spheric

Russian YouTubers keep showing off alleged M4 MacBook Pros in historic Apple leak

spheric

October 2024

Is there reason to assume this person is actually in Russia?

J.D. Vance shouldn't open his mouth about Apple if he doesn't have a clue

spheric

September 2024

@Xed , we’re not disagreeing, at all.

My point about MTG and Loomer was that we’re not susceptible to falling for their insane bullshit because of the

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EU hits back at Apple withholding Apple Intelligence from the region

spheric

September 2024

charlesn said:

The good news is that Apple has at least (and finally) called Vestager's bluff with regard to Apple Intelligence and iPhone Mirroring: neither one will be

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J.D. Vance shouldn't open his mouth about Apple if he doesn't have a clue

spheric

September 2024

RobJenk said:
You slammed JDW with "no one even implied we should view all news sources as being equal" but you later said "no site is 100% off limits for me". After I read that, I

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remembered what JDW said about North Korean news sources. I think that's a strong source of pro dictator propaganda too. Stuff like that really should be off limits for any smart person, except maybe for people who just want a good laugh at how crazy it is.

Media literacy really needs to be part of basic school education. I never realised how lucky I was to have a major block on the subject in global studies in seventh grade.

It's not about not exposing yourself to particular sources; it's about knowing exactly where those sources are coming from and how they work, and using the whole variety to get an idea of what's going on.

I watch speeches and snippets from Marjorie Taylor Greene or Laura Loomer, and am in NO danger of becoming batshit crazy or full-on Nazi because of it, because the perspective of those sources is clear. I can read or watch Fox News without worrying about going off the deep right end, because it's clear where they stand and what they're doing. I can also watch Maddow or Colbert without assuming that they're "reporting" — they're editorialising, broadcasting opinion I can agree or disagree with, or just be amused by.

Knowing the slant of reporting inherent to a source, and then using various sources, allows you to get a fuller picture of any subject by reading between the lines.

Where it gets deeply, deeply dangerous is on social media, especially TikTok, whose entire structure is built around quick snippets completely devoid of context, but also YouTube shorts and Instagram stories, memes, etc. Something that just scrolls by without ANY context of who created it, original source, news story or study to back it up — not even a note on which office curated it (unless you break the flow and go look for it): that deliberately eliminates all the basic tenets of media literacy and teaches people (and kids) to work exactly like you suggest.

Interestingly, at least in Europe and in the United States, it is the extreme right who are BY FAR the most effective at utilising these new media in such a way.

As you can clearly see from the fact that there are grown adults in this very thread who have fallen for the Haitians/cats hoax.

And their obliviousness to context and history is such that they don't even hear the alarm bells clanging like hell at the parallels to the "Jews eat babies" stories of the 18th and 19th centuries… might just be the results of home schooling, I guess.

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