8 ms·
I still think mainstream news have a larger role in this, social media are followers. People share news stories as if they are true, with context often omitted,
by bra-ket 6y ago
I still think mainstream news have a larger role in this, social media are followers. People share news stories as if they are true, with context often omitted, manipulated or outright fabricated. But people still trust their news.
CNN, NYT, Washington Post, HuffPost, Vox, Fox News turned into extremely biased sources of disinformation and blatant propaganda.
E.g. a fabricated story in The Atlantic magazine, citing anonymous sources, was repeated and amplified by all these major media hubs and then further by social media for weeks. It's like a giant wave after wave of misinformation and rumors presented as facts. The burden of evidence apparently no longer applies.
The bias is mostly on the left wing of political spectrum, but the right wing are not too far behind.
- Pils 6y agoOne thing is clear: the "Stop The Steal" crowd was clearly radicalized into something openly violent and seditious. Mainstream news outlets that actively encouraged this violence must be shut down. OANN/Newsmax delenda est
- bra-ket 6y agoI'd argue that crowd was radicalized by 4 years by endless anti-Trump propaganda and lies by mainstream media demonizing Trump and his supporters. The 'steal' happened way before the elections.
- krapp 6y agoI mean, the day's events have proven the mainstream media was right about Trump and his supporters all along, but ok.
- bra-ket 6y agoI don’t see how is this worse than BLM riots burning and looting our cities for months. Double standard?
- dTal 6y agoYou don't see how breaking into the Capitol Building, during a dual session, with the express intent of disrupting the ratification of election results, because the loser of said election egged them on, is a more serious situation?
- kryogen1c 6y agoof course not. they can have that meeting by zoom or teams or conference call. they didn't ruin anything, unlike the neighborhoods that may take years to rebuild. they feel political unrest and they took it out on politicians. theyre probably wrong, but its better than burning down some unrelated guys store, no?
- meowface 6y agoThis is a nuanced issue. The intentions are indeed purer (if the comparison is restricted solely to someone breaching the Capitol building exclusively due to sincere belief the election was rigged [without displaying bigoted/fascist regalia/symbols] and someone burning down an arbitrary, unrelated private business after George Floyd's death), but two things: - That's partly why this really highlights the cold immorality and/or the abject delusion of the fomenter of this activity more than it does for most of the mob. I don't necessarily think most of the protestors and rioters are immoral or trying to be malicious: I think they genuinely believe what their leader is telling them and believe they're doing a righteous thing to protect the Constitution and the country. So for a large subset of the people, I think Trump deserves more blame for this than they do, whatever the underlying reasoning behind his actions. - It's difficult to accurately debate this without empirical classification of offenses (what people did and how many people did them), otherwise it's easy to start reducing a broad situation to one symbolized by its least or most admirable participants.
- krapp 6y agoNo matter what BLM did or didn't do - and saying they burned and looted cities for months is clear right-wing hyperbole - Trump supporters stormed the Capital, destroyed property, looted, committed violence and planted explosives in an attempt to disrupt the legitimate process of government and overturn the Presidential election. They are exactly the breed of fascists that everyone thought they were. You can blame the left as easily as you breathe but there isn't enough whataboutism in the world to negate that.
- Pils 6y agoWhy propagandize? The results are clearly speaking for themselves.
- arcticbull 6y agoI think it's right to call out the double-standard in reporting. There's a big dissonance in the eyes of folks who watched CNN stand over a burning building proclaiming that the BLM protests were in fact entirely peaceful. And in the eyes of folks watching FOX right now, saying the assault on the capital was largely peaceful. I'm not joking. Both of these things happened. I think it's also important to call out what's different between the two instances. The BLM protests were in response to a real, meaningful threat to the safety of a group of individuals. American citizens. There were real life body counts that were being fought against, and an attempt was made to renegotiate the role of policing in modern society. The capital assault was over something that didn't happen. The capital assault happened because the president has been fanning the flames of violence in America for four years. Seeding dissent. Destroying faith in governance and in the rule of law. Simply because of the fragility of his ego didn't allow him to accept defeat. I'll come right out and say it, violence is never ok. It's also not fair to equate the two of these situations.
- kryogen1c 6y ago> The BLM protests were in response to a real, meaningful threat actually, your two examples are very alike in the "things that did not happen" category. the murder of George floyd was negligent at best and malicious at worst, but racist cops killing blacks is simply not a large issue, and certainly not a "meaningful threat" to all black people. San Harris published a seminal piece on the matter: https://youtu.be/vmgxtcbc4iU https://youtu.be/vmgxtcbc4iU
- arcticbull 6y agoI will listen to the piece. Without saying I agree or disagree, if I take the position that racism in policing doesn't exist, and that the police are treating everyone equally: America has in prison today almost 0.7% of its entire population. Right now. It is the world's leading jailer on a per-capita basis. [1] Two thirds of private prisons (which lets step back for a second is horrifying as a concept) include minimum occupancy clauses. [2] This is an utter failure of the state in its duty of care to its citizens. To call this a conflict of interest doesn't even begin to do it justice. The incarceration rate among African Americans is almost 7X that of white folks in America. Criminality and race do not go hand in hand, therefore there exists a real and meaningful problem that is disproportionately affecting a racial group. A social and/or economic problem. African Americans have way more interaction with police and policing, and even if you believe there's no racial disparity in the way those interactions go down - that instead they're killed and harassed at the same rate as white folks on a per-encounter basis - the fact is they have way, way more encounters per capita. This is likely a function of the society that America has built and fostered. The reaction and the frustration and the protest is still justified even if you believe that race didn't play a factor in the specific instances, and even if you believe there's no systemic issue with policing. Now, there's also evidence that there is a difference in how they are treated by police, but I think my argument holds even if you reject that premise. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate#:~:text=At%20the%20end%20of%202016,the%20population%20was%20behind%20bars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_ra.... [2] https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2015/jul/31/report-finds-two-thirds-private-prison-contracts-include-lockup-quotas/ https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2015/jul/31/report-find...
- chasd00 6y agoi have to agree. if you spend 4 years telling half the country they are the enemy for supporting trump then don't be surprised when half the country views you as the enemy.
- adamsea 6y agoBaloney. First, two wrongs don’t make a right. Anyone in support of this seditious and violent behavior should be ashamed. Second, you have it backwards. Trump IS an authoritian - if today isn’t proof of that to you then I don’t know what to say to you. Which sadly seems to exactly be the problem. But I’ll reiterate the facts: - Zero election fraud. - President Trump lying and saying fraud existing, that the election is not in fact legitimate, and encouraging a violent mob to storm the capital.
- djsumdog 6y ago> Second, you have it backwards. Trump IS an authoritian - if today isn’t proof of that to you then I don’t know what to say to you. His last and final tweet was literally to tell everyone to go home and not cause violence. He literally said he wanted peace. Either you haven't listened to it or your hatred is so strong nothing will quench that fire. Trump could have told them to occupy the building and they would have. He is the first president in my lifetime to not start a new war. He let cities burn and didn't send in any people unless states asked for it. In what fucked up world do you think Trump is authoritarian?
- adamsea 6y agoUm he incited the mob in the first place and his message also praised the mob; he’s a liar and manipulator and this isn’t a time to pretend that his second grade wordplay-cleverness deniability double language actually fools anyone. He’s the fucking President of the country. He has responsibilities to defend the Constitution and the government and the country. He clearly failed those responsibilities today. Shame on you.