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billconrad · 1 year

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Believing The Lie

I follow the tragic war in Ukraine closely and find it interesting that the primary source for raw news is Twitter, and the best analysis occurs on YouTube. These new sources have replaced the old sources, such as newspapers, internet articles, and national television. This new medium allows rapid news spreading and analysis. We can also check out the raw news sources and even directly contact the source—quite a change.

Recently, a YouTube influencer (I hate that word) discussed a translated Russian state television broadcast. It proclaimed that the restaurants in England were serving rat meat because of the chronic food shortage caused by their Ukraine support. Wow, what a bold lie! But unfortunately, many people truly believed this “trusted” news source.

What was going on in the viewer’s heads? “Because the news said so, it must be true.” “Makes sense to me.” “Seems logical.” “They have never lied before.” I propose something different is going on. These misguided people allowed themselves to believe the lie. Essentially, the lie is better than the truth. Humans often have ill-advised reactions to unpleasant situations. “I do not need to go on a diet. I look great!” But what does this have to do with writing? I am glad you asked.

I realized that the newscaster was not lying as I watched this news clip. She was acting. She read a fictional script, and the audience allowed themselves to be taken in. The same activity occurs in a play or a movie. There is no such thing as a Star Wars lightsaber, but we sure liked it when Luke Skywalker started waving one around. So, we (the audience) believed the lie.

Perhaps when watching a movie, we expect to be entertained; when watching the news, we expect facts. Yet, sometimes we allow ourselves to be taken in. It’s nice to feel good about ourselves; the awful truth is a hard pill. Blissful ignorance. How about our favorite person X? Did you hear X was drunk driving last week? No way, not true. X is a fantastic person!

Fictional writers use every trick to pull readers into their stories. We twist facts, add intimate relationships where they would never occur, alter physics, spice up the characters, insert an impossible plot twist, entice the reader with a juicy hook, and paint a scene larger than life. “A beautiful, intelligent woman with everything going for her falling in love with an ugly, stupid, fat beast of a man? Of course!”

Readers and viewers expect a dream world where crazy ideas come true, people commit outrageous acts, and the lowest of the low is commonplace. I suppose that was also the goal of the Russian newscaster. They were achieving the state agenda by any means necessary. However, to the rest of us, the results were absurd. Yet, that technique works every time in a story. Did you see the movie Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure? That silly movie was as believable as that Russian state news broadcaster. Fortunately, I keep my blogs real. Or do I?

You’re the best! -Bill

April 05, 2023

Hey book lovers, I published three! Please check them out.

Interviewing Immortality is a psychological thriller about a 500-year-old woman who forces a disgraced author to interview her.

Pushed to the Edge of Survival is a drama, romance, and science fiction story about two unlikely people surviving a shipwreck and living with the consequences.

Cable Ties is a classic spy novel about two hunters discovering that government communications are being recorded and the ensuing FBI investigation.

These books are available in soft-cover on Amazon and eBook format everywhere.

#writing #state news

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thefirstray · 2 years

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The founder of Regstreet Law Advisors, Sumit Agrawal, asserts that the restriction on Roys' rights to sell shares will remain in place because neither the Supreme Court nor the Securities Appellate Tribunal have granted a stay of the Sebi order Know More..

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another-punk-trans-woman · 13 days

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As protests start ramping up and violence escalates please remember:

DO NOT PUT MILK IN YOUR EYES FOR PEPPER SPRAY OR TEAR GAS.

It can and will cause infection due to bacteria. Flush with water, distilled if possible, and never EVER wear contact lenses to protests where there may be police retaliation.

Please reblog. It may save someone's sight.

#palestine #free palestine #columbia university #ucla #columbia #kent state #nyu #psu #portland university #new york university

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youdontknowwhotfiamm · 2 months

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Help Hamza get his family out of gaza.

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aci25 · 3 months

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Oakland, California

#Oakland #California #free gaza #palestine genocide #i stand with palestine #free palestine #gazaunderattack #gaza genocide #gaza strip #gaza #israel #israel is committing genocide #israel palestine conflict #usa news #usa politics #joe biden #israel is a terrorist state #politics #aaron bushnell

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destielmemenews · 8 months

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source 1

source 2

#destiel meme #destiel meme news #united states #us news #news #net neutrality #internet #broadband #fcc #federal communications commission

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tomi4i · 3 months

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lets-make-light-now · 1 month

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Someone Worte that he could not stand to see the Palestine flag anymore.

Sorry, but not sorry

Reblog daily

Free Palestine

I am not done yet

Only way to stop seeing this flag is when the oppression is over.

So you are tiered of this? you can end it, stop supporting Zionism!

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intersectionalpraxis · 1 month

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"If a pig catches both a human influenza A virus and an avian influenza A virus at the same time, it can spark a process known as viral reassortment — a genetic exchange in which flu viruses swap gene segments." "Those swaps can introduce dramatic changes, producing a new virus with certain properties of a non-human strain coupled with the capacity to infect and spread between people." "The death rate in humans may be upwards of 50 per cent, World Health Organization data suggests, though it's possible that milder infections are getting missed, skewing the case fatality ratio. Still, in a population that's never been exposed, the global impacts could be dire." "More human cases could also be happening under the radar among farm workers who've moved to the U.S. from abroad, don't speak English as their first language, and may be hesitant to seek medical help, he added." "So I think there's probably underreporting on both sides," Armstrong said." "If [H5N1] gets into a population where there's constantly animals going in and out … it might not ever leave."

I've been watching this develop for the past several days, and apart from being terrified most people will not take this seriously (I've seen a handful of people already shout conspiracy on social media and it's alarming to see, as always). What I wanted to point out is that pandemics are going to continue to be our 'normal.' I watched a great video on YouTube a while ago (I believe it was by Vice?) that touched base on how this is going to become our new reality because of multiple factors (such as our proximity to animals, and environments/etc). It was when Covid hit and they did a piece debunking some of the misinformation floating on the internet. If I can find it I will post it here because it was informative and relevant to pretty much any world crisis we will see around any virus that spreads among a human population.

This post isn't trying to fear monger anyone, I just hope more people are aware of what is happening because this is important to talk about. There are already cases (of cows getting this bird flu) in the US, and I won't be surprised if there will be instances in more countries around the world. As usual, keep washing your hands/keeping good hygiene practices, masking up (and if you aren't I hope you consider it), and taking precautions if you do happen to visit/work or go near a pig or poultry farm too:

I'll keep track of this here of course, but please stay informed folks. And also FU to any governments who will try to minimize this or try to diminish the severity until it's too late and community spread happens like Covid because their actions are influenced by capitalistic interests.

Update (April 7th, 2024, 9:32pm EST): to anyone wondering where some of the source information originates from -here is a link to the CDC. They are tracking documented avian virus outbreaks in the US and the public can access it here:

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gwydionmisha · 4 months

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We warned you this is where this is going.

#West Virginia #Republicans #Trans Ban #Police State #Fascism #Genocide #News

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palestinegenocide · 2 months

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BDS has called for an official boycott of Eurovision2024

Everyone...you know what to do

[ID 1: text on a black background reading: "Boycott Eurovision: Artwashing Israel's #GazaGenocide". The Eurovision logo is edited such that red barbed wire appears over the heart in the center.

ID 2: a tweet from "PACBI - BDS movement" @/PACBI reading:

We call for the boycott of #Eurovision2024". We urge all participating broadcasters, national competitors, finalists, production crews, and viewers to boycott the contest following the refusal of the organizers @/EBU_HQ to ban genocidal Israel. #BoycottEurovision2024

End ID.]

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reasonsforhope · 6 months

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No paywall version here.

"Two and a half years ago, when I was asked to help write the most authoritative report on climate change in the United States, I hesitated...

In the end, I said yes, but reluctantly. Frankly, I was sick of admonishing people about how bad things could get. Scientists have raised the alarm over and over again, and still the temperature rises. Extreme events like heat waves, floods and droughts are becoming more severe and frequent, exactly as we predicted they would. We were proved right. It didn’t seem to matter.

Our report, which was released on Tuesday, contains more dire warnings. There are plenty of new reasons for despair. Thanks to recent scientific advances, we can now link climate change to specific extreme weather disasters, and we have a better understanding of how the feedback loops in the climate system can make warming even worse. We can also now more confidently forecast catastrophic outcomes if global emissions continue on their current trajectory.

But to me, the most surprising new finding in the Fifth National Climate Assessment is this: There has been genuine progress, too.

I’m used to mind-boggling numbers, and there are many of them in this report. Human beings have put about 1.6 trillion tons of carbon in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution — more than the weight of every living thing on Earth combined. But as we wrote the report, I learned other, even more mind-boggling numbers. In the last decade, the cost of wind energy has declined by 70 percent and solar has declined 90 percent. Renewables now make up 80 percent of new electricity generation capacity. Our country’s greenhouse gas emissions are falling, even as our G.D.P. and population grow.

In the report, we were tasked with projecting future climate change. We showed what the United States would look like if the world warms by 2 degrees Celsius. It wasn’t a pretty picture: more heat waves, more uncomfortably hot nights, more downpours, more droughts. If greenhouse emissions continue to rise, we could reach that point in the next couple of decades. If they fall a little, maybe we can stave it off until the middle of the century. But our findings also offered a glimmer of hope: If emissions fall dramatically, as the report suggested they could, we may never reach 2 degrees Celsius at all.

For the first time in my career, I felt something strange: optimism.

And that simple realization was enough to convince me that releasing yet another climate report was worthwhile.

Something has changed in the United States, and not just the climate. State, local and tribal governments all around the country have begun to take action. Some politicians now actually campaign on climate change, instead of ignoring or lying about it. Congress passed federal climate legislation — something I’d long regarded as impossible — in 2022 as we turned in the first draft.

[Note: She's talking about the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Act, which despite the names were the two biggest climate packages passed in US history. And their passage in mid 2022 was a big turning point: that's when, for the first time in decades, a lot of scientists started looking at the numbers - esp the ones that would come from the IRA's funding - and said "Wait, holy shit, we have an actual chance."]

And while the report stresses the urgency of limiting warming to prevent terrible risks, it has a new message, too: We can do this. We now know how to make the dramatic emissions cuts we’d need to limit warming, and it’s very possible to do this in a way that’s sustainable, healthy and fair.

The conversation has moved on, and the role of scientists has changed. We’re not just warning of danger anymore. We’re showing the way to safety.

I was wrong about those previous reports: They did matter, after all. While climate scientists were warning the world of disaster, a small army of scientists, engineers, policymakers and others were getting to work. These first responders have helped move us toward our climate goals. Our warnings did their job.

To limit global warming, we need many more people to get on board... We need to reach those who haven’t yet been moved by our warnings. I’m not talking about the fossil fuel industry here; nor do I particularly care about winning over the small but noisy group of committed climate deniers. But I believe we can reach the many people whose eyes glaze over when they hear yet another dire warning or see another report like the one we just published.

The reason is that now, we have a better story to tell. The evidence is clear: Responding to climate change will not only create a better world for our children and grandchildren, but it will also make the world better for us right now.

Eliminating the sources of greenhouse gas emissions will make our air and water cleaner, our economy stronger and our quality of life better. It could save hundreds of thousands or even millions of lives across the country through air quality benefits alone. Using land more wisely can both limit climate change and protect biodiversity. Climate change most strongly affects communities that get a raw deal in our society: people with low incomes, people of color, children and the elderly. And climate action can be an opportunity to redress legacies of racism, neglect and injustice.

I could still tell you scary stories about a future ravaged by climate change, and they’d be true, at least on the trajectory we’re currently on. But it’s also true that we have a once-in-human-history chance not only to prevent the worst effects but also to make the world better right now. It would be a shame to squander this opportunity. So I don’t just want to talk about the problems anymore. I want to talk about the solutions. Consider this your last warning from me."

-via New York Times. Opinion essay by leading climate scientist Kate Marvel. November 18, 2023.

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scramratz · 3 months

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#I need a new job and a new state #I live like 5 minutes away from the Jesus slide #look it up

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taviamoth · 12 days

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EDIT: Read the additions to this post! Turns out they made a vague commitment. I'm keeping it up but turning reblogs off.

#university protests #bds movement #rachel corrie #evergreen state college #palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #jerusalem #israel #tel aviv #gaza strip #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #joe biden #benjamin netanyahu #palestinian genocide #gaza genocide #news #breaking news

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totallynotcensorship · 13 days

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GREAT NEWS

turkey halted trade with israel.

for context: trade between the two was worth 6.8 Billion dollars in 2023

KEEP SPEAKING, KEEP PROTESTING. push for your government to also cut ties with israel. this is what we need

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svalleynow · 2 months

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TN House Advances Bill Requiring Local Officers to aid US Immigration Authorities

TN House advances bill requiring local officers to aid US immigration authorities...

The Republican-led Tennessee House advanced a proposal Thursday that would require law enforcement agencies in the state to communicate with federal immigration authorities if they discover people are in the the country illegally, and would broadly mandate cooperation in the process of identifying, catching, detaining and deporting them. The House vote coincides with efforts in other…

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#Bill #Immigration #Marion County News #Sequatchie County News #State House #State News #State Senate #Tennessee News

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