CMABooty

Wesley Hilliard said:

leighr said:

The end of so called “fact checkers” is a welcome relief for true free speech. When one person, or group, has the power to decide what is ‘true’ or not, we are all in trouble. See exhibit one: China, or even worse, North Korea. We all need to fight against this sort of abuse of money and power, and while I am not a huge Facebook fan, I’m glad that they are following X’s lead in allowing free speech. 

I'm assuming this means that when a teacher graded your paper and marked an answer incorrect, it was a violation of your free speech? No one has the power to decide what is true or not. Reality is the only truth. But by making fact checking crowdsourced, you remove truth from fact, and I guess that's why they say we're in a post truth society. People only want to hear things they agree with, and everything else is deemed a lie, "fake news."

It is tragic how bad things have become. People mistrusting professionals, believing conspiracies, hating everything different from themselves.

It is tragic. I mourn the death of knowledge, of fact, of reality, of compassion. The only thing left is greed and hate in the people that follow him. It is pitiful.

Wesley Hilliard said:

CMABooty said:

  Gray area, but scary nonetheless.

I'm sure if you looked for it you could provide five sources that claim Bigfoot is real. It's funny that even in one of the links they explain that the science overwhelmingly debunks the lab theory, and only the non scientists believe otherwise.

*Providing links that agree with you doesn't prove anything except you know how to use Google. True knowledge isn't gained from a headline.*

You've been misinformed, manipulated, tricked. It is so much easier to believe conspiracies because it is human nature to seek the easiest path. I only hear the talking points of Fox News and Republican senators in what you post here, no better than a parrot repeating what they heard with no understanding of what it means.

Yes, your bullshit about natural or herd immunity kills people. You can have natural immunity to some diseases, but morons like to use it as a reason not to get vaccinated from diseases that can kill you.

Regardless, you believe what you like. Watch the racist news network full of assholes. I'll continue to stand by science and ensure I live by real values like loving my neighbor and caring for my family. Hope you enjoy the gulf of America and our 51st state. Fucking clown show.

It is funny that the only people out there that have a problem with fact checking are the ones that spread lies. But I suppose if they believe the lies they spread, there's nothing that can be done at that level. I'm not sure if it's an education issue, fear, or good old fashioned bigotry. Perhaps a mix.

My frustration isn't with you, anonymous internet poster. It is with the sad state of affairs that our world and our country is in. So I do apologize for the heat behind my words here, though I don't apologize for what I stand for.

I don't think I'll be replying here again, but I look forward to the next inevitable story that leads to our forum members posting a lot of conspiratorial nonsense.

Wesley Hilliard said:

Free speech is a protection from the government, not private institutions. Everything you mention in this comment in particular are all headlines shared by Fox News, a news resource that was sued and lost thanks to sharing election fraud lies for rating increases. The lab theory was debunked by experts and scientists the world over many times and continues to not be true, but you may have seen FBI director Wray (appointed by Trump) go on Fox News (Trump's media platform) and say it was a lab, because after an investigation by the Republican party (Maga Trump party) found no new conclusive evidence that it was a lab, said it was a lab anyway to the dismay of democrats and experts that said otherwise.

But somehow you believe that "everyone has an agenda" and don't even realize that all of the misinformation you just shared was from a resource whose agenda is to serve the Republican (now Maga Trump) party. The right's obsession with Hunter Biden is another aspect of this that proves how hateful and ignorant that news resource is. They blamed the LA fires on DEI for God's sake.

And there's the "both sides" nonsense. There is no credible evidence anywhere that natural immunity is an alternative to vaccines. Period. Ask the kids who got polio because their parents are anti-vaxxers. Or all of the preventable deaths during the COVID pandemic caused by lack of immunization and masking. Or perhaps more recently the leading cause of death from preventable diseases in children being the Flu due to lack of vaccinations this winter.

Clearly you have your own beliefs, so please spare me because I rolled my eyes enough the first time I heard them passed through the Fox News megaphone.

Facts and science win out every time, no matter how much a person denies them or dislikes them.


What misinformation?

On the lab leak, the director of the FBI said it.  Yes, he was appointed by Trump, but hates Trump and would perjuring himself in front of congress..  Also, various other government agencies, including the Department of Energy came to the same conclusion:

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/28/1160157977/u-s-dept-of-energy-says-with-low-confidence-that-covid-may-have-leaked-from-a-la

Three other agencies that came to the same conclusion.  In a vacuum, that may not be news, other than the government tried to stifle this theory before there was any data to prove or disprove it.  They weren't following the evidence:

https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/5058339-biden-administration-suppressed-dissent/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2023/03/02/covid-lab-leak-china-not-conspiracy-theory/11364905002/

So there are four sources - FBI director, NPR, The Hill, and USA Today.  Feel free to cite your own source, but you didn't cite one and just attacked the source I cited without either providing your own or refuting the actual information.  The point here though is the source being the lab isn't 'misinformation', though it is disputed, but only one side of that argument was being labelled as such.

You clearly have an issue with Fox News, which I get.  ABC News just had to put out 16M dollars for defamation.  The View has to read legal disclaimers very often due to what they're saying and how they say it.  I'm curious, which news sources do you find credible?  You attacked references that I didn't even make (Fox News) as well as the FBI Director, which is a reference that I did make.  CNN may as well be the Clinton news network, I think they have a single republican on their panels.  MSNBC is the mirror image of Fox News on the left, with crazy conspiracies and borderline tabloid sensationalism.

"There is no credible evidence anywhere that natural immunity is an alternative to vaccines. Period."

That's not what 'natural immunity' is:

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/natural-immunity

I was comparing the antibodies produced once you've already had covid to getting a covid vaccine.  Once you've had covid, your body has fought it off and established antibodies for it.  It's one of the reasons that people don't get chickenpox multiple times or you can't get the 'same' cold more than once.  Neither seems particularly effective on reinfection with Covid though, I know people that have had every recommended booster and still had covid multiple times.  Most vaccines mimic natural immunity by injecting dead virus into you, which lets your immune system recognize it and attack it.  The covid mRNA vaccine is very different.

You don't have any natural immunity until after you've already had the virus/infection and fought it off.  Getting a vaccine AFTER that doesn't make sense in most cases.  In any case, not misinformation.

"Or all of the preventable deaths during the COVID pandemic caused by lack of immunization and masking. Or perhaps more recently the leading cause of death from preventable diseases in children being the Flu due to lack of vaccinations this winter."

I think this is delving out of what we're talking about here.  I was talking about stories in the media and censorship, and you're making conclusions here based on your reading of stories, etc.  That said, my opinion is Masking did absolutely nothing, unless you were wearing an actual N95 mask all the time.  It was like putting up a chain link fence to keep bugs out of your yard.  Put all the kids in school (with homemade masks) that they got to take off during lunch period when they were all in the cafeteria?  Does the virus know that you're eating and not to spread?  Some of the stuff was laughable.

How many people died due to lack of flu shots?  I haven't heard a number.  I haven't even heard an efficacy number for the flu shot -- in order to manufacture enough of them each year, they're guessing at which strain will be the most prevalent. 

"The right's obsession with Hunter Biden is another aspect of this that proves how hateful and ignorant that news resource is. "

It was definitely politically charged, and they made an issue of it because they saw it as tit for tat law fare.  But he was convicted by a prosecutor appointed by his father.  My issue with this isn't the prosecution, it was as you said malicious -- my issue was the media denying the laptop was real and Facebook and Twitter taking down the story as 'misinformation' (the topic we were discussing).  Not only was it not misinformation, they lined up 51 intel people to say it was misinformation.  That could have had consequences on the election, much like the Hilary email server did.

Fact-checking is a great idea in principle.  The problem is the people checking the facts aren't just taking down 'misinformation', they're taking down stuff that either damages an ally or is their belief system just doesn't align with.  

And you're right, private companies can do whatever they want, the first amendment only protects people against government.  Unfortunately, the government was leaning on these platforms that people were using to communicate.  Gray area, but scary nonetheless.