Our world is filled with so much misinformation because lies are free and truth COSTS MONEY.

[InDarkestNight]

I am so sick of not being allowed to know truth. I find a repuatble source, I need a subscription. All free sources are dubious. You have to get a degree to know a damned thing about anything. Scientists keep truth locked behind a vault they act like. They even lie to use in school about their actual beliefs. None of us know a damned thing, because it is strictly forbidden. You want to know anything, it has to be a lie. Truth is for the rich, who most of the time it seems don't give a s#*! about it. How are we supposed to know how to eat right? How are we supposed to know that climate change is real? We're not allowed to see the evidence. I do know that its been getting hotter where I live. Freezing spells have become further and further between. Now, hot winters are NORMAL. I mean, we're lucky if the temperature drops below 65 ON THE WINTER SOLSTICE. Keep in mind, where I live, winter only comprises the months of December and January. Summer literally eats up half the year. This was over 20 yeas ago of course. Now, it seems like all year is summer. Is that all I have to go on to know that climate change is real? I do know hurricanes are becoming more frequent, along with flooding. Of course, if Trump wins the 2024 election, he's going to try and disband NOAA (or w/e they're called), meaning we'll no longer be hearing about all these storms.

We live in an endless ocean of lies. All we can really trust is what we've seen with our own eyes. I don't know if atoms exist. I don't even know if dinosaurs existed. I've never seen an atom, and I've never seen a dinosaur fossil with my own eyes. I do know pictures I've seen of them online has made my question all the paleo media I've ever seen. I'VE SEEN CONSPIRACY THEORIES MORE SOLID THAN EVOLUTION WHAT DOES THAT SAY????

Truth should be free. Truth should be a human right. But it is not. Its forbidden, unless you're rich. Greed is what has screwed over our society. Money has caused our world to descend into madness. Granted, perhaps it was never sane to begin with, but just because our situation has always been doesn't mean it is not. Do we really live in a world now where I have to explain a simple fact like that? If something always has been, then it must be. Shocking how even simply logic like that escapes most people these days.

[JimboUK]

This is what common sense, education and experience are for, apply those to most conspiracy theories and they soon fall apart, you can also use them to tell who's lying. 

[showler]

It's also important to remember what the product is.  Some sites exist to sell you information.  Other sites exist to sell YOU to the advertisers.

Even amongst sites that are selling you to the advertisers there can be differences.  On YouTube I watch both Outside Xbox and Playstation Access.  Outside Xbox gets money from advertising and Patreon, so while they are motivated to get your attention and keep it they don't have ulterior motives.  Playstation Access is an official Sony production though.  They still get money from advertising and have to do the same things as OX to get and keep you attention, but they are also paid by Sony and will never say bad things about their employer.

Knowing the way the money flows can tell you a lot about the site.

[JimboUK]

On the subject of YouTube, it's wise to avoid reviews by anyone who gets games early from major publishers, they're unlikely to bite the hand that feeds them with a bad review and risk losing early access to future titles. 

[Mudran]

Just yesterday Reuter released information that "right extremists" killed small kids in UK Southport. It was extremist muslim, beause the murderer went to "residental district" I assume, that is "white" district - the world where you cannot pay respect to murdered children by atleast naming their murderer correctly... Because they will ban you as islamophobist and it was most likely retaliation for something because then they came back in greater numbers and they were fighting police during funeral ( I assume that was something like funeral). UK, the country where you are threatened for pointing at murderous/reaping group and being threatened on your life by them and then labeled as problematic by official press. 

While it is OK to spread lies about Palestine and the numbers of people killed there claming that there are "mostly children and women" while all videos show mens with guns.

[showler]

The post above is a good example of misinformation.  The suspect is UK born with no information about race or religious background being released.  The fighting was between far-right "protestors", who believed the false reports of the attacker's identity that had been released, and police but had no relation to a funeral.

[JediMasterTallyn]

On 7/29/2024 at 8:42 AM, JimboUK said:

On the subject of YouTube, it's wise to avoid reviews by anyone who gets games early from major publishers, they're unlikely to bite the hand that feeds them with a bad review and risk losing early access to future titles. 

I think Rhykker is ok but he covers just Blizzard for the most part, and I say that because he has in fact called them out for f-ing their games up. While no doubt on the Blizzard pay role he SEEMS  to have a bit of integrity. 

So while in general since your statement is true; I would argue that You have to hunt down that rare gem content creators that at least appears to have some integrity.
 

[InDarkestNight]

That Trump guy who used to make videos for Hearthstone was an employee of Bethesda whom they hired to make videos trying to refute that Hearthstone was pay to win. People started to notice something was off because the pulls he was getting from packs was FAR too lucky. He was getting pulls all the time that should have about a 1/40 chance of occurring. His odds were actually 1/4, across hundreds upon hundreds of packs! Nobody had any idea he was an employee of theirs for the longest time, so it wasn't too apparent.

Also, even if they do seem to criticize a company, that doesn't mean they aren't getting paid to do it. The Game Theorists for example kept making dubious videos claiming Mario was a pyschopath among other shocking things. I was questioning for a while how on earth Nintendo and other big game companies weren't suing him for slander the content he was making! Turns out, in reality he was being PAID by these companies to make videos like this. Apparently it was all an attempt to increase revenue by intentionally generating controversy that couldn't be easily traced back to them. He even started openly admitting this in his videos. In one video he made about tanks, he openly stated he was surprised at all the other games the makers of the tank game were letting him mention in the video. I think this is how all these gaming channels work, including Mr Beast. They're actually getting paid by all these companies to make ads for them essentially. Note how some are even allowed to play the game early.

Seemingly nothing is ever as it seems. We're not even talking about Illuminati s#*! here; we're talking about mundane people being paid for major companies to spread misinformation for their products. This is mundane stuff here.

As a layperson, its simply impossible to determine what you can and can't trust. Can you identify the authors of college textbooks? How do you know they're actually certified? How do you know they even exist? Its why I've always taken issue with the 'cite your source' thing. How do you know who is a reliable source? There's been people making manifestos citing fake news articles in support of their looney arguments. It also says 'f*#@ evidence you can present yourself, anything you say is only trustworthy if some random person who may or may not exist says so first'. Does anyone really give a s#*! about evidence? I'm personally been branded delusional FOR KNOWING THAT LANGUAGES AREN'T WORD FOR WORD CIPHERS OF EACH OTHER. Of course, I also live in a community that seriously thinks NOT being a young-earth creationist constitutes a delusion, seriously. Yeah, lovely town.

Edited August 1 by InDarkestNight

[JimboUK]

6 hours ago, showler said:

The post above is a good example of misinformation.  The suspect is UK born with no information about race or religious background being released.  The fighting was between far-right "protestors", who believed the false reports of the attacker's identity that had been released, and police but had no relation to a funeral.

He's been named now, he's a 17 year old whose family came from Rwanda, a country with hardly any Muslims. According the Daily Telegraph the judge allowed his identity to be reported to stop misinformation.  

Prior to this he couldn't be named because of his age, but people have so little trust in the media and police that they assumed it was being covered up, a mistrust that's understandable given how the press on both sides repeatedly lie through their teeth, misinformation is becoming a real problem. 

[fraquar]

Free is arguably a close second as one of the dirtiest 4 letter words in the English language.

It almost always comes with a caveat.    

Ex.   Freedom of speech doesn't mean you are free to say whatever you want - because what you say will almost certainly offend someone.    Choose your words carefully.