4 ms·

It's not based on nothing. It's based on a pattern of the current administration and the media that supports it propping up nonsense and blowing stories that ar

by Rudism 6y ago

It's not based on nothing. It's based on a pattern of the current administration and the media that supports it propping up nonsense and blowing stories that are critical of their opposition out of proportion specifically in order to rile people up and influence elections. Pizzagate, Hillary's emails, Q-Anon, these things all take a toll on people who actually care about what is true and real. Is it really surprising that after all the overblown conspiracy nonsense we've been battered with from the White House and Trump that people have grown suspicious and weary of new stories that smell even remotely similar? It's gotten to the point where if Trump supports a story I assume it's probably untrue by default just because of the sheer volume of lies and nonsense he retweets on a daily basis. I don't know anything about the Hunter Biden story. Maybe it's loaded with true, damning information against Biden. If so, it's too bad, because we are neck deep in a boy-who-cried-wolf situation here and I'm not going to learn about it until it's been verified and reported by media outlets that I can actually trust.

meowface 6y ago
I fucking hate conspiracy theories. I spend (or waste) way too much time online arguing with conspiracy theorists and debunking conspiracy theories. Trump is definitely the conspiracy theorist in chief. It's beyond insanity. But just like conspiracy theories are irrational, kneejerk dismissing all negative stories as conspiracy theories is also irrational. There's a much more reasonable way of handling this. Things always have to be taken on a case-by-case basis. You mention boy-who-cried-wolf, and NY Post is definitely a shitty and extremely biased outlet, but probably about as biased as modern day CNN. Both have peddled a lot of hyperbole and unjustified shit, and both have also reported on real things. As far as I know, the NY Post never supported absurd conspiracy theories like Pizzagate or QAnon. NY Post certainly hyped up Hillary's private email server well beyond the point of reason and fairness, but this scenario would exactly be like if every non-right-biased news outlet all decided to never publish any story even mentioning that she had a private email server that she may have used for non-personal affairs. Of course it'd be extremely irresponsible to have headlines about her email server every day, but it's just as irresponsible to consider the mere existence of the topic an unspeakable matter, as it would be if Twitter were to have censored every link to an article mentioning that she had a private email server she's alleged to have used for non-personal things. This is the Streisand effect in action, here. It's simply not rational to assume that any story Trump supports is probably untrue. He lies an unbelievable amount, but if you assume 60% of everything that ever comes out of his mouth is a lie, that 40% could still have some real things worth trying to look at objectively. And in this case, this isn't some thing he just peddled entirely himself out of the blue; a newspaper reported on it, even if they're a very biased newspaper. He's going to support anything that he thinks helps his campaign, and not everything that helps his campaign is necessarily bullshit, even if a lot is. This absolutist stance is part of the thing that only bolsters his constant accusations of fake news - "fake news" has in some sense become a self-fulfilling prophecy in some cases, like here. The left never followed Hillary's proclamation of "when they go low, we go high". Every year, the opposition sinks lower and lower, gradually trending towards the level of the other side. And that's probably exactly what Trump wants and has been trying to trigger.
- qqqwerty 6y ago
  They had the hard drive for over a year. Plenty of time to try and do a proper investigation. But instead they sat on it. If they were willing to sit on it for over 12 months, I see no reason why mainstream media can't insist that they continue to sit on it until they verify their sources. And it is worth mentioning that both Fox New (the news side, not the opinion side) and the Wall Street Journal turned the story down. And the journalists at NY Post refused to put their name in the byline. If I worked at CNN, and saw that right leaning orgs were staying away from it, maybe skepticism is warranted. And keep in mind, they are refusing to release copies of the source material to other journalists. So no one other than the NY Post has the ability to authenticate (even fox business can't get access[1]). [1] https://thehill.com/homenews/media/523087-giuliani-goes-off-on-fox-business-host-after-she-compares-him-to https://thehill.com/homenews/media/523087-giuliani-goes-off-...

by Rudism 6y ago

meowface 6y ago

I fucking hate conspiracy theories. I spend (or waste) way too much time online arguing with conspiracy theorists and debunking conspiracy theories. Trump is definitely the conspiracy theorist in chief. It's beyond insanity. But just like conspiracy theories are irrational, kneejerk dismissing all negative stories as conspiracy theories is also irrational. There's a much more reasonable way of handling this. Things always have to be taken on a case-by-case basis. You mention boy-who-cried-wolf, and NY Post is definitely a shitty and extremely biased outlet, but probably about as biased as modern day CNN. Both have peddled a lot of hyperbole and unjustified shit, and both have also reported on real things. As far as I know, the NY Post never supported absurd conspiracy theories like Pizzagate or QAnon. NY Post certainly hyped up Hillary's private email server well beyond the point of reason and fairness, but this scenario would exactly be like if every non-right-biased news outlet all decided to never publish any story even mentioning that she had a private email server that she may have used for non-personal affairs. Of course it'd be extremely irresponsible to have headlines about her email server every day, but it's just as irresponsible to consider the mere existence of the topic an unspeakable matter, as it would be if Twitter were to have censored every link to an article mentioning that she had a private email server she's alleged to have used for non-personal things. This is the Streisand effect in action, here. It's simply not rational to assume that any story Trump supports is probably untrue. He lies an unbelievable amount, but if you assume 60% of everything that ever comes out of his mouth is a lie, that 40% could still have some real things worth trying to look at objectively. And in this case, this isn't some thing he just peddled entirely himself out of the blue; a newspaper reported on it, even if they're a very biased newspaper. He's going to support anything that he thinks helps his campaign, and not everything that helps his campaign is necessarily bullshit, even if a lot is. This absolutist stance is part of the thing that only bolsters his constant accusations of fake news - "fake news" has in some sense become a self-fulfilling prophecy in some cases, like here. The left never followed Hillary's proclamation of "when they go low, we go high". Every year, the opposition sinks lower and lower, gradually trending towards the level of the other side. And that's probably exactly what Trump wants and has been trying to trigger.

qqqwerty 6y ago
They had the hard drive for over a year. Plenty of time to try and do a proper investigation. But instead they sat on it. If they were willing to sit on it for over 12 months, I see no reason why mainstream media can't insist that they continue to sit on it until they verify their sources. And it is worth mentioning that both Fox New (the news side, not the opinion side) and the Wall Street Journal turned the story down. And the journalists at NY Post refused to put their name in the byline. If I worked at CNN, and saw that right leaning orgs were staying away from it, maybe skepticism is warranted. And keep in mind, they are refusing to release copies of the source material to other journalists. So no one other than the NY Post has the ability to authenticate (even fox business can't get access[1]). [1] https://thehill.com/homenews/media/523087-giuliani-goes-off-on-fox-business-host-after-she-compares-him-to https://thehill.com/homenews/media/523087-giuliani-goes-off-...