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These are not the droids you are looking for.....

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Bundy Bear, Mar 5, 2015.

  1. Bundy Bear

    Bundy Bear
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    I long ago came to the conclusion that most mainstream news media is full of shit and follows the bias of whichever organisation either owns or provides the majority of the funding for it. A lot of people go miles off the deep end and into conspiracy theory territory but there is a lot of alternative media out there that is informative and for the most part not overly biased. It's been a long time since we've had any newsreaders who tell the truth as they see it and all we have now are puppets who read whatever they're told from the teleprompter.

    Focus: You're intelligent bunch here. Where do you go to get your information on what is going on in the world?

    Alt-Focus: Conspiracy theories. Do you believe in any? What are your favourite ones to make fun of?
     
  2. The Village Idiot

    The Village Idiot
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    Porn Worthy, Bitches

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    The only news source I trust is 'The National Enquirer' - especially the story about how women pregnant with an alien have a...

    ...wait for it...

    Bump.
     
  3. Flat_Rate

    Flat_Rate
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    Ah conspiracy theories. I get to hear the hits a lot during family gatherings.

    The Rothchild family secretly runs a shadow government that really runs things, the various heads of state must just call someone in the family for orders then? Who do they call? This of course is never explained.

    Pot/hash oil/essential oils all cure cancer but the government won't allow them to become mainstream because population control.

    The government has cures and vaccines for every major illness but won't release them because again population control.

    The government controls the weather via machines and planes that spray chemicals over cities, never mind that what they are seeing is water vapor created by the planes wings at different altitudes, you know them as Contrails NOT fucking chemtrails. My one cousin swears she can smell and taste them. She also won't drink tap water because of fluoride, swears she can taste that as well. It gives you cancer man, again population control.

    World war three is about to happen because Russia have nuclear subs parked off the coast by DC and you better be prepared for the Russian and Chinese invasion.

    There are more I'll think of but those seem to be the more popular I hear from them. It's all bullshit obviously but they live in fear of these things daily.
     
  4. Crown Royal

    Crown Royal
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    Just call me Topher

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    Infowars speaks powerfully to the nation's disembrained. Whether it's poison-spewing commercial aircraft or Lizard People hiding in the bodies of billionaires, they have proudly given an argumentative voice to people who used to blessedly keep their pie holes shut. Thank you for this gift.
     
  5. Misanthropic

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    The only context in which I had heard of this family previously was wine. I had no idea how wealthy and powerful they were. I also had no idea there were "Court Jews" .

    One conspiracy theory that seems to have died down is the Black Helicopter conspiracy. Drones would up the ante a notch.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_helicopter

    As for news, I tend to disregard FOX, Yahoo news, and any political reporting from CNN. In fact, I disregard most political reporting in general. For events-based news I'll listen to NPR or CNN. I've also been pleasantly surprised by The Christian Science Monitor.

    In general, I tend to scan multiple sources, and measure them against each other as well as what I already know, or think I know.
     
  6. downndirty

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    I think a lot of the mystery of MH570 adds to conspiracy theorists. Like this, for example:

    Jacob Rothschild is now the sole holder of a semiconductor patent, thanks to the deaths of those aboard the flight.
    http://article.wn.com/view/2014/04/24/T ... n_t_heard/

    Whack-a-doodle nonsense? Probably, but it's so rare these days to have something happen with ZERO information, especially involving a few hundred people and a quarter-billion dollar airplane. So much so that it's hard not to search for connections or patterns in random and conflicting information.

    Focus: I read constantly and my mainstay is BBC News. I'll peruse sites like Digg or Reddit, but mostly for things like yesterday when the SK ambassador got stabbed and BBC won't update until the following morning. I avoid Twitter for news like it will give me brain-AIDS, simply because it's too fast for any useful details to be revealed. Any story more complex that "Leonard Nimoy's dead at 83, aliens suspected." simply doesn't work for Twitter.
     
  7. Currer Bell

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    I am lazy and rely on people like this intelligent bunch to sort the wheat from the chaff.

    My husband watches news channels and listens to radio shows (he gets XM and drives a lot for his job) and sometimes it makes me bonkers when I am in the same room and have to be subjected to it. Just last night he was watching Rachel Maddow pick apart some of Bill O'Reilly's stories that she said didn't really happen. I guess it is the new sexy thing to do since the Brian Williams "scandal." I probably should have been over the moon to see ole Bill as the target since I can't stand his ass, but mostly I was just thinking, "Why doesn't she talk about something that fucking matters?" She was literally giggling over her own cleverness at sticking it to Bill. I had to leave the room.
     
  8. Crown Royal

    Crown Royal
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    Just call me Topher

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    Alt-Focus:

    PLANET X!

    You guys haven't heard? It's a little-known fact that a giant rogue planet is on a direct collision course with Earth. Just ignore the virulent denial from every astro-physicist on the planet. They just don't want you to know. It's population control, the ultimate version.

    "I don't care what scientists say, I did my OWN research and discovered that..."

    These fucking people. This was conspiracy originally disowned over 100 years ago. We know that we have a chance (as in one in a million) of being hit by a Rose Bowl-sized asteroid in 2036, yet we're somehow oblivious to a massive rogue planet coming right at us. These people desperately need to kill themselves.
     
  9. Flat_Rate

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    That's a favorite line from my family. I did MY OWN research and I know that if I get sick all I need is a lemon juice cleanse and some apple cider vinegar for a chaser.

    It's a shitty thing to say but I hope one of them gets cancer and then gets to see how well that shit works for them, they'll be running for the nearest cancer center for chemo in a heartbeat.
     
  10. CharlesJohnson

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    I read Fark.com a lot. A lot. It's a wonderful news aggregate. I can get dozens of sources for my daily politics fix, the headline news, as well as updates on Florida cretins. Everything, man. Even the comments sections are worth reading. Users elucidate upon articles, debunk them, or make Blazing Saddles jokes. Why the hell anyone would watch the nightly news is beyond me. That crap isn't any fun.

    Alt. Focus: My friend caught wind of 9/11 deniers. It pissed him off so bad he went down their wormhole of stupidity fomenting perfect, irrefutable arguments and even made his own youtube series attacking Loose Change and other sites. He gave up because, well, they don't care. Jesus Christ himself could come down to tell them the truth and these people would think he's a false flag operation.

    I don't like making fun of these people. They make me angry. Pity is useless. I refuse to pity anyone so obliviously ignorant, willing to obfuscate uncontested fact. Especially hijacking a national tragedy to push their own fragile world view. Or anti-vaccers. This is how people fucking die. Fuck you for trying to bring down the human race, douche.
     
  11. audreymonroe

    audreymonroe
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    The most powerful cervix... in the world...

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  12. JWags

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    ALT FOCUS: A lot of conspiracies are ridiculous, but I think a lot of the government related ones become more sinister than the most realistic, but also, likely, incredibly interesting truth. For example, so much of the "UFO" activity is related to government technology that people just don't have access or clearance to. Its fun to imagine the big Air Force base outside of Vegas or Area 51 are loaded with alien spacecraft, but its likely very technologically advanced and sophisticated aeronautics projects and aerial spy equipment that the government needs to keep on the DL. One of my college friends' father was pretty high up in the administration at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside of Dayton. If there were aliens or Independence Day spacecraft, they likely wouldn't store it in Dayton, even at a HUGE base, but yet there were multiple large hangers/areas he had never set foot it, nor was allowed to, despite being in senior management there for the better part of 20 years. I remember reading an article about the SR-71 Blackbird when it was in development and limited use and it fell under some of the parameters I listed.

    One that I am curious about, largely cause the theories are so maniacal, surrounds the Denver airport. Supposedly there are HUGE tunnels and passageways beneath the airport, surpassing what would typically be needed or make sense for operations and logistics. People get revved up about it being a launching point for New World Order internment camps or other crazy shit, but I want to know what government activity is really going on. Is it some baller underground highway to a more top-secret NORAD in the Colorado mountains?
     
  13. katokoch

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    Focus: A lot of my news comes from a swath of online sources. If I want to learn about some current event, I'll run some searches and check out what different sites have to say. I listen to NPR often as I go to and from work, and they have interesting news stories. I also like reading newspapers. We get the Washington Times and Pioneer Press here the office but I especially like random free local papers (Citypages, etc.). Some of their articles is just horseshit quality filler or has a borderline-Communist slant but they're entertaining nonetheless.

    Alt-focus: Aside from the fearmongering over agriculture and GMOs being bad for you, etc, my favorite conspiracy theory at the moment is how the government is supposedly controlling commercial ammunition supplies and is the reason why some ammo (.22lr in particular) has been scarce the past few years. No, it couldn't have anything to do with an imbalance in supply and demand paired with good 'ol panic buying- obviously it's Obama's secret program keeping your Wal-Mart ammo aisles empty. If a government agency like the DHS puts out an RFP for ammo, it turns into GOVERNMENT HOARDING and people lose their damn minds. Gun owners are great at self-fulfilling prophecies.
     
  14. silway

    silway
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    I mostly do the same thing, actually. After seeing the concept in Four Hour Work Week I decided to give it a shot. Over the last few years, between here and other social news sorting, I've discovered that my quality of life and degree of information has not suffered even a tiny bit.

    Though in the spirit of the question, when I do hear about a story and then want to know more, I google up the story and read some articles based on that. I'm pretty good at weeding out bias from fact in an article so that usually suffices.

    Also, of all things, Cracked.com has really good stuff on it.
     
  15. AFHokie

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    I've found Twitter if used correctly a very useful tool to quickly stay abreast of current events. With the 140 character limitation, there's little room for bias in a post...still some succeed. The key is not saturating your feed with non-news sources. I follow a lot of government agencies as well as news sources. It works well just knowing what's going on. For anything more in depth, you've have to dig a little.

    I read a wide range of news sources, Fox, CNN and most others suck with regards to slant and I keep in mind the context and slant of the source. What I find most frustrating with mainstream news is the sheer lack of due diligence and laziness in the reporting. I find a lot of 'news' on sites like CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Huffington Post, and many others are simple copy & past from random blogs with clearly little to zero effort done to ensure what they've posted is factual and accurate.

    I read the Washington Post for local news and they typically cover subjects I'm interested in as well as outside of work. I highly recommend reading Michelle Ye Hee Lee of the Washington Post's Fact Checker Blog. She's a rare island of factual based news writing and does well eliminating bias from her writing.

    I've find I visit Al Jazeera's website more and more. I find they focus on facts much more than spin; especially compared to Fox or CNN.

    A few other sites I typically visit:
    The Atlantic
    Foreign Policy
    Defense One
    STRATFOR requires a subscription
    Doctrine Man
    John Q. Public
    This Ain't Hell

    The last three are very US military leadership centric and JQP is very USAF centric, so you may or may not find them helpful or interesting.
     
  16. Crown Royal

    Crown Royal
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    My favourite sources for news are either U.S. News and World Report or factcheck.org. The only news I'll watch on TV is local, The National or Al Jazeera. American network news is lower than the scum of the earth. You'd have to be someone who enjoys having their opinions given to them if you defend Fox or CNN. Disgraceful.

    I would compare CNN to shit, but that's unfair as I would be giving shit a bad name.
     
  17. Mastro

    Mastro
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    Focus: Most of what I read about in news is what I'm interested in: sciences. Mostly space, physics etc. The two below I find to be good sources of whats happening:

    http://phys.org/
    http://www.iflscience.com/

    Although admittedly it's difficult to put a spin on something that's usually not open to opinion.

    For normal news, I generally just read my regular newspaper (out of habit). For up to the minute, BBC and Al-Jazeera are very good.

    Alt-Focus: I have (had?) a friend who was always posting on Facebook about the New World Order, how the governments of the world are puppets, etc. I never blocked him because it was good for entertainment value.

    Then one day he decided to post about how tax goes straight into the pockets of the NWO, and some other inane babble about how he read a book about it covering the economics that institution. I called him out on it and asked if he had ever worked / studied / done anything remotely related to the subject he was claiming to be an expert in.

    Blocked me. Damn, there went a good hours worth of entertainment per day.
     
  18. CanisDirus

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    FOX in basically the anti-CNN. CNN is the anti-FOX. They both suck, are charged full of political mud-slingin' bullshit and I'd rather drink coyote urine than watch either.

    Alt-Focus: My elder brother and father are often invested in some sort of conspiracy or another. My dad believes the old one about Ford inventing some amazing 150 miles to a gallon of fuel car they won't release to the public and for an example of my brother's... Illuminati.
     
  19. The Village Idiot

    The Village Idiot
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    Porn Worthy, Bitches

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    Focus: I typically watch about 15 minutes of local news - Channel 3. I used to watch NBC, but Vai 'Mumble Mouth' Sikhemana (or whatever the fuck his name is) is absolutely awful. I find 15 minutes gives me all I'm going to get before the repetition starts.

    After that, I switch to BBC America, then over to Al Jazeera.

    At night, I'll watch the PBS news.

    Conspiracy Theory? I actually have one (about 10% of me believes it) - I'm starting to wonder if ISIS isn't a creation of the US Government in order to foster yet another war. Like I said, I'm 10% on that one.
     
  20. DannyMac

    DannyMac
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    Disturbed

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    I was making fun of Planet X folks back in 2003-2004 on the Bad Science forums. That planet is just wacky I tell ya!

    My other favorite one to pick on are Moon Hoax Believers. I still delight to this day in watching Buzz Aldrin bitch making a man half his age and twice is size:

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/quick ... .hxKpPzykR