Why Do Conservatives Fall For Fake News?

[Ninurta]

If you got hung up on some of the words used and didn’t watch the whole thing or blew it off as some progressive leftwing nonsense, why am I not surprised? The truth hurts.

Truth does not hurt. it doesn't tickle, either. it just is, If truth "hurts" someone, they are probably looking at something that isn't very truthful, despite their assumptions to the contrary. If it hurts, that just means that what they're looking at does not agree with facts on the ground, and they've got to jump through some hoops to make it make sense.

But yeah, I DO get hung up on words. Words have meaning, or else they are just someone pushing air around, with no meaning. Just the sound of wind blowing. There is not much that irritates me more than folks trying to redefine words to mean what they wish they meant instead of what they actually mean, all just to score political points and to try to shut down their opposition by revoking the common vocabulary. If Jan 6 was an "insurrection", then they need to revisit all those urban bonfires of the previous two years, and refer to them as "mostly peaceful insurrections". Protest is not insurrection, no matter how badly Progressives wish it was.

Clearly though, some of the points and behaviors outlined in the video are absolutely and directly applicable to some of our members here that are quick to parrot salacious or highly questionable right-wing media stories, rumors, conspiracies and conjecture without taking the time to vet whether they are accurate or not or present the proper backstory or context for them to be seen as anything other than partisan propaganda hence virtue signaling their affiliation for those on their ‘side” in order to promote their social standing within the group. Frankly, it is pretty lame.

I can't argue with that, but I will. First of all, I'd hesitate to label highly questionable stories as "Right-wing", since I've also seen plenty of them fly forth from the Left. That's not to say that the Right doesn't do it, too - because they do - but it's not exclusive to them, and trying to paint it as such is at best disingenuous, and at worst blatant propaganda generation.

Also, while it does happen here, from both the Right and the Left, it's not limited to here. I saw it on lots of social media sites, all across the net-scape. It's endemic, all over. It pisses me off more when the Right does it, true, because I hold the Right to higher standards of decency, objectivity, and accuracy than the left, because I know the Left is just not as capable in those areas in general. Some few are, most are not, and it irritates me to see the Right following that pied piper as well.

Partisan propaganda does fly from the Right, but the Left is not blameless in that regard, either. Whenever I see it happening, I call it out, no matter what side it's on. Everything you've said is true of the Right, but it is also true of the Left, and focusing ire on one side, while letting the other slide on a free pass is not healthy for anyone, or society in general. it shuts down discussions that probably need to be had, and has a chilling effect on free speech. Whichever side does it is, in effect, trying to shut down other opinions, and that is never healthy for productive discourse.

More times often than not, most of these posts are focused on negativity, doom and division and do nothing but add to the chaos and outrage and are posted simply to fuel manufactured culture wars you’ve blindly been manipulated into being soldiers for by somehow believing you are morally superior or righteously just in thinking you’re smarter than everyone else and somehow able to see behind the veil because crackpot theories and conspiracies occasionally do turn out to have some degree of veracity therefore they all must be true and unquestioned.

Thank you for that. it's exactly the description that I have always applied to the Left. Exactly., word for word. However, anyone that only sees it in their opposition, including myself, is part of the problem, not part of any solution. What you have done here is to point out that it's applicable to both sides of the argument. I think most Right-wingers reading that will think "gee, she just described the Left, and is trying to project it's failings onto the Right!" But that, strictly speaking, is not true. it's just that partisans are gonna partisan, whatever side of the divide they fall on. A well-rounded person should be able to see it on their own side as well as the other, and call it out wherever it springs from.

Of course, these behaviors can also befall those on the far left as well, which the video did point out, but here at good ol’ Rogue Nation (and at ATS), this doesn’t happen very often and when it does, it is quickly dogpiled and torn to shreds and the person posting is branded as a brain dead liberal leftist lunatic that can’t think beyond what the MSM feeds them even if they are just trying to point out that usually there is more than one side of a story or that information is missing or obfuscated to the detriment of critical unbiased thinking.

Yes, she did point that out, in passing, but then went back immediately to trying to shred her political opposition rather than trying to clean up her own house first. Where is her feigned outrage when her own side does it? Nowhere to be found. they get a pass while she goes back to trying to light her opponent's houses on fire. That makes her not a "warrior for justice", but rahther just another dime-a-dozen political hack.

I understand whose house I am in here and the sway of this community to the right and further right but I have been here long enough to hope, even if perhaps foolishly, that we might maintain some degree of intelligence, balance and objectivity without falling into the category of just another partisan internet filter bubble.

I don't think you DO realize whose house you are in - you're in YOUR OWN house, as well as mine. You'll notice, perhaps, that I've never, EVER, made any move to show you or anyone else the door. You don't kick folks out of their own house, y'know? Matter of fact, the only person I've EVER banned was a flamin' RIGHT-winger whose mouth overshot his ass. When he stopped thinking but continued talking, it was time to go. I tried to give him a time out first, but he wasn't having any of that and just kept yappin', then started yappin' at ME, and, well, that was all she wrote. Like I said earlier, I hold the Right to a higher standard of decorum, and he utterly failed to meet even the first tenet of it.

You're as welcome here as any of us. Sit down, prop up your feet, and if you ask real nice I'll be the one to go fetch the next round of beers in the discussion.

.