5 ms·
>"In short, "fact checkers" don't actually understand the definition of what a fact is, but are quick to declare them, and this is contrary to my experience of
by BitwiseFool 5y ago
>"In short, "fact checkers" don't actually understand the definition of what a fact is, but are quick to declare them, and this is contrary to my experience of real, actual truth."
I'd go a step further and assert that these "fact checkers" play fast and loose with the definition of words and the meaning of language. Here is the absolute best example I can think of:
"Did a ‘Convicted Terrorist’ Sit on the Board of a BLM Funding Body?"[1]
What's True:
Susan Rosenberg has served as vice chair of the board of directors for Thousand Currents, an organization that provides fundraising and fiscal sponsorship for the Black Lives Matter Global Movement. She was an active member of revolutionary left-wing movements whose illegal activities included bombing U.S. government buildings and committing armed robberies.
What's Undetermined:
In the absence of a single, universally-agreed definition of "terrorism," it is a matter of subjective determination as to whether the actions for which Rosenberg was convicted and imprisoned — possession of weapons and hundreds of pounds of explosives — should be described as acts of "domestic terrorism."
[1] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/blm-terrorist-rosenberg/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/blm-terrorist-rosenberg/
Edit: I apologize for the unwieldy formatting of this post. But I keep finding more disturbing content from the snopes article that I must share.
>"In her memoir, Rosenberg wrote of her 1984 arrest in New Jersey that “there was no immediate, specific plan to use the explosives” with which she and Blunk were caught. ..."
>"Earlier in her book, Rosenberg indicated that she was comfortable, at least at one point in time, with bombing government buildings:"
>"proven record of using bomb attacks to influence the wider American public and advance their cause. As such, a supportable (though not definitive) case exists for claiming that the crimes of which Rosenberg was convicted in 1985 were indeed acts of domestic terrorism."
The author(s) are making every rhetorical excuse they can imagine. Yes, she admits in her book she was comfortable with using them. Yes, she did technically get caught with them. But you must keep in mind that there were no immediate plans to use them.
>"In any event, despite the existence of a definition of domestic terrorism in federal law, a discrete criminal offense of domestic terrorism does not exist, and did not exist in the 1980s. As a result, even if Rosenberg’s activities perfectly met the definition of domestic terrorism currently set out in federal law, and even if that definition existed in the 1980s, she could not have been charged with, tried for and convicted of domestic terrorism as such."
Look, dear reader, even if everything you learned about this situation is screaming "domestic terrorist", you HAVE to understand that by definition, she can't be one because of all the technicalities I have shown you. Case closed.
- _dain_ 5y agoYes, this is one of the most shameless examples of "fact-checkers" being partisan flak-catchers
- heartbreak 5y agoAnd at the end of the day, the underlying issue is the intent of sharing this info on social media in the first place. Susan Rosenberg's position as vice chair of the board of directors for Thousand Currents is intended to imply that BLM itself is a terrorist organization. No amount of fact checking is going to help in this scenario.
- s1artibartfast 5y ago>No amount of fact checking is going to help in this scenario. Sure it will. You can flag it as false, and make sure nobody can see the posts.
- BitwiseFool 5y ago>"to imply that BLM itself is a terrorist organization. No amount of fact checking is going to help in this scenario." It seems to me the answer to this dilemma is to replace her on the board of directors. Scores of other CEO's and board members have been dismissed or asked to resign over far less. I'm no PR expert, but her background and connections are certainly eyebrow raising, despite all the attempts to hand-waive or dismiss them. Surely they have a large pool of talent from which to draw a replacement with a less problematic history?
- notahacker 5y agoThis. Many other organizations are similar degrees of separation from individuals who could plausibly be labelled as terrorists or similar, but I doubt many of the people furious at labelling this claim as "mixed" would demand fact checkers also rate such articles as wholly true if the subject of the headline was an individual closely linked to, say, the Republican party, Fox News or the NRA. And yes, if you want to believe that BLM is a terrorist organisation then the Snopes article provides enough accurate detail about the bad stuff Rosenberg did for you not to change your mind, just as any self respecting fact checker has to acknowledge that however dubious certain insinuations might be, Oliver North et al exist.