Sole Source

Tired and true.

            A faux-news post will typically start out with ‘mainstream media isn’t reporting this’ and ask for people to share the information before Facebook pulls the post. Just every once in a while you’d think that the information that isn’t being shared by mainstream media would pan out to be true, but nope. False. It’s usually easy to tell that it’s false, especially when I’ll have already seen several news outlets carrying the story. The actual story without lies inserted.

            At times I will peruse a person’s page to see what kinds of stuff they share and what their sources of information are. Often on a conservatives or Trump supporter’s page there won’t be a single legitimate source of information referenced. Often the posts are just memes of false information and super-duper patriotic stuff mixed in with racist crap. Sometimes subtle. Sometimes not.

 There is NO changing his cult followers’ minds!

            Because of the outrageous things President Trump does and says on a regular basis it’s easy to see why people call him an idiot. I’ve done that a time or two myself. It’s easy to drift into name calling, especially on social media.

            But Trump isn’t really an idiot. He isn’t really average either. He ends up being below average mainly because he refuses to be educated. His followers embrace that aspect of his nature.  

Trump messaging:

            Crime is rampant! But it isn’t because things are better than they’ve ever been. Cities are on fire! But they aren’t. Keep America great! Trump is in charge. The virus is deadly. The virus is a hoax. (Trump said it. Trump repeated it. His cult believes it.) Trump stopped the virus. There’ll only be 50,000 dead. He accepts no responsibility. He’s in complete power. Anybody that wants a test can get one. There’s a deep state controlling things. He is in charge. Vaccines don’t work. Everyone will get a mask. Voter fraud by mail is rampant. Mailed ballots are safe. Vote by mail. Don’t vote by mail. Masks don’t work. The virus is deadly. The virus isn’t deadly. The Dems! Mexico will pay for the wall! Illegal immigrants are murdering rapists. Muslims are evil. The Russians are innocent. Hillary’s emails! He already has a better healthcare plan. He will have a better health care plan. Trump won’t have time to golf. He’ll throw Hillary in jail. Treason! Liberate! The Dems are stealing the election! He’s in charge.

            We’ve turned the corner. They know all this because….

Trump said so.

No proof accepted in Trumplandia.

            They are true believers. They are armed with the uncontestable truth of ignorance and AR15s. There is no truth other than what they accept to be the truth as told by their Chosen One. Their Duce. They agree with what they want to believe. They view the world through an orange haze.

Shocking the pool.

            Currently there are at least twenty to thirty million people in this country that don’t have a real good idea of what’s going on in the real world. Their source of what’s “true” is the President of the United States along with Fox News Pravda, the state news outlet, Russian bots and fake sites. They are deniers; just like the holocaust deniers they have all the requisite fake support for their ridiculous counterpoint.

            Sometimes to clear a pool up it has to be shocked chemically. Then conditions get back to being normal and usable. Same thing for a well to get the stink out of it.

Holding back.

            The oh-so-righteous right to life Vice President Pence as well as Trump is telling seniors along with the nation that the corner is being turned in dealing with the virus! It’s going away…. again. Pence tells this to some of the most vulnerable to Covid-19 and they believe him. They believe him even though the President caught it and hosted a super spreading event at the White House. Honesty isn’t a part of Pence’s religious beliefs. Like the President he’s a killer with actions and words.

            By the way, the Vice President is also a young earth believer. Probably a lot of people don’t know that. The earth is less than ten thousand years old. There’s no such thing as dinosaurs. Jesus was a white guy. The earth is flat. There is a firmament in the sky holding back the waters. The bible says so. This is the guy in charge of the pandemic response.

Pence is holding back the virus.

What’s the point?

            IF Trump loses they won’t have an inkling as to why he lost other than the President telling them that the vote was rigged and our form of democracy doesn’t work. They won’t believe all the polls taken up until the election. It will be unacceptable to them that President Trump lost. Their Ducé.

            There will be no trusting of the honest information of others on their part.

Trump is their soul source.

 

How many people did the Church kill today?

“They will know we are Christians by our love.” Jesus-inspired lyrics. Wonderful sentiment. If only.

And here we are.
        Before I get into this very far I want to stress up front that there are churches trying their best to do the right thing during this pandemic when it comes to keeping their congregants and community safe. Unfortunately those actions don’t grab the headlines like the churches that are hell bent on bringing harm to others in the name of worshiping Jesus.

First, do no harm! Too easy.
        Wear a mask. Protect other people.
        Something as simple as wearing a mask during a pandemic to protect fellow human beings was and remains beyond too many “Christians”. Wearing a mask to protect others is asking too much of some supposed followers of Jesus Christ, a man that led by example. A man that told his followers to spread the good news and to love one’s neighbors.
        I guess that I missed the part in the bible where Jesus said go forth and spread disease. It must have been in the same section where he said to gather in his name to endanger and kill one another. Followed by the ever popular “and make sure that the little children suffer too”.

It was a commandment not a suggestion.
        Love your neighbor. How complicated is that?
        Wearing a mask, if nothing else, is an act of demonstrating Christian love. But somehow it’s tearing communities and churches apart. They aren’t capable of caring enough for their own church members to wear masks and keep their physical distance let alone members of the community.

Typhoid Khristians.
        Since the very beginning of the current pandemic churches and church groups have been “hot spots” for spreading the plague to the rest of the community. Too many Christians have fought heroically to maintain this status. Let’s call them Khristians with a ‘K’ instead of a “C” in order to differentiate them from followers of Christ.
        Khristians are followers of the Liar. They are working for the Dark Angel. They are of the far-right Evangelical Party. Like the Liar they are perpetual victims. They are the Constitutional Khristians of the Amerika that they would recreate in their image. Their rights to endanger and kill in the name of Jesus come first.
        They are the death squads. They are directly responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. They work diligently to increase the body count every day—especially on Sunday.
        Like the Liar they accept no responsibility. Like the Liar they are victims. The Liar’s truth is their truth. It is the Liar’s vision that they spread. “We are Amerika!” is their guiding psalm.

The hoax that keeps on killing.

Ω How many people did the church kill, endanger or infect today in the name of Jesus?

Ω How many people in the community did the church spread the plague to today?

Ω How much damage to our Republic did the church do today in support of the Liar?

Ω How much economic damage did the church do today?

Ω What falsehoods did the church support and spread today in the name of Jesus?

        The above are not questions that should have to be asked at any time let alone on a Sunday morning yet here we are. Whether we like it or not these questions and worse are being asked by believers and non-believers alike.

Criminally negligent homicide.
        An ultra-conservative Christian group operates not far from where we live. Kanakuk Kamps has been in operation for decades. I copied the below statement from their web page.

“At Kanakuk, we live I’m Third—God First. Others Second. I’m Third. This foundational principle is integrated into each of our Kamp’s programming, equipping Kampers to be Christ-like examples who lead with responsibility and care.”

        They have been in the news because initially 40 of their “Kampers” and counselors tested positive for COVID-19. The number grew to over 80. In the end, the number of Stone County confirmed cases only went up one since all the rest were not from this area. They took the virus to their homes and communities across 10 states.
        In light of the above would you think that they stopped holding kamps at the outbreak? If you did you thought wrong.

“Others second” my ass.
        Holding a church camp for kids the middle of a pandemic should be considered criminal. (BTW their other camps are ongoing.) The kids and counselors interacted with others in the community. There is no way of knowing what the final toll or impact will be.

Leadership.
        How are pastors handling the mask question? How are they handling providing safe services for their followers? (I’m talking about the ones that aren’t openly flaunting their disdain for protecting others.) Are they going along to get along?
        Some aren’t. They are encouraging doing all the right things. Some are only having online services and holding meetings and studies using technology like Zoom. They’re using phone calls and emails and are wearing masks when necessary.

Others? Not so much.
        I’ve spent some time surfing religious sites and taking in some online services during pandemic time just to see what’s up. Pretty sad really. Some of the services that I watched are in areas where COVID-19 cases are increasing dramatically.
        If you think that I saw a lot of masks and people keeping a physical distance you’d be wrong. If you thought there wouldn’t be any singing you’d also be wrong.
        Why singing? What’s wrong with singing? Well, singing really projects the virus out there. It goes farther than 6 feet. It aerosolizes and hangs in the air longer and gets spread by the ventilation and movement in the air. It’s the churches’ way of really going the distance to spread the virus.

Ripples in the water.
        And get the virus out there they do. Time and time again we can read in local and national news where the virus was spread out into the community from churches. Pastors have died. Their congregants have died. People in the community have died. People also got sick and recovered. Some will have ongoing medical issues for the rest of their now shortened lives.
        One church leader, no name provided, wrote 1588 words about wearing masks. Whoever they were they were pretty worked up about it. Cited all sorts of scripture. Talked about congregants fighting with each other and how un-Christian it all was.
        Never took an actual position. 1588 words and couldn’t say something as easy and simple as “Wear a mask: it’s the Christian thing to do.”

Fear.
        Regardless of what happens we’re going to end up with fewer churches and fewer followers of the real Jesus as this pandemic runs its course. There will be pastors who, whether directly or indirectly, lead their congregations to dissolution. Some smaller congregations will simply lose too many people to COVID-19 to continue financially.
        There are already Christians leaving churches over the mask issue. Their fellow Christians won’t even wear a mask for bible study. Such a small imposition yet it’s dividing churches.
        Like it or not, if a pastor takes a position either way on masks and physical distancing there will be supposed believers alienated. People have already switched churches in order to go to a church that doesn’t treat the pandemic seriously and vice versa. Some just leave.

        WWJD?

Jesus had the courage of his convictions.
        Unlike too many pastors of today Jesus wasn’t afraid to speak out and take a position to save lives. Now Jesus could bob and weave with the best of them when it came to politics but ultimately he took a position there as well, and died for it. Without getting into all of the theology, with that act he put everyone else first. That’s in keeping with the trinity. He put others before his own wellbeing.
        When alive he cured the sick, injured and lame. He didn’t kill people. He didn’t endanger people. He cured lepers. He didn’t spread leprosy. He wasn’t afraid of losing his church.
        Simply put, Jesus would have worn a mask. His followers would have worn masks as well. Jesus would have worn a mask even if it meant a personal sacrifice to his wellbeing. He carried a cross for us. Wearing a mask would have been easy.

Are you interested in being truthful?

 

(14 minute read.)

Bob is missing! Click and share.

• I’ll bet I won’t even get one like. Click and share.
• My true friends will share this. Click and share.
• Let’s fill Facebook with this! Click and share.
• Tell everyone you know about this! Click and share.
• True Christians will share this! Click and share.
• Send a hug to everyone you know! Click and share.

NOTE:  I will edit and update as is necessary.

Warning! 

From the get-go I want to say that this is lengthy and that the people who need it the most probably won’t bother with reading it.

On a regular basis I make it a point to ask myself if I’m interested in being truthful with what I’m sharing. Obviously this only applies to certain types of posts. Followed by why am I posting this on social media? (For me that means Facebook.) Am I sharing something for people to enjoy? Am I sharing something that I think is funny and hope that others will as well? Am I seeking to inflame passion or hostility? Am I trying to illuminate others or provide a different perspective? Am I sharing the truth? What’s my objective?

Ultimately whatever our reasons are for posting something it should come down to taking responsibility for our actions. If someone were to post something about you wouldn’t you want it to be the truth?

Or not?

Slow down! Dangerous curve ahead!  

For years now I have seen a daily barrage of false or at the very least questionable information being posted. The internet has been both a boon and a detriment. It was the herald of the information age as well as the age of disinformation.

When it comes to videos of laughing babies or pictures of puppies I’ll share those in a heartbeat. I used to share them without bothering to check until one day an odd picture crossed my eye when I rolled the cursor over the originator of the cute animal post. The link was to an extremist Muslim page where the puppy post was nestled in amongst other really objectionable posts. No, I don’t have anything against Muslims and would have found a Christian extremist site just as objectionable. Since then I’ve learned to be a lot more cautious in what I choose to share.

A lot more!

Eye of the beholder   

When I see a post of a meme that is intended to be inflammatory the first thing that I do is ask myself if it might be untruthful. At this point in my life I have been chasing down information to see if it is correct for decades. Usually at first glance I’ll know if it’s more likely that something is false, misleading or a distortion of what is taking place.

My position is that people should NOT pass along incorrect information. I’m not talking about opinion or critical comment here. If a person doesn’t know whether something is true or not then they should NOT share it even if they’re just trying to stir things up. If people want to just inflame and stir things up they should at least stick to the truth.

The truth matters.

Where’s Bob!  

On a daily, sometimes hourly, basis I will see people sharing a ‘Lost Person’ post. Those can be checked out fairly quickly. Usually I can do that in 15 seconds or less. (It used to take me 30. Back then I would refer to that as an LT30 check.) There are ways to check a post like that.

First of all is there contact information in the post that actually gets to those involved with the person that is lost? This seems obvious to me but I see posts like these time and again where there isn’t any information provided in the post that will get to the person or persons making the post. “Bob is lost! Help me find Bob! Share this with everyone you know!” If you actually find Bob, and there are plenty of them around, can you get to the person that’s looking for Bob?

Generally, if it’s a serious issue the police will be involved and a report filed. Sometimes law enforcement will seek out the media for more exposure to an event. Official and local media sources are the easiest to check. Click on the link and if the person has been found the link will have been updated. Often the missing person is found within hours. That’s why it’s important to check.

Why do I say it’s important to check? I’m glad you asked.

Because there are loved ones, friends and family involved. Law enforcement resources can be involved as well. Sadly too many times the outcome is not good yet because the ‘Lost Person’ report is still circulating people end up still contacting the grieving parties. Years ago I was tracking down one such post and ended up in England where the parents lived. The post had been going around for months and unfortunately it was one of those cases that ended badly with a dead child. The grieving parents were online begging people to please stop sharing the post. They were weary of telling well-intentioned people that their child was dead. So, it’s also a good idea to check and see how old the post is.  If it’s old enough to be moldy.

Don’t share it.

Swimming across the pond! 

This brings up another issue. If the person is lost in another country like Australia or England it’s highly unlikely that they will be found in the middle of the United States unless law enforcement has a reason to think that they will be somewhere close to you. Law enforcement does every now and then issue a nationwide alert.

That brings up those sad eyed, disfigured or injured children asking for shares. Oh yes and puppies. These are often coupled with, “I’ll bet that I won’t even get one share.” There’s also the, “If you’re a true Christian and Love Jesus” you’ll share this. Another favorite is the “If you’re my true friend you’ll copy and paste this and share it.” Prayer chains for Billy and on and on. One thing that the vast majority of these have in common is that they’re either clickbait or a source of information for data miners. (Before people lose their minds on me I do share prayer requests that I know are legitimate. If you don’t know if a request is legitimate then don’t share it and a person unknown to you saying that it’s legitimate doesn’t make it so.)

Share this with everybody you know.

Clickbait   

Even when it comes to sharing pictures of puppies or babies I have learned to become more circumspect. I won’t share them if they’re possibly malicious clickbait.

Clickbait is usually a post that is designed to generate traffic to a site through clicks and or sharing. It can also be advertising that is usually deceptive or false. At worst it can be used to direct people that click on the link to a site where malware can be downloaded.

I have seen radio stations, bands, entertainers, “public personalities” or the like using clickbait posts to boost traffic to their page. I have also seen extremist’s web sites use posts to glean information about people. In other words clickbait can make a site look a lot more popular than it is thereby increasing the potential ad revenue.

Don’t be a baiter.

Being violated.  

Off to another area. As to the posts of disfigured or sick children unless you personally know them and/or that their parents or guardians AND have given the okay to share their picture then you need to stop. People with evil intent will grab up such pictures from the internet to share in order to mine for data. How would you like it if a picture of a now deceased love one was being circulated without your permission? How about having a picture of your child in the hospital being distributed without your permission? Some people prefer to keep their lives private and don’t like other people knowing that they aren’t home and that their house is empty. There are lots of reasons for NOT wanting things shared with the world.

Story time. 

This is probably a good time to share a story.

I was checking out a truly extreme post and ended up back at the source.

Get this! The page stated that everything that they posted was pure fiction. They said that they just made up the most outrageous things that they could think of and posted them to see if people would fall for them. People did, hook, line and sinker. Going through their posts was an incredible experience. People would be fighting about whatever story was posted. People would argue with those that made up the story that it was indeed true. There were trolls galore. There were people trolling trolls. There were trolls trolling trolls.

I was so flabbergasted about what I was seeing that I sent a direct message to one of the admins just saying that it was hard to believe what was going on. Yep. All day every day. Here’s the sad part. Some of their fabricated stories ended up being shared with others as the truth and showed up on my timeline to share with people starting arguments anew about whether it was truthful or not.

It was fiction.

https://www.factcheck.org/2017/07/websites-post-fake-satirical-stories/

Pretty shoes! 

If you like looking at pretty shoes online get ready to see lots of ads for pretty shoes.

Here recently I have gone through the timelines of some friends. There were several instances where they had shared nothing in their timelines from credible sources. Nothing.

The internet because of its inter-connectivity will try and feed you what you like.

For instance, once I spent some time on religious links, so ads started showing up for church sites. Nothing unusual there. I might get 4 ads in a row for something religious and then an off topic ad like did I want to check out a dating site for large breasted skinny women living in San Diego. Truth. I swear I have no idea on that one.

Algorithms (a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer) have been designed and are being used to target your interests. They will feed you what you want to see.

When I was checking out Nazi/Alt Right/White Nationalists/Confederate/White Supremacists et al sites and pages, for a while I was inundated with links to more of the same. The problem is that the more you frequent any type of site the more traffic to these types of sites is directed your way. It took me awhile to clean up my computer after that sortie. I shan’t do it again. It was ugliness squared.

When I spend time using conservative sites, I receive more points in that direction. The same holds true for liberal, libertarian or anything else that I spend time looking at with odd exceptions thrown into the mix. At this stage I accept that I’m probably a confusing entity to deal with in regards to having my interests catered to.

Keep them guessing.

Checking it out.

I saw a Facebook post the other day that just on the face of it I was 95+ percent sure that it was garbage. For as many years as I have been doing this it’s probably easier for me to spot than some others. This person just happened to be one that usually doesn’t post from a reputable source. Since I knew that I would be writing this I checked it out.

How?

The first thing that I check is the originator of the post. I see what kinds of things that they’ve been posting. Are they a meme farm and all that they post are memes with hardly anything else. That’s a quick scroll.

Then I check their Facebook info. Who is/are their admin/s? Where is/are their admin/s located? In this case there were 2 and both were in the US. However, there was no determined owner of the page.

Then I check and see links that the page posts. In this case the only link was to a site on the web that no longer exists.

Then I checked with reputable media checking sites. In this case it isn’t even considered a media outlet. It’s defunct. Some person or persons just posts the occasional meme there.

In other words this was just a garbage distributing site. From my Facebook friend’s posts I quickly checked out another site that I had checked out previously and already knew that it was un-reputable. Guess what? They had a link to the previous site that I had checked out that was to the site that no longer exists. That’s what these kinds of sites do. They link to each other. They are each other’s sources. They form a circle of made up stuff sourcing each other because if so many outlets believe it then it must be true especially if these are the only kinds of sites that a person uses.

Sing, the circle is unbroken.

Meme me

There are lots of ways to check the validity of a meme or post. There are plenty of fact checking groups that have proved that they are up to the task.

I’m going to use Snopes as an example because they are well known for their fact checking. Snopes has been around since 1994. They are so good that I will see fake information being passed with the claim that the information has already been checked by Snopes. Take the time to check with Snopes. Plus Snopes is good about showing if there is a mixture of truth mixed in with the false claims or if the information is unverifiable or unproven.

Here are a few useful links below. Before I get to this list the illegitimate sites will tell you that all or some of the below are not to be trusted. The sites that I have listed have been checked and rechecked by independent groups as to their validity.  Expect the real fake news people to say that none of these are legitimate.

For searches use DuckDuckGo. They don’t track your searches or share your search information

https://duckduckgo.com/

Fact checking website. These people have been around for a long time and have only grown and only gotten better.

 https://www.snopes.com/

Fact checking web site.

https://www.factcheck.org/

Fact checking web site.

https://checkyourfact.com/

Rankings by Individual News Source. They even rank the truthfulness of some individual stories by a news source. They also have a pyramid chart available with the more reliable and least biased towards the top and near the center. I personally liked their old charts better and found them to be less complicated to read and understand. I keep a chart parked on the desktop of my computer for quick reference.

https://www.adfontesmedia.com/rankings-by-individual-news-source/?v=402f03a963ba

Debunking false stories. They have a video of how to spot fake news.

https://www.factcheck.org/fake-news/

A list of fake news sites. This isn’t a comprehensive list. Meaning that there are LOTS more. If your news is coming from one of the places listed your news is fake. Sorry.

https://www.factcheck.org/2017/07/websites-post-fake-satirical-stories/

Media bias fact checking site. You can check out detailed reports about news media sites there. Just type in the name. It’s that easy. There’s a page available providing a list of “media” sites that haven’t been checked yet. There are hundreds. People are at their computers making new “news” sites every day.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/

Where’s the money coming from?

https://www.opensecrets.org/

Fact checking site.

https://www.truthorfiction.com/

No longer available. Closed down.  Fact checking site. If you scroll down they have information about how you can do a better job of spotting hoaxes and what to do about it.

https://www.hoax-slayer.com/

Fact checking site. Yes it’s the Washington Post and yes they have left bias. They also happen to be excellent at fact checking and are duly recognized for their honesty.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/