Misinformation police

[neurosis]

I can't decided whether I think misinformation is a huge factor in the outcome of our elections, or if it's just reassurance to people who were going to vote the way they were going to vote anyway.

[beej]

Are you sure? Did you ask him or just presume.......

that's a good point from now on please refer to me by the pronoun, righterthanyou. 

[Tim Johnson]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Biden admin has spewed more misinformation than anyone, ever.

I agree, but I would add, that I also would not want the people that I vote for to be the police of information either. That kind of power can only wield corruption.

Isn't that what the news is for? At least it used to be one of the things the news was for but Walter Cronkite was doing it too. When LBJ was president Cronkite mentioned Vietnam as little as possible but when Nixon was president it was mentioned in every newscast including how many was killed that day.

[JParis]

The notion of unbiased reporting when out the window when news became a "profit" center...

For many years the news department didn't have to worry out whether their area showed a profit...once the newsrooms became another financial entity, it all changed.

Frankly, not for the better.

[Jim at Gentex]

I do. absolutely. But if you just look at information as though you are a jury trying to decide what is true and what isn't. I would rather risk the fact that that there will be misinformation in the trial than to keep one side from speaking.

BINGO!

That was the whole problem with the COVID narrative from day one.

Leading experts in the field of virology were being muzzled on social media and other venues when they began to question the narrative.

Any time .gov wants to shut down ONE SIDE of ANY conversation, I am even more interested in what that side wants to say, but can't...

Sadly, I now start from the position that .gov is not telling me the truth, then give them a chance to change my mind.

Hint: Muzzling opposing viewpoints DOES NOT change my mind...

[JParis]

Sadly, I now start from the position that .gov is not telling me the truth

That's the position everyone should take with anything...

What's that old saying, "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see"

[beej]

There is value sometimes in misinformation. Sometimes misinformation gets you to the truth.

If one witness says the suspect was wearing a black hat, another says he was wearing a gray hat, and a 3rd says he was wearing a camo hat, well, someone probably has that wrong. But the fact that the suspect was wearing some hat is not in dispute. And even if the color is disagreed upon it's worth looking into whether the person who was charged has a hat one of those colors.

Same thing with the covid outbreak. if one person says it came from a wet market in wuhan, another says it came from the lab accidently, and a third says it came from the lab intentionally. All of those possibilities should be investigated rather than dismissed as misinformation in order to make sure, 1 what happened? and 2 keep it from happeing again.

But I'll tell you what's not good is when goverment officials, try to squash 2 out of the 3 ideas as misinformation and pressure tech companies to delete that info or face the consequences for some obscure political purpose.

The only thing that breeds, is a lack of trust, conspiracies theories, or worse, revolution.

just wait and see what happens if this Grusch guy turns out to be right about having Alien biologic material. If that guy is right and the government has lead that kind of coverup, a lot of people, in fact, most people are going to be wondering what other conspiracy theories are true. It will be uglier for the coverup, than the fact that there is a alien technology surpassing our own. Hopefully none of what that man said is true.

[YoDoug]

The only thing that breeds, is a lack of trust, conspiracies theories, or worse, revolution

Just like sometimes the misinformation can lead to the truth, Sometimes it takes a revolution to lead to true freedom.

[beej]

Just like sometimes the misinformation can lead to the truth, Sometimes it takes a revolution to lead to true freedom.

what are the percentages on revolutions leading to freedom though? wouldn't you agree that the American Revolution was fairly unique in that aspect?

[YoDoug]

what are the percentages on revolutions leading to freedom though? wouldn't you agree that the American Revolution was fairly unique in that aspect?

I'll agree to that. Any modern revolutions in other parts of the world are usually so heavily influenced by outside interests that they rarely end up with a constitution and freedom like America. However, here we would not be fighting to change our constitution or form of government. We would be fighting to drive out the corruption.

[Incogneeto]

Are you sure? Did you ask him or just presume.......

No, No, Noooo. It's Assume (Ass/u/me).

Presume requires Forward Thinking.

And We all know that ain't JP.

 

[beej]

I can't decided whether I think misinformation is a huge factor in the outcome of our elections, or if it's just reassurance to people who were going to vote the way they were going to vote anyway.

Has there ever been an election without misinformation?

But until 2020 I never saw the aggressiveness to squash information that one political bent didn't like. De-platforming entire news organizations? Jen Psaki's twitter account shut down, not for agreeing with the NY Post article but for responding to it? FBI leaking to the press that they informed Ron Johnson that he might unwittingly be doing Russia's propaganda 3 weeks before the election? The 51 FBI and CIA officials signing the letter that Anthony Blinken asked them to sign while he was working for the Biden campaign? National newspapers fact checkers just spewing out Democrat talking points! It is so astounding!

https://nypost.com/2023/08/10/glenn-kessler-embarrasses-himself-and-the-washington-post-with-joe-biden-stenography-again/

Is there anyone more in the tank for Team Biden than The Washington Post and its "fact checker" Glenn Kessler?

In the latest blow to his own credibility (and his employer's), Kessler has again sneakily "updated" an October 2020 fact check of a New York Post article that cast doubt on our 100% accurate reporting that Joe Biden, as vice president, was involved in son Hunter's influence-peddling operation via a 2015 dinner with Hunter and Burisma big Vadim Pozharskyi.

Kessler readily accepted the Team Biden line back then and simply parroted it: "Officials who worked for Biden at the time told The Fact Checker that no such meeting took place."

He suggested all Biden had done was shake hands and chat with Pozharskyi at a public event.

[beej]

would we even know about Richard Nixon's shenanigans if he had been a democrat? I'm convinced that the Washington post would have hushed the story if they would have uncovered it at all.

[Smit]

Has there ever been an election without misinformation?

I don't think so.

But widespread social media is why it's so messed up today, imho.

The internet is both the best and worst thing about where we're at today.

[beej]

I don't think so.

But widespread social media is why it's so messed up today, imho.

The internet is both the best and worst thing about where we're at today.

are you convinced that the Hunter Biden's laptop story is misinformation? Worthy of suppression?