Sunday Binge and Speaking Up About Facts

There is ice everywhere,  the trees are leaning down with the weight of the ice and the wet wet snow.  I have not left the house today.  This is the third Sunday where we have been met with a warming up, rain,  then a drop in temperature, then ice, sleet and snow.  For me it has meant not driving, the roads are iffy at best.   Today was also the first day in awhile where (because services at the UU Houlton Church were cancelled) I had nothing on my calendar.   I watched CBS Sunday Morning,  read,  listening to music and then did a little  bit of a streaming binge.    In between breaks from my video watching I was on Facebook.   This afternoon was the second time in the last week or so that I responded to a post that was very divisive and inflammatory --- and yes when I went on to Snopes.   It has taken me awhile to be clear that any of my FB friends would share totally unfactual - and usually very morally tinged posts that really lay blame on a political figure or the news or the government.    

So it was just within the last couple of weeks, that I posted a comment.  I have made it clear that I was not posting to begin a right/wrong  good/bad viewpoint.  I was making a comment because the post was false.  I put the snopes.com  information in the comment.  I also say that I believe that these false posts where ever they come from have only one goal --- that is to pit people against each other,  to incite people to anger and outrage,  to make one group feel victimized and another abusing power against a wronged group.  

I have not gotten one comment back,  in  the first post where I commented about it being a false post and was not true another person also chimed in and said it was completely false.  I have had to give myself a little push to make these comments.  At the end of the day today,  I am glad that I did.  

Here are the false posts that I commented on:

Did Pelosi Divert Billions from Social Security to Cover Impeachment Costs?

A routine review of content labeled satire.

• Published 8 October 2019

 (the post that people were outraged about was satire --- and on a satire site.  Here is the definition of satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Did NBC Remove a Reference to Christ from an Interview with the Family of a Deceased Navy SEAL?

The interview segment in question appears to have been kept intact, without additional editing to remove references to Christ.

• Published 21 September 2011

This second one not only is still being shared with great outrage that the media is against christians but it has been out there for more than 8 years.  

 

I have to say that now that I am following my gut when I see a post or a picture that doesn't seem quite right or one that seems to be posted to stir things up I just type in words from the post on snopes.com  and see what I find out.  There are a number of other fact checking sites,  find the one that works best for you.

 

It is sad that we have to sort out if what we are reading is factual or fake news.  It is equally important to sort out what we are attempting to do when we post online.  

 

I am going to keep trying to speak out, not to be right, but to try to reach towards understanding.   It is Sunday,  it is still icy and I am going to watch the Grammy's tonight.