have been all we knew if there had not been an independent video.
When is something a “Crisis”?
When is something a “crisis” and when is it not? “Crisis” is an intentional word used to evoke emotions – or to call for action. One can choose to use the word “crisis” to suggest something awful (even if not really) or can deliberately choose not to use the world “crisis” to minimize the optics of the situation.
Using a misquote, without context, to try and make a point about modern vaccines
““In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the smallpox taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation.” This quote is from Ben Franklin but it leaves out so much context as to be used incorrectly today. It relies on the modern day readers perspective that a vaccination existed then, but perhaps he was an anti-vaxxer. In fact, their “innoculation” had a 1 in 50 fatality rate during smallpox outbreaks. And it was not until about 100 years later the concept of an effective vaccine came into play. This quote works as propaganda because of the “What You See Is All There Is” phenomena – the viewer makes assumptions based on our contemporary situation.
Heh – social media teaches us we do not want to be able to read minds :)
Social media teaches us we do not want to be able to read people’s minds 🙂
When you re-define the language, you can control the world
“Tear gas” and “Pepper spray” have been redefined by riot enthusiasts as “chemical munitions” and “chemical weapons” as they seek to ban the use of crowd control measures by police, when employed at “mostly peaceful protests”. Changing the language is one of the first steps taken in a propaganda campaign. Language redefinition goes on all the time, and lately, with increasing frequency.