Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/10/2024 in all areas

  1. He said what all libs are thinking. They can't win the intellectual battle so they want to eliminate competition. Libs will take us to idiocrisy.
    5 points
  2. The harris camp wants to get rid of the EC. They didn't deny that position. What they said was, they wouldn't say that publicly.
    2 points
  3. 2 points
  4. In the article above note the first meteorologists statement that accurate information is completely obscured by the sheer volume of lies and false information and if they tried debunking and disproving it all they would have no more time left to actually report the accurate information. This is exactly the Republican strategy: you don’t have to suppress the truth or even convince people to believe your lies. You just have to convince people that no information can be trusted and it is all but impossible to tell what is true and what is not. Once the truth becomes impossible to distinguish people will just stop trying and stop paying attention altogether or they’ll pick and choose the reality that’s convenient for them based on what their favourite celebrity says or which candidate claims to drink their favourite beer or root for their favourite sports team. It’s what the GOP heroes Putin and Orban did to solidify their authoritarian regimes. In fact they go out of their way to make sure people know that their governments run fake election candidates and run fake news outlets. Steve Bannon stated it publicly: you neutralize media and critics by “flooding the zone with shit” making you immune to fact checking, critical thinking logic, scandals and reality in general. The goal Is to discredit the very notion of objective reality itself.
    2 points
  5. Meanwhile the Republican Party might as well change its name to the death threat party since their cult-following supporters do this in droves every time one of their bile leaser steps to the podium and utters another despicable fabricated lie and hare-brained conspiracy. GOP is where sheer stupidity and utter vileness of character meets. Meteorologists Get Death Threats as Hurricane Milton Conspiracy Theories Thrive Lorena O'NeilOctober 9, 2024 It's their job to warn residents about destructive storms — but political polarization has made them targets online As Hurricane Milton approaches Florida, meteorologists are staying awake for days at a time trying to get vital, life-saving information out to the folks who will be affected. That’s their job. But this year, several of them tell Rolling Stone, they’re increasingly having to take time out to quell the nonstop flow of misinformationduring a particularly traumatic hurricane season. And some of them are doing it while being personally threatened. “People are just so far gone, it’s honestly making me lose all faith in humanity,” says Washington D.C.-based meteorologist Matthew Cappucci, in a phone interview conducted while he was traveling down to Florida for the storm. “There’s so much bad information floating around out there that the good information has become obscured.” Cappucci says that he’s noticed an enormous change on social media in the last three months: “Seemingly overnight, ideas that once would have been ridiculed as very fringe, outlandish viewpoints are suddenly becoming mainstream and it’s making my job much more difficult.” He says meteorologists and disaster relief experts have to strike a balance between putting out helpful, high-quality information while also squashing misinformation. “Nowadays, there’s so much bad information out there that if we spent our time getting rid of it, we’d have no more time.” This hurricane season, Cappucci and the other meteorologists I spoke with say, conspiracy theories have been flooding their inboxes. The main one that people have seemed to latch onto is the accusation that the government can control the weather. This theory seems to be amplified with climate change creating worsening storms combined with a tense election year, and the vitriol is being directed at meteorologists. “I’ve been doing this for 46 years and it’s never been like this,” says Alabama meteorologist James Spann. He says he’s been “inundated” with misinformation and threatening messages like “Stop lying about the government controlling the weather or else.” “For me to post a hurricane forecast and for people to accuse me of creating the hurricane by working for some secret Illuminati entity is disappointing and distressing, and it’s resulting in a decrease in public trust,” says Cappucci. He says he hasn’t slept in multiple days and is exhausted. This last week he received hundreds of messages from people accusing him of modifying the weather and creating hurricanes from space lasers. “Ignorance is becoming socially acceptable. Forty or 50 years ago, if I told you I thought the moon was pretend, people would have laughed at me. Now, people are bonding over these incredibly fringe viewpoints.” “An average hurricane’s life cycle burns through the energy of roughly 10,000 nuclear bombs,” says Cappucci, “The idea that we can even influence something like that, never mind direct it, is just so outlandish that it’s almost, sadly, funny.” ‘Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes’ Meteorologist Katie Nickolaou went viral after correcting a male commenter who tried to claim a category five hurricane can turn into a category six, at which point it becomes a tornado. “Those are different storms with different processes,” clarified Nickolaou. “Though hurricanes can produce tornadoes, it doesn’t affect the overall categorical rating.” Undeterred, he pushed back, insisting that “anything above a category five would be a tornado,” which is untrue. “I’m going to go scream into an abyss now,” Nickolaou tweeted in response. She tells me her tweet “struck a chord” with meteorologists and people tired of the misinformation. There is no category six designation for hurricanes, she explains. Designations are based on wind speed, so there has been conversation amongst scientists that now that hurricanes are getting stronger, we need an additional category. But there are meteorologists that say adding a designation is unnecessary because a Category 5 already means nearly total destruction. They worry that adding a category six would decrease the significance of a four of five and impact people’s decision to evacuate. “I put on armor every day to try to go online and make sure people aren’t saying things that could harm responses,” says Nickolau. She’s had to fend off rumors that meteorologists should just use giant fans to blow the hurricane away or try nuking it. “You get a person arguing that a hurricane turns into a tornado at a category six and your brain short circuits.” “Stopping misinformation is becoming an exhausting part of the job which is taking away from spending time forecasting or sending out other information that could be helpful,” says Nickolau. She says her heart sinks when she sees a false post get millions of views because it’s virtually impossible to go back and fact-check it for everyone that’s seen it. After our phone call, Nickolau received an even more troubling message on her page: “Stop the breathing of those that made them and their affiliates.” She responded that she would not allow people to advocate for murder. “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes,” she tweeted. “I can’t believe I just had to type that.” ‘It beats you down’ Spann, the meteorologist in Alabama, has been doing this work for decades and says he can’t believe what he’s seeing unfold. “Something has clearly changed within the last year,” says Spann. “We know some of it is bots but I do believe that some of it is coming from people that honestly believe the moon disappeared because the government nuked it to control the hurricanes, or that the government used chemtrails to spray our skies with chemicals to steer Helene into the mountains of North Carolina.” He says the misinformation has gotten so out of control it’s distracting meteorologists from doing their jobs, which involves keeping people safe ahead of, during, and after a devastating hurricane. Spann posted a public service announcement on Facebook that went viral, asking people to stop flooding his page with conspiracy theories. “We’re trying to push critical information to people that need it and people who are looking for a credible source,” says Spann. He sounds weary as he tells me that if people are going to push conspiracy theories, he wishes they would wait until after the danger has passed. As we’re talking he receives an email from a colleague telling him about an angry caller who demanded to be connected to the folks responsible for stopping the hurricane. “It affects our mental health,” he adds, saying he’s spoken to the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore and other meteorologists about it a lot this week. After Spann posted a FEMA website about rumor control, he got multiple private messages telling him to retire or personally threatening him. “You’re working with two to three hours of sleep for multiple weeks under a high stress situation and then you deal with these threats that come in, it’ll beat you down.” ‘It costs lives’ South Florida meteorologist John Morales made headlines this week when he cried on air while warning Floridians about how strong Hurricane Milton will be. For his part, he’s been getting overwhelmingly supportive messages on social media from people who share his angst and anxiety about the climate crisis. He’s been using the increased attention to spread awareness about global warming, climate action, as well as the dangers of misinformation. “I’ve seen the reactions of climate dismissives for many, many years, and it’s become particularly vitriolic in the last year or two, especially on X,” says Morales, referring to the former Twitter. He’s Puerto Rican, and said that in Latin countries he’s heard the conspiracy theory that Americans control the weather, but now the belief has exploded. “This is the post-truth era and these types of crazy beliefs aren’t just confined to your crazy Uncle Joe,” says Morales. “It seems to spread with greater ease and I am particularly alarmed that after Hurricane Helene it’s really spread and truly impacted the work of the emergency management agencies that are trying to help people recover and have to dedicate resources to dispel rumors and trample down on the type of stuff that sadly, even some politicians are spreading. It costs lives and dishonors first responders and civil servants.” Marjorie Taylor Greene has doubled down on claims Democrats control the weather, prompting fellow GOP congressperson Carlos Gimenez to tweet she should “have her head examined.” Meanwhile, the White House is launching a Reddit account to keep the public informed on Helene/Milton response and recovery. “Science is one of the few things that doesn’t care about politics,” says Cappucci. “If a tornado is coming down the road at you, it doesn’t check your voter registration.” He says every October the bird migration causes fuzzy images on weather radars, but this year conspiracy theorists are convinced that these fuzzy images are actually caused by lasers heating up the atmosphere to create hurricanes. Some experts I spoke with think that misinformation is exceptionally bad this year because we are leading up to a presidential election. Some of the conspiracy theories accuse Democrats of intentionally steering hurricanes to red-leaning swing states, in order to hurt Donald Trump’s chances of winning. “The 2024 misinformation is being fueled to a certain extent by political polarization,” says Sarah DeYoung, a professor at the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. “I think that’s corresponding with there being a presidential election this year.” DeYoung says there are certain myths that pop up for every disaster. Some of them are well-intentioned, like telling people that hotels have to accept pets in an emergency event, which is not true. Others are misconceptions, like saying looting goes up after natural disasters when in fact, the crime rate often goes down and people are just trying to locate basic essentials like food and water to survive. But in 2024, they are often politically motivated. “It becomes particularly dangerous because it starts to rile up additional feelings of division and then the false information about FEMA funneling money towards immigrants, that makes people who are immigrants more vulnerable to potential acts of violence and backlash from those kinds of rumors.” DeYoung says this harms both the people that need help and the people trying to help, by adding confusion, slowing down the recovery process and fomenting mistrust. ‘Platforms are not prepared’ Misinformation and climate change researcher Abbie Richards says she likes to look at the core emotions that drive conspiracy theories. “When people feel really anxious, really powerless, really uncertain, those are the times where we expect misinformation to thrive,” says Richards. She says this is exacerbated with a big moment in the news cycle, and then even further inflamed by something as emotionally overwhelming as climate change. “It’s a problem that by its very nature, makes people feel a wide range of pretty negative emotions — scared, anxious, uncertain — maybe guilty or conflicted if it’s something they’ve been denying,” says Richards. “We are mixing these giant events that are catastrophic and devastating with these big emotions and it’s really easy for people to fall into scapegoating and blaming conspiracy theories that provide really simple explanations for these super complicated problems.” Richards explains that in order to regain a sense of control, people drink in whatever information they can get their hands on, even when it’s false. “Sometimes it’s the moon was nuked, but sometimes it’s also just people wanting to help and that can get us into bad situations, too — I’ve seen a lot of hoaxes spread in the name of awareness.” She says she doesn’t criticize consuming news on TikTok because it is an excellent source for firsthand accounts of events that can fill a different emotional need for people. For example, Richards says TikTok has helped people understand the nuanced challenges of evacuating. But, she says, social media change is needed. “The platforms are just not prepared,” says Richards. “They are seemingly very unequipped to handle widespread misinformation that arises in the wake of these events. And if we’re going to learn anything from this experience, it’s that the platforms need to seriously invest in climate-related content moderation, because this is causing harm and it’s impeding relief efforts, and it could hurt people.” https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/hurricane-milton-misinformation-meteorlogist-death-threats-1235130352/
    2 points
  6. Inconvenient information is discarded and ignored. We're just left with more donkey logic from our resident brick.
    2 points
  7. I don't know if you're a Russian cheerleader explicitly, but you definitely like Russia more than you like NATO. Maybe Russia isn't your favourite thing ever, but to approve of Russia's actions more than NATO's actions in regards to Ukraine shows a fundamental lack of moral character to the point you are a Russian Cheerleader in practice if not intent. NATO is not at war with Russia, they are under no obligation to send support to Ukraine, any support Ukraine receives from NATO is purely discretionary on the part of NATO's member states. To make the Ukraine war about NATO at all shows your state of mind is Anti-NATO in the first place. Personally I would like for every other country on the planet to provide their full support to Ukraine driving out Russia, but I'm not going to rant against countries for being less supportive than they could be when they have no treaties mandating they aid Ukraine. This was a one sided act of aggression on the part of the Russian state, and Russia alone bears the full responsibility for all consequences of Russia's actions, not Nato or anyone else. Anyone who desires peace in the world will want Russia to come out of this war with no officially recognized territorial concessions. Perhaps such people could accept a ceasefire with unrecognized illegal occupation of Ukranian territory, but if you think Russia should be allowed to lawfully annex territory for Peace, you don't want Peace, you want interbellum.
    2 points
  8. This is not partisan. At this point it has nothing to do with any one party, ideological or any other stripe. This is about the right, the principles, the integrity, dignity and decency. Let's not forget that. This is a time of uncertainty and many feel the challenge on their skin. Some may forgot to distinguish between the sentiment of the moment and the stakes and responsibility for an important decision. At the right time, many will come to realize it and will make the right choice. Let's not get distracted by the numbers that fluctuate daily. They reflect the sentiment of the moment; this is important but we have to believe that there's more to what America stood and stands for. One needs to keep talking to the people with honesty, openness and responsibility. To come up with and offer real working solutions in place of bombastic lies. That we can do and have to keep doing. And the rest is out of our hands. Glimpsing the future is for the prophets, commonly false ones. But we should focus on the work at hand and make our absolute best of it.
    1 point
  9. After eight years of Obama lies, suddenly the left cares about truth? Too late, losers! The truth will ruin the left, the right, and anyone else who got in the way of it. Selah.
    1 point
  10. The grossly unfair distribution of Senate seats isn't enough for these places?
    1 point
  11. The majority of voters do have a say. But the leadership can't be based on just majority votes. There are other factors. which is why the college was created in the first place, and EVERY country has some sort of similar model built in. In canada in the last two elections the party with the most popular votes did Not get to form gov't. If the us was "one big state" with no individual states with their own individual needs and interests then it might make sens but that is NOT the case. The current system is in fact fair. which is why there's three 'houses', the president the congress and the senate. If democrats were smart what they'd REALLY shoot for is limiting the powers of the president in the first place rather than trying to find ways to cheat the system.
    1 point
  12. States could change it by just awarding EC votes proportionally according to the state's popular vote. Say in a case like Montana, one candidate got between 50 and 60% of the popular vote, they would get 3 EC votes and the other candidate would get 1 vote, instead of winner take all. Doesn't get rid of the EC but definitely more democratic.
    1 point
  13. Regiment, Colours, Commander-in-Chief God, King, Country over the top when the whistle blows, unto death as necessary Nec Aspera Terrent ; No Fears on Earth like our grandfathers and great grandfathers before us
    1 point
  14. He has always hated democracy. Why else would be cheerleading for Putin?
    1 point
  15. Over having to suffer the terrible indignity of equal voting power in presidential elections? Sure. Except that they'd never do that, because they are net takers. They depend on the rest of the US to sustain them.
    1 point
  16. It tilts the playing field, but it tilts it to your side so you don't care.
    1 point
  17. One inner city school system, one indoctrination plan. Yet another reason to curtail you a$$holes. That's because you're a reasonable person. You'd make a better American than every f*cking democrat on this board.
    1 point
  18. Academic anyway, changing it would take a constitutional amendment and that will never happen. Like it or not, Americans are stuck with it.
    1 point
  19. Joking aside and even setting aside his usual over the top trumpiness, he does have a bit of a point about election interference. If you as a Media Group have stated that you will have a presidential debate and it will be honest and fair and you knowingly and willingly tip the scales in favor of one candidate or another then that ceases to become a debate and becomes electioneering. Not only should it then be treated as any other election if interference because you have been dishonest about a key election element, but the company itself should face a very serious penalty
    1 point
  20. MAGA's love to disenfranchise voters, it's the only way they can win. MAGA's are always going on about entitled minorities but not when it comes to elections.
    1 point
  21. This is why we should loop Harris's perpetual stupidity all the way through the election.
    1 point
  22. So hard to face oneself in the mirror. For some of us that is. Don't look any further: cult thinking will do that to your brain, and in no time.
    1 point
  23. Note how carefully he sidesteps the point in question: do we adore, then worship Kim and Vlad, the thugs? Does it have to be so hard, really? Look no farther than here and understand: playing with the cult will affect your brain. The damage can be permanent. Sure, we knew.
    1 point
  24. No, they really don't. And to pretend otherwise is disingenuous. Because of the EC, the votes in less populous states are weighted to be worth more--more decisive--in picking the POTUS. That rancher in WY has about 3.6x as much influence on the presidential election as the developer in CA. There's no justice in that. And at this point it means that we're regularly electing a POTUS that the majority of Americans don't want.
    1 point
  25. Lol...so the people in large cities can dictate the nation's leadership? On a cold day in Hell.
    1 point
  26. Ahhh...an old post made in anger. Indeed Moonbat, I did post that. And how many dead now? Ukraine has very little in the way of military age men now. Are you happy? Give you a thrill does it? And when this is all done, do you really think Ukraine will get all its original land back somehow? This war has been a colossal waste of time, funds and lives.
    1 point
  27. Nobody has ever said China has a better standard of living than Canada. Furthermore there’s a reason why “made in china” is synonymous with poor quality
    1 point
  28. Dr. Vinay Prasad, whom I've introduced you to quite a few times over the last few years. This is one of the experts you all pissed on.
    1 point
  29. While it's possible that certain things be updated, twitter (X) has between 200 to 250 million users daily. How conceivable is it that Musk be made liable for the content of every one of the 250 million daily users?
    1 point
  30. I'm afraid you are right but so far they are a rather small but vocal minority in Canada. The internet was supposed to enlighten people but has done the opposite. When I look at my facebook feed and see how much garbage is posted about things in which I have personal expertise, it makes me wonder how much garbage is posted on subjects I don't know a lot about. You have to fact check everything.
    1 point
  31. It's definitely highly contagious. You see what your fellow Canadians post on this board. They're lining up to promote and defend the indefensible.
    1 point
  32. OpenSAFELY: Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in children and adolescents | Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science (ox.ac.uk) Results: A vaccinated child has about 3/4 of a % better chance of not testing positive than an unvaccinated child. 0.6 of a % at not having to attend the ER. A little over 1/2 a % better chance for not getting hospitalized with covid. Forcing children to be vaccinated so they can play hockey, was immoral and ethically evil. This study shows it has almost 0 benefit for children. But............ it does do this for them: (Those rates are low, BTW, according to the many other studies I've posted here and the reports in VAERS. For instance, like many others, Sean Hartman's death would not be included in this stat for Canada.) This is for Sean Hartman, who gave his life so Eyeball could live. I hope Dan gets justice for losing his only child. I've followed his grief since it happened and it is profound. He was offered money to drop the lawsuit, but he decided to reject the offer and go ahead with suing the Canadian gov't and Pfizer.
    1 point
  33. I can't figure out if he's literally stupid or just pretending to be stupid. Either way, best to ignore it. You can tell they're all brainwashed because anything you or I post, there's 47 of them clamoring for cites and arguing against actual medical studies and datasets and demanding context and perspective. And not one of them knows the basics of how the human immune system works or cares to find out. Eyeball comes in, says anything he wants and none of them demand cites or context or studies or data or discussion. They know he's on the same team - covid was the deadliest disease in the history of mankind and totally worth destroying the economy, killing and maiming people who had no risk, closing schools for years, bankrupting small business, giving a trillion dollars to billionaires, terrorizing the populace.....it was a wonderful time where they were "heroes" and could let loose self-righteous freak outs on "granny-killers" and nazis. It was glorious for them. They're all psychopaths. The most you'll get out of them is "Welllllll, but we didn't know." Yes, we did know. We bloody well knew. The science of immunology, virology and vaccinology didn't change in the last couple of years. You were just lied to. You chose to believe the liars because they scared the pants off you. You're a coward and have learned nothing. Enjoy your blood clots and heart attacks.
    1 point
  34. 🤣 That's the dumbest, most biased BS I've ever seen. Are you 12? Even the interviewer pointed out that she wasn't answering the questions, dummy. How did you not notice that? The best defence they could come up with on CNN was "Her strongest topics are abortion and women's rights". So you're admitting that she completely failed, and then she lied about it. She was asked directly and omitted the truth from her answer... that's called 'lying by omission'. By friendly media, dingus. The people who have been lying for her for over two months now. In almost 80 days this is her first real interview. All that you know about Kamala right now is what she read off the teleprompter, because before she started doing that (before she was tagged as Biden's VP) she always sang a completely different tune. She was against ICE back when she was only 55, now that she's 59 she wants more border agents. She was for 'defund police' back when she was only 55, now she's not. She was supporting rioting and arson and looting back when she was only 55 - she even pimped a Minnesota bail fund to get rioters back on the street - then suddenly she only supports peaceful protests. Walls were "racist", and she was saying "Trump's wall is a waste of money and not even 1 foot should be built" back when she was only 55, now she wants to add border walls. Has Kamala really grown up that much in 4 years, and why does "growing up" for Kamala look so much like "adopting Trump's policies"?
    1 point
  35. The only people making things up are the MAGA conspiracy tards who don't understand basic physics or just ignore them to further their own agendas. A third of sea level rise is just due to thermal expansion. https://sealevel.nasa.gov/understanding-sea-level/global-sea-level/thermal-expansion
    1 point
  36. At the very least they've learned they have the ability to sway official government policy with their actions. An inherent weakness of democracy that they will exploit at every opportunity and was likely a main reason for them going forward with Oct 7.
    1 point
  37. Well done, First glimmer of anything close to being viable lyrics I've seen here... needs work but it's worthy of getting the guitar out and playing around with. Regardless of context or intention, head and shoulders over normal forum offerings OK, say something profound Herb; smugly arrogant would work too... I need a chorus.
    1 point
  38. Why don't you whine some more here about people using insults? FFS you are cringe sometimes.
    1 point
  39. Yeah, the Nazis were karma for harsh WW1 reparations too? The Nazis are just innocent victims eh? No personal responsibility. Self-hatred is psychological disorder.
    1 point
  40. Thank you. You just proved what most of us knew. Nationalist wants a Russian military victory, and would probably choose Putin and Russia over Canada in an actual war.
    1 point
  41. I didn't say you were wrong. Ok ... that's not really how 1diocy works but ... well, your actions don't match your words. Again that does not match your actions. And further you're using that as an excuse to avoid discussions where you may not like what you hear. Which is precisely the opposite of what Socrates suggested. Which would suggest you're the one with 'bad faith' intentions. You learn nothing from people you already agree with, which is really what you seem to mean by 'good faith'. It can be a little uncomfortable to debate against someone who holds different opinions especially if they're on the same or higher intellectual level as you, because it causes you to doubt your perceived superiority. In other words Ya scared. Get over it and have conversations with people instead of trying to pretend they're 'boring' or stupid or whatever. You can always make fun of them later if they start being insulting or make illogical statements. That's what i do. Which is why im' picking on you right now Do better.
    1 point
  42. Oh FFS you bellding imbeciles if you wanted to see chemtrails you'd need to be in an airplane above where they're crop dusting. Posting pics of contrails from the ground without acknowledging winds exist and different elevations proves how f*cking stupid you are. But don't worry, electric planes are on their way. They'll spray invisible chemtrails under the new secret AITA ISO 3875A protocol.
    1 point
  43. I'm not sure which possibility is worse: that she believes this garbage herself or she's juts humouring the lunatics because she knows how badly she needs their support with the leadership review coming up. Either way, she's trash.
    1 point
  44. *sigh” Nobody is spraying anything. We know exactly what is in what the crackpots call “chemtrails”. It is water. Condensation occurs when water vapour condenses and freezes around small particles in jet engine exhaust, forming clouds that trail the aircraft. That is why it is called a condensation trail or contrail for short. The higher the humidity level in air, the longer the contrails last. The “chemtrails” jibberish is invented crackpot tin foil hat nonsense for the crowd that also believes in lizard people and flat earth.
    1 point
  45. Eh, there are people playing along at home and they deserve to know the facts. The pre-COVID Trump economy was a good continuation of the Obama economy (the trajectories didn't change at all) just with higher deficits. The economy Trump promised and the GDP growth he promised never materialized.
    1 point
  46. The Bible was written by a Roman on a bad acid trip.
    1 point
  47. I'm shocked the Putin jock-sniffers on this site aren't calling for immediate nuclear retribution for this incursion into Russian territory.
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...