OT: The Official COVID/Omicron Variant+ thread

[Capn'O]

Great succinct way to put it at the conclusion.

And 100% agree that without some technical acumen, it can be tough to discern between reputable sources, bad sources, factual reporting, and editorializing (especially in this blogger era imo). I've been working at a health sciences library for over a decade and spent the past 6 working on resource selection directly...so I'm spoiled to have access to everything and to have reviewed a lot of sources and publishing processes in that span. I have zero doubt that I'd be susceptible to a lot of the faux-science out there if I didn't have a place adjacent to the research and publishing. I'm still out of my depths when this stuff gets deep enough into the weeds. If I didn't know about concepts like predatory publishers, pre-prints, and how to use certain databases; I'd feel lost in this era of mass information with little to no curation from most sources.

Totally. The papers themselves are Greek to me which is why I go fishing for news summaries.

Searching news for good information is just so frustrating. Just these past few weeks, trying to decide whether my daughter should enter kindergarten (OMG ) remote or in person I had a hell of a time finding the critical piece of information of why hospitalizations of children have been up so much with Delta. I finally found a news article published in a paper from Sydney, Australia that summarized Delta data well and clearly presented findings showing that the spike was primarily attributable to increased contagion and not increased virulence with children. So we're giving it a go figuring their risk is low and we're vaccinated. And it sounds like authorization for kids is just around the bend.

But... that's a really, really important piece of information that's just buried. And I don't think most people have the acumen or resources to even ask that question let alone suss out what answers actually make sense from a list of search results.

I think part of it is that our education system just kinda sucks, but another part of it is, it's significantly easier to put out misinformation than it is to disprove it. Like that Mark Twain quote, a lie travels halfway around the world while the truth puts on its shoes or whatever

The big issue is, that for the people spreading misinformation, they don't have to convince anyone they're right, just that there's some doubt. Personally, I don't know many people who say they know for sure the vaccine is bad, just that they don't know if it is or isn't, which is a victory for the anti-vax crowd

Known moon criminal HBomberguy did a video a while back about vaccines and why people are hesitant to take them. It's pretty long and mostly deals with the original "vaccines cause autism" doctor and how f*cked up his study was (like, they would have the parents of autistic kids sign off on procedures which are normally fine for adults, like colonoscopies, but are extremely dangerous for children, especially in some cases toddlers), and how he didn't even find anything, but he ties it in to Covid towards the end.

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

I'm not even talking about conspiracy theories. Just trying to get a good summary of scientific positions from news sources. Masking was another area where the news/gov was just all over the place. That graphic with the dude peeing >>>>> any media source on explaining the benefit. I think I got it from a post of yours on the CA board.

Spoiler:

[Jeff Van Gully]

Great succinct way to put it at the conclusion.

And 100% agree that without some technical acumen, it can be tough to discern between reputable sources, bad sources, factual reporting, and editorializing (especially in this blogger era imo). I've been working at a health sciences library for over a decade and spent the past 6 working on resource selection directly...so I'm spoiled to have access to everything and to have reviewed a lot of sources and publishing processes in that span. I have zero doubt that I'd be susceptible to a lot of the faux-science out there if I didn't have a place adjacent to the research and publishing. I'm still out of my depths when this stuff gets deep enough into the weeds. If I didn't know about concepts like predatory publishers, pre-prints, and how to use certain databases; I'd feel lost in this era of mass information with little to no curation from most sources.

Totally. The papers themselves are Greek to me which is why I go fishing for news summaries.

Searching news for good information is just so frustrating. Just these past few weeks, trying to decide whether my daughter should enter kindergarten (OMG ) remote or in person I had a hell of a time finding the critical piece of information of why hospitalizations of children have been up so much with Delta. I finally found a news article published in a paper from Sydney, Australia that summarized Delta data well and clearly presented findings showing that the spike was primarily attributable to increased contagion and not increased virulence with children. So we're giving it a go figuring their risk is low and we're vaccinated. And it sounds like authorization for kids is just around the bend.

But... that's a really, really important piece of information that's just buried. And I don't think most people have the acumen or resources to even ask that question let alone suss out what answers actually make sense from a list of search results.

I think part of it is that our education system just kinda sucks, but another part of it is, it's significantly easier to put out misinformation than it is to disprove it. Like that Mark Twain quote, a lie travels halfway around the world while the truth puts on its shoes or whatever

The big issue is, that for the people spreading misinformation, they don't have to convince anyone they're right, just that there's some doubt. Personally, I don't know many people who say they know for sure the vaccine is bad, just that they don't know if it is or isn't, which is a victory for the anti-vax crowd

Known moon criminal HBomberguy did a video a while back about vaccines and why people are hesitant to take them. It's pretty long and mostly deals with the original "vaccines cause autism" doctor and how f*cked up his study was (like, they would have the parents of autistic kids sign off on procedures which are normally fine for adults, like colonoscopies, but are extremely dangerous for children, especially in some cases toddlers), and how he didn't even find anything, but he ties it in to Covid towards the end.

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

i don't want to go too far down another rabbit hole, but everything you said AND social media and search algorithms. this AI is working overtime to create pockets of confirmation bias for monetary gain. as soon as you click on one thing it's trying to peg you into an extreme. for example... as soon as i clicked on that video dagawd shared with us, now YouTube is like, "oh, word? we didn't know you were interested in this. let me show you some of THESE conspiracy theories!"

one click at a time you go down the rabbit hole. of course, this applies in every direction. i watch a lot of knicks content, so i get plugs for every knicks content creater ever!

[Clyde_Style]

Totally. The papers themselves are Greek to me which is why I go fishing for news summaries.

Searching news for good information is just so frustrating. Just these past few weeks, trying to decide whether my daughter should enter kindergarten (OMG ) remote or in person I had a hell of a time finding the critical piece of information of why hospitalizations of children have been up so much with Delta. I finally found a news article published in a paper from Sydney, Australia that summarized Delta data well and clearly presented findings showing that the spike was primarily attributable to increased contagion and not increased virulence with children. So we're giving it a go figuring their risk is low and we're vaccinated. And it sounds like authorization for kids is just around the bend.

But... that's a really, really important piece of information that's just buried. And I don't think most people have the acumen or resources to even ask that question let alone suss out what answers actually make sense from a list of search results.

I think part of it is that our education system just kinda sucks, but another part of it is, it's significantly easier to put out misinformation than it is to disprove it. Like that Mark Twain quote, a lie travels halfway around the world while the truth puts on its shoes or whatever

The big issue is, that for the people spreading misinformation, they don't have to convince anyone they're right, just that there's some doubt. Personally, I don't know many people who say they know for sure the vaccine is bad, just that they don't know if it is or isn't, which is a victory for the anti-vax crowd

Known moon criminal HBomberguy did a video a while back about vaccines and why people are hesitant to take them. It's pretty long and mostly deals with the original "vaccines cause autism" doctor and how f*cked up his study was (like, they would have the parents of autistic kids sign off on procedures which are normally fine for adults, like colonoscopies, but are extremely dangerous for children, especially in some cases toddlers), and how he didn't even find anything, but he ties it in to Covid towards the end.

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

I'm not even talking about conspiracy theories. Just trying to get a good summary of scientific positions from news sources. Masking was another area where the news/gov was just all over the place. That graphic with the dude peeing >>>>> any media source on explaining the benefit. I think I got it from a post of yours on the CA board.

Spoiler:

Time for an entertainment break:

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

[Capn'O]

Totally. The papers themselves are Greek to me which is why I go fishing for news summaries.

Searching news for good information is just so frustrating. Just these past few weeks, trying to decide whether my daughter should enter kindergarten (OMG ) remote or in person I had a hell of a time finding the critical piece of information of why hospitalizations of children have been up so much with Delta. I finally found a news article published in a paper from Sydney, Australia that summarized Delta data well and clearly presented findings showing that the spike was primarily attributable to increased contagion and not increased virulence with children. So we're giving it a go figuring their risk is low and we're vaccinated. And it sounds like authorization for kids is just around the bend.

But... that's a really, really important piece of information that's just buried. And I don't think most people have the acumen or resources to even ask that question let alone suss out what answers actually make sense from a list of search results.

I think part of it is that our education system just kinda sucks, but another part of it is, it's significantly easier to put out misinformation than it is to disprove it. Like that Mark Twain quote, a lie travels halfway around the world while the truth puts on its shoes or whatever

The big issue is, that for the people spreading misinformation, they don't have to convince anyone they're right, just that there's some doubt. Personally, I don't know many people who say they know for sure the vaccine is bad, just that they don't know if it is or isn't, which is a victory for the anti-vax crowd

Known moon criminal HBomberguy did a video a while back about vaccines and why people are hesitant to take them. It's pretty long and mostly deals with the original "vaccines cause autism" doctor and how f*cked up his study was (like, they would have the parents of autistic kids sign off on procedures which are normally fine for adults, like colonoscopies, but are extremely dangerous for children, especially in some cases toddlers), and how he didn't even find anything, but he ties it in to Covid towards the end.

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

It's a whole other tangent, but one of the primary reasons people concoct conspiracy theories is they make bank on it. It's basically monetizing eyeballs and clicks for them. They literally DGAF that they're lying. Most of the people who do the videos are hustlers who figured out how to get their piece of the internet pie. Some of them retire on the books they sell. Or like Dr. Mercola on the products they hawk. He's a very dangerous person.

Ah yes. The Alex Jones model.

"Question everybody's motives!"

"Even you?"

"No... um... no. That would... um... not be good. "

[Clyde_Style]

I think part of it is that our education system just kinda sucks, but another part of it is, it's significantly easier to put out misinformation than it is to disprove it. Like that Mark Twain quote, a lie travels halfway around the world while the truth puts on its shoes or whatever

The big issue is, that for the people spreading misinformation, they don't have to convince anyone they're right, just that there's some doubt. Personally, I don't know many people who say they know for sure the vaccine is bad, just that they don't know if it is or isn't, which is a victory for the anti-vax crowd

Known moon criminal HBomberguy did a video a while back about vaccines and why people are hesitant to take them. It's pretty long and mostly deals with the original "vaccines cause autism" doctor and how f*cked up his study was (like, they would have the parents of autistic kids sign off on procedures which are normally fine for adults, like colonoscopies, but are extremely dangerous for children, especially in some cases toddlers), and how he didn't even find anything, but he ties it in to Covid towards the end.

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

It's a whole other tangent, but one of the primary reasons people concoct conspiracy theories is they make bank on it. It's basically monetizing eyeballs and clicks for them. They literally DGAF that they're lying. Most of the people who do the videos are hustlers who figured out how to get their piece of the internet pie. Some of them retire on the books they sell. Or like Dr. Mercola on the products they hawk. He's a very dangerous person.

Ah yes. The Alex Jones model.

"Question everybody's motives!"

"Even you?"

"No... um... no. That would... um... not be good. "

Alex Jones is actually a key target of the January 6th Commission. He was in bed with Roger Stone who was coordinating the Oath Keepers who led the phalanx to the doors of the Capitol. He's a weasel so if given the chance I expect him to sing for his supper.

Jones is a good example of how fiction becomes reality in the minds of conspiracy nuts. He admitted he was a profiteer when he was investigated for his comments on Sandy Hook, but like a lot of these mooks the coalescing around Trump changed their mental equation from lets shock jock for money to oh crap we're in charge now. They never expected to be that close to the halls of power. That's a big part of why Trump's cult hardened; they loved the taste of a fellow nutjob like Trump being in the driver's seat and it drives them crazy to have lost their derp power proxy.

I find the whole Ivermectin thing thoroughly disgusting. Pure profiteering for sure. I guarantee there will be connecting dots to some individuals invested in it. It is why I asked DaGawd if they thought it was truthful, because that video was blatantly fake complete with an Ivermectin placard. Seriously now, how can we discuss whether we trust authorities or not when we're willing to believe a woman claiming to be in the health profession promoting Ivermectin? I hope this thread will now encourage some of those reading it to be more alert to fraud like that

[thebuzzardman]

Totally. The papers themselves are Greek to me which is why I go fishing for news summaries.

Searching news for good information is just so frustrating. Just these past few weeks, trying to decide whether my daughter should enter kindergarten (OMG ) remote or in person I had a hell of a time finding the critical piece of information of why hospitalizations of children have been up so much with Delta. I finally found a news article published in a paper from Sydney, Australia that summarized Delta data well and clearly presented findings showing that the spike was primarily attributable to increased contagion and not increased virulence with children. So we're giving it a go figuring their risk is low and we're vaccinated. And it sounds like authorization for kids is just around the bend.

But... that's a really, really important piece of information that's just buried. And I don't think most people have the acumen or resources to even ask that question let alone suss out what answers actually make sense from a list of search results.

I think part of it is that our education system just kinda sucks, but another part of it is, it's significantly easier to put out misinformation than it is to disprove it. Like that Mark Twain quote, a lie travels halfway around the world while the truth puts on its shoes or whatever

The big issue is, that for the people spreading misinformation, they don't have to convince anyone they're right, just that there's some doubt. Personally, I don't know many people who say they know for sure the vaccine is bad, just that they don't know if it is or isn't, which is a victory for the anti-vax crowd

Known moon criminal HBomberguy did a video a while back about vaccines and why people are hesitant to take them. It's pretty long and mostly deals with the original "vaccines cause autism" doctor and how f*cked up his study was (like, they would have the parents of autistic kids sign off on procedures which are normally fine for adults, like colonoscopies, but are extremely dangerous for children, especially in some cases toddlers), and how he didn't even find anything, but he ties it in to Covid towards the end.

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

i don't want to go too far down another rabbit hole, but everything you said AND social media and search algorithms. this AI is working overtime to create pockets of confirmation bias for monetary gain. as soon as you click on one thing it's trying to peg you into an extreme. for example... as soon as i clicked on that video dagawd shared with us, now YouTube is like, "oh, word? we didn't know you were interested in this. let me show you some of THESE conspiracy theories!"

one click at a time you go down the rabbit hole. of course, this applies in every direction. i watch a lot of knicks content, so i get plugs for every knicks content creater ever!

I had that happen to me on Youtube when I decided to look up some videos on what those nasty central banks were getting up to. And of course, found some stuff of use etc.
Several videos later I was watching a long format video about the pernicious role of central banks in history. Covering some of the ground of other videos. (I'm aware of the good they can do as well). Anyway, video was going along harmlessly enough, until it got to a section where they started talking about England's central bank, it's role in the growth of the empire etc. Then came the part "Of course, it was the influential Rothschild family who were the power behind the bank.." and I was like "Uh oh..." and moments later it was full on "BECAUSE IT'S THE EVIL JEWS WHO CONTROL ALL THE BANKS AND WE ARE HEAR TO TELL YOU ABOUT ALL THE GREAT WORK HITLER DID AND WAS WRONGLY BLAMED BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It was the hardest right turn ever in anything I ever watched. So, of course Youtube figured I wanted to see freakazoid right wing anti semetic stuff for a while, to include some raving lunatic Eastern Orthodox monk who lives in Colorado, and apparently, isn't fond of Jews or Israel etc. At all.

Google can f*ck off in a lot of ways.

[Capn'O]

I think part of it is that our education system just kinda sucks, but another part of it is, it's significantly easier to put out misinformation than it is to disprove it. Like that Mark Twain quote, a lie travels halfway around the world while the truth puts on its shoes or whatever

The big issue is, that for the people spreading misinformation, they don't have to convince anyone they're right, just that there's some doubt. Personally, I don't know many people who say they know for sure the vaccine is bad, just that they don't know if it is or isn't, which is a victory for the anti-vax crowd

Known moon criminal HBomberguy did a video a while back about vaccines and why people are hesitant to take them. It's pretty long and mostly deals with the original "vaccines cause autism" doctor and how f*cked up his study was (like, they would have the parents of autistic kids sign off on procedures which are normally fine for adults, like colonoscopies, but are extremely dangerous for children, especially in some cases toddlers), and how he didn't even find anything, but he ties it in to Covid towards the end.

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

i don't want to go too far down another rabbit hole, but everything you said AND social media and search algorithms. this AI is working overtime to create pockets of confirmation bias for monetary gain. as soon as you click on one thing it's trying to peg you into an extreme. for example... as soon as i clicked on that video dagawd shared with us, now YouTube is like, "oh, word? we didn't know you were interested in this. let me show you some of THESE conspiracy theories!"

one click at a time you go down the rabbit hole. of course, this applies in every direction. i watch a lot of knicks content, so i get plugs for every knicks content creater ever!

I had that happen to me on Youtube when I decided to look up some videos on what those nasty central banks were getting up to. And of course, found some stuff of use etc.
Several videos later I was watching a long format video about the pernicious role of central banks in history. Covering some of the ground of other videos. (I'm aware of the good they can do as well). Anyway, video was going along harmlessly enough, until it got to a section where they started talking about England's central bank, it's role in the growth of the empire etc. Then came the part "Of course, it was the influential Rothschild family who were the power behind the bank.." and I was like "Uh oh..." and moments later it was full on "BECAUSE IT'S THE EVIL JEWS WHO CONTROL ALL THE BANKS AND WE ARE HEAR TO TELL YOU ABOUT ALL THE GREAT WORK HITLER DID AND WAS WRONGLY BLAMED BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It was the hardest right turn ever in anything I ever watched. So, of course Youtube figured I wanted to see freakazoid right wing anti semetic stuff for a while, to include some raving lunatic Eastern Orthodox monk who lives in Colorado, and apparently, isn't fond of Jews or Israel etc. At all.

Google can f*ck off in a lot of ways.

Indeed, all conspiratorial roads (and search engines) eventually lead to anti-Semitism.

About a year ago, I was looking for a globe for my daughter. I made my way to the Powell's Book Store website - Portland's big book store - to see if they had any globes and they didn't. They do have some amazing maps but no globes. In my search results were a bunch of geography books, including a flat earth text. Being in one of my rabbit hole moods, I looked at reviews... apparently, the flat earth portion of the book was pretty limited and the book dives pretty quickly into an anti-Semitic diatribe that occupies the bulk of the pages thereafter.

The best part about it was when I contacted the store with a note saying that their algorithms had linked pretty much any search for geography to an anti-Semitic text guising as a flat earth conspiracy text. The gist of it was that their algorithms weren't working and that they may want to consider removing the book entirely. I got a response basically accusing me of being a censorship nanny and pontificating on the finer points of including all views in a free society. It's like, sure, I wasn't even that serious about removing the book but at the same time a search for gardening shouldn't turn up results of a book by a guy that wants to ram a pitchfork into my skull. For one thing, that's a different topic even if you're using a pitchfork for both activities. That point seemed lost on this respondent somehow.

I suspect many of the Covid conspiracies get there too, though I haven't looked. It's not too far off from the "poisoning the wells" talk during the bubonic plague.

[HarthorneWingo]

i don't want to go too far down another rabbit hole, but everything you said AND social media and search algorithms. this AI is working overtime to create pockets of confirmation bias for monetary gain. as soon as you click on one thing it's trying to peg you into an extreme. for example... as soon as i clicked on that video dagawd shared with us, now YouTube is like, "oh, word? we didn't know you were interested in this. let me show you some of THESE conspiracy theories!"

one click at a time you go down the rabbit hole. of course, this applies in every direction. i watch a lot of knicks content, so i get plugs for every knicks content creater ever!

I had that happen to me on Youtube when I decided to look up some videos on what those nasty central banks were getting up to. And of course, found some stuff of use etc.
Several videos later I was watching a long format video about the pernicious role of central banks in history. Covering some of the ground of other videos. (I'm aware of the good they can do as well). Anyway, video was going along harmlessly enough, until it got to a section where they started talking about England's central bank, it's role in the growth of the empire etc. Then came the part "Of course, it was the influential Rothschild family who were the power behind the bank.." and I was like "Uh oh..." and moments later it was full on "BECAUSE IT'S THE EVIL JEWS WHO CONTROL ALL THE BANKS AND WE ARE HEAR TO TELL YOU ABOUT ALL THE GREAT WORK HITLER DID AND WAS WRONGLY BLAMED BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It was the hardest right turn ever in anything I ever watched. So, of course Youtube figured I wanted to see freakazoid right wing anti semetic stuff for a while, to include some raving lunatic Eastern Orthodox monk who lives in Colorado, and apparently, isn't fond of Jews or Israel etc. At all.

Google can f*ck off in a lot of ways.

Indeed, all conspiratorial roads (and search engines) eventually lead to anti-Semitism.

About a year ago, I was looking for a globe for my daughter. I made my way to the Powell's Book Store website - Portland's big book store - to see if they had any globes and they didn't. They do have some amazing maps but no globes. In my search results were a bunch of geography books, including a flat earth text. Being in one of my rabbit hole moods, I looked at reviews... apparently, the flat earth portion of the book was pretty limited and the book dives pretty quickly into an anti-Semitic diatribe that occupies the bulk of the pages thereafter.

The best part about it was when I contacted the store with a note saying that their algorithms had linked pretty much any search for geography to an anti-Semitic text guising as a flat earth conspiracy text. The gist of it was that their algorithms weren't working and that they may want to consider removing the book entirely. I got a response basically accusing me of being a censorship nanny and pontificating on the finer points of including all views in a free society. It's like, sure, I wasn't even that serious about removing the book but at the same time a search for gardening shouldn't turn up results of a book by a guy that wants to ram a pitchfork into my skull. For one thing, that's a different topic even if you're using a pitchfork for both activities. That point seemed lost on this respondent somehow.

I suspect many of the Covid conspiracies get there too, though I haven't looked. It's not too far off from the "poisoning the wells" talk during the bubonic plague.

Not to make fun of anti-Semitism, or any other kind of racism because we know what how these extreme views have ruined this country, but this is pretty funny.

Minnesota professional wrestling racism at its finest, compliments of Steve Corino.

The Mighty Maccabe (representing Israel vs. The Iron Sheik (representing Iran).

Watch on YouTube

;t=8s

[HarthorneWingo]

Grab something to drink, some 'zels, and whatever other accoutrements you desire to make yourself conformtable and then thank me for sharing this with you all. Enjoy!

Read on Twitter

?s=20

[Clyde_Style]

Grab something to drink, some 'zels, and whatever other accoutrements you desire to make yourself conformtable and then thank me for sharing this with you all. Enjoy!

Read on Twitter

?s=20

Cucker Tarlson has a KNICKS logo, what’s that about?

[Clyde_Style]

i don't want to go too far down another rabbit hole, but everything you said AND social media and search algorithms. this AI is working overtime to create pockets of confirmation bias for monetary gain. as soon as you click on one thing it's trying to peg you into an extreme. for example... as soon as i clicked on that video dagawd shared with us, now YouTube is like, "oh, word? we didn't know you were interested in this. let me show you some of THESE conspiracy theories!"

one click at a time you go down the rabbit hole. of course, this applies in every direction. i watch a lot of knicks content, so i get plugs for every knicks content creater ever!

I had that happen to me on Youtube when I decided to look up some videos on what those nasty central banks were getting up to. And of course, found some stuff of use etc.
Several videos later I was watching a long format video about the pernicious role of central banks in history. Covering some of the ground of other videos. (I'm aware of the good they can do as well). Anyway, video was going along harmlessly enough, until it got to a section where they started talking about England's central bank, it's role in the growth of the empire etc. Then came the part "Of course, it was the influential Rothschild family who were the power behind the bank.." and I was like "Uh oh..." and moments later it was full on "BECAUSE IT'S THE EVIL JEWS WHO CONTROL ALL THE BANKS AND WE ARE HEAR TO TELL YOU ABOUT ALL THE GREAT WORK HITLER DID AND WAS WRONGLY BLAMED BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It was the hardest right turn ever in anything I ever watched. So, of course Youtube figured I wanted to see freakazoid right wing anti semetic stuff for a while, to include some raving lunatic Eastern Orthodox monk who lives in Colorado, and apparently, isn't fond of Jews or Israel etc. At all.

Google can f*ck off in a lot of ways.

Indeed, all conspiratorial roads (and search engines) eventually lead to anti-Semitism.

About a year ago, I was looking for a globe for my daughter. I made my way to the Powell's Book Store website - Portland's big book store - to see if they had any globes and they didn't. They do have some amazing maps but no globes. In my search results were a bunch of geography books, including a flat earth text. Being in one of my rabbit hole moods, I looked at reviews... apparently, the flat earth portion of the book was pretty limited and the book dives pretty quickly into an anti-Semitic diatribe that occupies the bulk of the pages thereafter.

The best part about it was when I contacted the store with a note saying that their algorithms had linked pretty much any search for geography to an anti-Semitic text guising as a flat earth conspiracy text. The gist of it was that their algorithms weren't working and that they may want to consider removing the book entirely. I got a response basically accusing me of being a censorship nanny and pontificating on the finer points of including all views in a free society. It's like, sure, I wasn't even that serious about removing the book but at the same time a search for gardening shouldn't turn up results of a book by a guy that wants to ram a pitchfork into my skull. For one thing, that's a different topic even if you're using a pitchfork for both activities. That point seemed lost on this respondent somehow.

I suspect many of the Covid conspiracies get there too, though I haven't looked. It's not too far off from the "poisoning the wells" talk during the bubonic plague.

Jews are like seasoning that makes everything better though. A dash of Jews run the media here and a pinch of George Soros there and voila! A perfect dish every time

[HarthorneWingo]

Grab something to drink, some 'zels, and whatever other accoutrements you desire to make yourself conformtable and then thank me for sharing this with you all. Enjoy!

Read on Twitter

?s=20

Cucker Tarlson has a KNICKS logo, what’s that about?

Maybe he’s a closet Knicks fan and now he can’t go to any game at MSG because he’s not vaxxed. By from what I’ve heard of him, this is all shtick. Could it be that he is vaccinated? That’s all I can come up with.

I don’t ever recall him being pointed out at Knicks’ games. I mean people hate his fcking guts.

[Jeff Van Gully]

Grab something to drink, some 'zels, and whatever other accoutrements you desire to make yourself conformtable and then thank me for sharing this with you all. Enjoy!

Read on Twitter

?s=20

Cucker Tarlson has a KNICKS logo, what’s that about?

Maybe he’s a closet Knicks fan and now he can’t go to any game at MSG because he’s not vaxxed. By from what I’ve heard of him, this is all shtick. Could it be that he is vaccinated? That’s all I can come up with.

I don’t ever recall him being pointed out at Knicks’ games. I mean people hate his fcking guts.

my guess is that was negative coverage against the knicks/MSG vaccination mandate for entry.

[Zenzibar]

i don't want to go too far down another rabbit hole, but everything you said AND social media and search algorithms. this AI is working overtime to create pockets of confirmation bias for monetary gain. as soon as you click on one thing it's trying to peg you into an extreme. for example... as soon as i clicked on that video dagawd shared with us, now YouTube is like, "oh, word? we didn't know you were interested in this. let me show you some of THESE conspiracy theories!"

one click at a time you go down the rabbit hole. of course, this applies in every direction. i watch a lot of knicks content, so i get plugs for every knicks content creater ever!

I had that happen to me on Youtube when I decided to look up some videos on what those nasty central banks were getting up to. And of course, found some stuff of use etc.
Several videos later I was watching a long format video about the pernicious role of central banks in history. Covering some of the ground of other videos. (I'm aware of the good they can do as well). Anyway, video was going along harmlessly enough, until it got to a section where they started talking about England's central bank, it's role in the growth of the empire etc. Then came the part "Of course, it was the influential Rothschild family who were the power behind the bank.." and I was like "Uh oh..." and moments later it was full on "BECAUSE IT'S THE EVIL JEWS WHO CONTROL ALL THE BANKS AND WE ARE HEAR TO TELL YOU ABOUT ALL THE GREAT WORK HITLER DID AND WAS WRONGLY BLAMED BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It was the hardest right turn ever in anything I ever watched. So, of course Youtube figured I wanted to see freakazoid right wing anti semetic stuff for a while, to include some raving lunatic Eastern Orthodox monk who lives in Colorado, and apparently, isn't fond of Jews or Israel etc. At all.

Google can f*ck off in a lot of ways.

Indeed, all conspiratorial roads (and search engines) eventually lead to anti-Semitism.

About a year ago, I was looking for a globe for my daughter. I made my way to the Powell's Book Store website - Portland's big book store - to see if they had any globes and they didn't. They do have some amazing maps but no globes. In my search results were a bunch of geography books, including a flat earth text. Being in one of my rabbit hole moods, I looked at reviews... apparently, the flat earth portion of the book was pretty limited and the book dives pretty quickly into an anti-Semitic diatribe that occupies the bulk of the pages thereafter.

The best part about it was when I contacted the store with a note saying that their algorithms had linked pretty much any search for geography to an anti-Semitic text guising as a flat earth conspiracy text. The gist of it was that their algorithms weren't working and that they may want to consider removing the book entirely. I got a response basically accusing me of being a censorship nanny and pontificating on the finer points of including all views in a free society. It's like, sure, I wasn't even that serious about removing the book but at the same time a search for gardening shouldn't turn up results of a book by a guy that wants to ram a pitchfork into my skull. For one thing, that's a different topic even if you're using a pitchfork for both activities. That point seemed lost on this respondent somehow.

I suspect many of the Covid conspiracies get there too, though I haven't looked. It's not too far off from the "poisoning the wells" talk during the bubonic plague.

I'm very curious to know where each of you believe this virus originated from: the Wuhan lab or wet market as originally reported?

[Capn'O]

I'm very curious to know where each of you believe this virus originated from: the Wuhan lab or wet market as originally reported?

I don't know. I consider the origins question above my pay grade and it's not really of interest to me. The virus is here and that's my problem.

If the USA was looking at war or sanctions with China over it I might consider the question further.

[iLLmatic860]

Whats a good rebuttal to people who say something along the lines of “To the people who take the vaccine and say “theyve done their research “ well guess what, you are the research”

My girlfriend has her friends getting in her head and lol ( we both took our first shot yesterday)

[DaGawd]

Whats a good rebuttal to people who say something along the lines of “To the people who take the vaccine and say “theyve done their research “ well guess what, you are the research”

My girlfriend has her friends getting in her head and lol ( we both took our first shot yesterday)

I’m not vaxxed and don’t plan on getting one any time soon (sorry not sorry) but all I can say is you just have to be comfortable with your own decision. No one else can tell you how to think or feel. If y’all friends wanna try and talk y’all decisions down then fk em. They aren’t real friends any way

[Jeff Van Gully]

I'm very curious to know where each of you believe this virus originated from: the Wuhan lab or wet market as originally reported?

I don't know. I consider it above my pay grade. The virus is here and that's my problem.

If the USA was looking at war or sanctions with China over it I might consider the question further.

same. i'm here for a disease management conversation to save lives in the now, not speculation on origins.

[Jeff Van Gully]

Whats a good rebuttal to people who say something along the lines of “To the people who take the vaccine and say “theyve done their research “ well guess what, you are the research”

My girlfriend has her friends getting in her head and lol ( we both took our first shot yesterday)

why would you think that's a productive conversation?

the overwhelming majority of people wouldn't know research methods if they beat them in the face. it takes time and training to learn how to research. i suspect you are talking to people who define google searches as research. the literature review for my doctoral dissertation took months -- on one subject that i am considered a subject matter expert in. so...

i am far more interested in having real, human conversations in good faith. that whole energy is wrong and a big part of the reason why we can be manipulated to where we are. why do algorithms push us into extremes? because people are having ridiculous zero-sum polarization discussions about everything on social media.

as for your loved ones (such as your girlfriend), i would just kindly and empathetically guide them toward reputable and trustworthy information sources. but there's the rub, right? who knows what's trustworthy? who trusts?

wish i had an easier answer for you. but for me, regardless of viewpoint, people coming together to discuss things in good faith usually yields good results.

[HarthorneWingo]

Cucker Tarlson has a KNICKS logo, what’s that about?

Maybe he’s a closet Knicks fan and now he can’t go to any game at MSG because he’s not vaxxed. By from what I’ve heard of him, this is all shtick. Could it be that he is vaccinated? That’s all I can come up with.

I don’t ever recall him being pointed out at Knicks’ games. I mean people hate his fcking guts.

my guess is that was negative coverage against the knicks/MSG vaccination mandate for entry.

I thought it was a City law. It’s for all indoor events including going to an indoor restaurant