Social media encourages posting of things we later regret
The ease of posting on social media results in people posting embarrassing, dumb things they will come to later regret.
Journalism logic: “Sacramento sheriff who ignored CA mask order now has COVID-19”
Since 90% of people who get Covid-19 wore a face mask where required, does this mean face masks cause you to get Covid-19? That makes as much logical sense as the idiotic media meme that “someone who opposed face masks now has Covid-19”.
The viral social media propaganda poster that started this web site
Blast from the past: the social media propaganda poster that led to the birth of this blog and web site.
Wild fires: Is everything a single variable problem?
Western state Governors are increasingly blaming climate change for western wild fires, as if the wild fires are a single variable. If only we could control the climate, we would no longer have wild land fires. Realistically, there is no magic control knob on climate that we can control and which will reduce fire danger for decades to come.
There are concrete steps that can be taken immediately to reduce the threats of future wild fires – but politicians would rather blame climate change – which they do not control – because to acknowledge there are factors which they can control is to acknowledge that their leadership has failed.
A common mistake people make is to focus on a single variable in a multiple variable problem. In this case, the focus is on one variable that cannot be controlled in the near term, while ignoring other variables that can be controlled.
Some what misleading social media propaganda poster
An actual assault by right wing political supporters on the campaign manager of a Democratic Party rival was misreported as an assault on a senior citizen, probably to increase the emotional appeal of the message.
Is this reporter on drugs?
Reporter standing in front of burning buildings says in live broadcast “I want to be clear on how I characterize this. This is mostly a protest. It is not generally speaking unruly.”. Setting fire to buildings is not unruly. Got it.
Missing logic: United Airlines blames climate change for their terrible on time performance
United Airlines blames climate change for lousy on time performance in 2019. Which is a total bull shit argument as United was #1 in 2018 and some how, climate only impacted United in 2019, unlike high scorers Delta and Alaska Airlines. PR staff spin nonsense to deflect blame from poor management.
Social media: Social media meme asserts U.S. corn belt yields 40% more oxygen than the Amazon
This poster is a persuasive bit of propaganda. Most of it is not true. The parts that are true are that the Corn belt is a very productive region, and about 80 million acres (close to 100 million in the poster?) are growing corn. This item had been shared into my Facebook news feed.
Communications: A propagandist is manipulative when they attempt to persuade you of something they know is a lie
When someone tries to persuade you of something that is not actually true, and the persuader knows it is not true, then the persuader is engaged in manipulation – versus argument or discussion.
Journalism: If you do not trust the Washington Post, you are unpatriotic
If you do not trust mass media, then you are unpatriotic. Interesting assertion unsupported by evidence. But its in the Washington Post, so you can trust it.