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Month: August 2018

Is the “San Bernadino Sheriff under scrutiny” for posting a photo of a deputy praying? No.

Is the “San Bernadino Sheriff under scrutiny” for posting a photo of a deputy praying? No.

“The San Bernadino Sheriff’s Department is under scrutiny for posting this photo of a deputy praying before his shift. If you support this Deputy and his department’s decision, share this.” appears to be a fake Internet meme created by a troll operation and designed to inflame emotions.

Part 8: Is Denmark a socialist country?

Part 8: Is Denmark a socialist country?

This blog analyzed a popular social media propaganda post that was widely distributed in 2016. The poster encouraged viewers to share if you wanted the U.S. to be just like Denmark. Nearly all the claims about Denmark, however, were false. Yet the poster was widely shared. Another popular meme is that Denmark is a socialist country and we should be just like Denmark. Except Denmark is not a socialist country – and that is according to the Prime Minister of Denmark.

Twitter admits to shadow banning users

Twitter admits to shadow banning users

This sure looks like an admission of shadow banning – this from Twitter:

“We want to be clear that we do not shadow ban according to political ideology or viewpoint. We do rank the timeline and we do that with the principle of relevance, but all the content is still there — you just have to do more work to see it.”

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The Complex Question Fallacy

The Complex Question Fallacy

“A question that has a presupposition built in, which implies something but protects the one asking the question from accusations of false claims. It is a form of misleading discourse, and it is a fallacy when the audience does not detect the assumed information implicit in the question, and accepts it as a fact.” Examples Have you stopped beating your wife? Is (well known personality) an arrogant jerk? Do you still believe we should kill all the stray dogs? Source:…

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Did Vox advocate censoring social media? No.

Did Vox advocate censoring social media? No.

This propaganda poster is now spreading online. The original Vox Tweet is here. It contains a link to a video explaining their thinking. They are clear in their video that they are not advocating censoring these individuals. The video concludes with the problems that emerge when speech is censored and the practical problems of policing platforms like YouTube that see 400 hours of new video uploaded every minute. The Vox video does not encourage censorship. Commentary There is, though, a…

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Begging the Question Fallacy: “This is not who we are” … again and again and again … 

Begging the Question Fallacy: “This is not who we are” … again and again and again … 

Previously I wrote about the “Begging the Question” fallacy (and another example here). Immediately after an event, say a mass shooting, a city Mayor says “this is not who we are… after actual events just showed that this is precisely who they are. Source: Begging the Question Fallacy: “This is not who we are” … once again | SocialPanic.org – Occupy Propaganda Predictably, after 70 people were shot in Chicago this past weekend, confirming the cities long time reputation for…

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