Agree we are not unambiguously on that path, but the point is we have to be vigilant and resist all the incremental losses of rights and balanced powers, not just the most extreme outrageous ones.
Protests against Trump at University of Texas, protests against diversity at Texas State in San Marcos, racism showing its head at Baylor.
Don’t read the comments :(
gonna be a long 4 years
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/15122933_10153954017485841_5711143067125618781_o.jpg
Thank goodness the election is over and all the crazy online conspiracies will quiet down for a few years. Right?
“Obamas Ex-Boyfriend Blows Whistle! Michelle Is A Man & Obama Is Gay!! 2016”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uJyJGHbKlo
Just had to unfriend a guy I’ve known since we were both 8 years old. Granted, our lives went different directions after high school so I don’t really hang out with him and his family anymore, but I did like to follow them on Facebook and see his kids growing up, life changes, etc… However this election cycle the guy (a huge Trump fan) has been posting multiple links and articles daily with all the usual conservative talking points BS and anti-liberal memes (including the racist Kermit ones) and seems to be completely oblivious to the fact that not everyone he’s friends with on Facebook might share those opinions.
Today was the final straw. He posted some meme with Brian Williams (NBC) about people just now getting upset over fake news when the mainstream media has been doing it for years. So I posted a link to a CNN story on the shooter at Comet Ping Pong Pizza in DC and asked if he’d feel the same way if one of his family members worked there. That sparked an exchange about fake news (which he of course accused “liberals and Hillary” of using far more than conservatives) and the circular logic that Brian Williams exaggerated a story about a helicopter ride over Iraq that of course all mainstream media outlets were lying at all times.
It was pretty much as futile as any discussion I’ve had with people like this. It ended when his wife chimed in that last time she checked, Facebook had a button to unfriend anyone who’s opinions you didn’t like. Really? So that’s what that button is for? It’s the echo chamber button?! I never realized. I simply replied “Wish granted. Have a fantastic life.” and unfriended.
If only I could block out people like that in real life as easily as on Facebook…
I have that friend, stood up in my wedding even, and I was the best man in his. I’m not sure that I wouldn’t have been in the same situation if I used Facebook today.
One more reason I don’t, I would be spending a lot of time very angry with a lot of family, and would therefore come across as a raging asshole as I constantly fact checked and did not let them get away with their bullshit. And I don’t have that time or energy, and being that constantly angry is not healthy.
See, this is kind of the difference… and why real news is actual news, and internet bullshit is just bullshit.
There is no question that all major media outlets have bias, and many have a left-ward leaning bias. But they are still actual journalists. They can’t just LIE about shit.
And how do we know this?
Because in the cases where they’ve lied, or hell, even been less than thorough with their investigations before moving forward with a story, we’ve seen careers ENDED.
Brian Williams is an example… The guy’s career was pretty much ended because he exaggerated about a story which had ZERO implications to anyone in the world. It affected NOTHING. He was just talking big, to make himself seem cooler. And yet his career as a serious journalist was pretty much instantly ended.
The same goes for someone like Dan Rather. That dude was a freaking pillar of the journalistic community for DECADES. His face was on TV every day since, what, the 60’s? And then he ran with that bullshit story about Bush going AWOL… and that was the end of him.
For real journalists, shit has consequences. And its those consequences that, ironically, have resulted in an assumed level of truth for all media sources… including the new ones, which share none of the consequences. It seems like on some level, our parents don’t realize that folks on the internet can just make shit up, and indeed, do exactly that.
But at the same time, there’s this weird cognitive dissonance, where they think all the real news places are lying.
Honestly, it’s all fucked up.
I saw an interesting take, one that may have some truth to it.
The claim is many major news boards have something of a center left bias. This leads them to, as serious journalists, take extra scrutiny towards stories and positions that are aligned with that. This, in turn, leads to the extra scrutiny, harsher more critical coverage of Hillary Clinton, for example, in an over correction to head off any accusations of bias.
See I just prefer to think reality has a liberal bias ;)
BEING HELPFUL
Basically that is exactly what I just told my friend, only in way more words.
He messaged me a little while ago puzzled as to my reaction. “Are you really that angry about an internet meme? Whatever!”. He really is fucking clueless. So I messaged him back (politely, since our friendship was worth at least that) to let him know that it wasn’t just today, it’s been a long time coming, and that maybe he and his family should consider that not everyone shares their views, so when they post links about “paid protesters” and belittle people who are protesting out of real concerns about racism, homophobia and sexism, and then rant about “libtards” and “crybaby millennials”, that some people might find that to be just a bit offensive.
I told him I’ve seen shit (some of it with my own eyes) in the past few weeks that really have me concerned about the divisiveness in this country. I told him I am happy for him and his family that their candidate won (and held back on the comment that they should maybe act like they’ve been here before), and sincerely wish that everything works out well for all of us in the coming months, but that I hit Facebook to escape into a happy world of updates about people’s kids and life events, not to have political rhetoric pushed down my throat and get into drawn out conversations about it. I told him I fully support his right to post whatever he likes and support whomever he likes, but I will exercise my right to not have to read it.
It so is. I think, more than anything, that this is the hardest thing for me to come to grips with post election. The fact that so many people of all ages and backgrounds are taken in by this concept that somehow the real news sources are all lying and that the only people you can trust are faceless hacks on the internet. It simply defies all logic, no matter what a person’s education level is.
More than anything, 2016 has clearly shown me how it’s possible for North Korea and Scientology to exist.
But, but, but Fox News never lies. :)
The right has for years said the MSM tilted left, and now they feel those beliefs have been legitimized.
This.
Yeah, wow.
HA HA SEE HOW FUNNY HA
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/15493774_10155306225320400_958868447819923973_o.jpg?oh=b65ba990f83d0d1492f09064e5bdabf2&oe=58EA76AA
I can’t wait for Texas to go back to blue, as we should be given our demographics.
This started the other way around. Both sides are trying to toy with the map these days.