Hey guys, please fact-check.
Aug. 20th, 2016 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
djgrayfeathersmoons:
And be aware that links to partisan news-aggregate sites are not the same as actual citations, and often reword things in misleading ways - sometimes so misleading as to qualify for the Mark Twain-popularized “lies, damn lies and statistics”, in that it’s not factually wrong, but is misleading as fuck, while linking an original news source or video or otherwise in a way that suggests they are quoting directly when they are definitely not and the context and implications of the original source are very different.
Be aware that whatever your own partisan or political leadings, people on your side do the same deceptive things sometimes, so check them too. Nothing erodes your credibility faster than falling for the left-wing equivalent of Breitbart or Fox News, and yes there are equivalents, places that spin just as much and just as misleadingly. Someone being “on your side” doesn’t mean they’re reliable or clear-thinking or good at analysis.
And just because a citation is linked doesn’t mean that it’s honestly linked. Just because someone says “this link says X” doesn’t mean it’s true: go to the link and look, and if you don’t have time or energy to go to the link and look don’t pass it on until you do. Come on guys, we’ve all been rickrolled: check the link, check what it is, actually read it to say if it says what the aggregate says it does. (It often won’t.)
The more likely something is to scare people, incite mistrust, etc, the more important it is to check. Even if things are that bad and it is in general that big a deal, hysteria and rumourmongering are STILL the Worst Enemies when it comes to keeping people from getting hurt, and taking effective action.
If it’s important enough to spread, it’s important enough to check.
(I haven’t always been as good about this as I can be, which I’m doing my damndest to change, but there is a lot of stuff this applies to going around right now, especially w/r/t events in the US, but probably now in Turkey, etc.)
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2bqmAOL
via IFTTT
And be aware that links to partisan news-aggregate sites are not the same as actual citations, and often reword things in misleading ways - sometimes so misleading as to qualify for the Mark Twain-popularized “lies, damn lies and statistics”, in that it’s not factually wrong, but is misleading as fuck, while linking an original news source or video or otherwise in a way that suggests they are quoting directly when they are definitely not and the context and implications of the original source are very different.
Be aware that whatever your own partisan or political leadings, people on your side do the same deceptive things sometimes, so check them too. Nothing erodes your credibility faster than falling for the left-wing equivalent of Breitbart or Fox News, and yes there are equivalents, places that spin just as much and just as misleadingly. Someone being “on your side” doesn’t mean they’re reliable or clear-thinking or good at analysis.
And just because a citation is linked doesn’t mean that it’s honestly linked. Just because someone says “this link says X” doesn’t mean it’s true: go to the link and look, and if you don’t have time or energy to go to the link and look don’t pass it on until you do. Come on guys, we’ve all been rickrolled: check the link, check what it is, actually read it to say if it says what the aggregate says it does. (It often won’t.)
The more likely something is to scare people, incite mistrust, etc, the more important it is to check. Even if things are that bad and it is in general that big a deal, hysteria and rumourmongering are STILL the Worst Enemies when it comes to keeping people from getting hurt, and taking effective action.
If it’s important enough to spread, it’s important enough to check.
(I haven’t always been as good about this as I can be, which I’m doing my damndest to change, but there is a lot of stuff this applies to going around right now, especially w/r/t events in the US, but probably now in Turkey, etc.)
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2bqmAOL
via IFTTT