If this shoe fits, wear the damn thing! Those who thoughtlessly post/repost/tweet/retweet

[Atticus]

bullshit are just as blameworthy, just as dangerous to our cause and just as complicit in Trump's attempted takeover as those who created the bullshit! While it is sometimes difficult to know what is true and what is BS, it doesn't take long to Google the named source of the "OMG Breaking News" and see if they have a rep for truth-telling or breathless bullshit.

Wake up! Millions are being spent to smear our candidates and their supporters with anything that will offend, anger or disgust the "low information voters". We should be reporting it whenever we see it and doing our best to offer the facts to our neighbors. We should NOT---for any reason---be posting Trump/Russian/fascist talking points and wedges here on this board.

[jberryhill]

1. Does this apply to fake stuff that smears the other side too?

Bullshit is okay as long as it targets Republicans, right?

Because in those instances, whether it is true is not as important as whether it is bad, for example:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=12805391

[Atticus]

3. Absolutely! We deal in truth. We deal in facts. When we use lies to attack our

adversaries, we condone their slanderous smears of us and our people.

It's called integrity and it definitely should cut both ways.

[jberryhill]

4. +1

[Arkansas Granny]

6. +1

[mountain grammy]

10. YES!

[2naSalit]

11. +1

[pazzyanne]

15. +1

[stopdiggin]

23. 1000 F***ing percent

BS is BS.!!
And fake news and propaganda are destructive .. no matter whose side you think you're fighting on.

[Hekate]

29. +1

[oldsoftie]

12. Thank you Jberryhill!

It amazes me how so many people here absolutely put on blinders that there are people on THIS side of the spectrum who do bad shit. And when you post an OP about it, you get hardly any responses or get blasted that "this is a democrat website" or some other such BS.
Wrong is wrong, and no one side has a corner on the market. It SHOULD be called out whenever you see it. Its the ONLY way to fight it.

[Skittles]

16. that post has been removed

do you have another example?

[Ms. Toad]

19. This one was also (self) deleted today

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=12805967

There's enough in the thread that you should be able to sort it out - and the push back those of us suggesting that fake news is not a good look on DU.

The OP was about the person who intentionally ran down a girl because the girl was Mexican. The OP captioned along these lines "Trump supporter runs down girl because she is Mexican," With an asterisk at the bottom declaring something an inference. The original did not even state that the inference was that the woman was a trump supporter.

There are no facts in the article from which such an inference can reasonably be drawn - but (similar to Alex Jones), folks who like the story better if the woman is a Trump supporter, posters made them up.

[cwydro]

2. Fake news is alive and well here.

An OP on front page of GD is a case in point.

Edited to say that OP has been removed, thank god.

[jberryhill]

5. It's back

Check out the clever technique in this thread:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=12805898

[cwydro]

14. Wow. Unreal.

One really wonders what the intent is here in posting such tripe.

[mopinko]

7. if we dont tune up our bs detectors, we are ungovernable.

yeah, fb and twitter need to step, but jesus.

a lot less has been said about "lefty" bs, but a lot of the distrust of modern medicine is fomented by sites like naturalnews, which is one of the very worst. i see people on fb sharing their shit all the time.
i tell them who that is, i give them the click so i can pick it apart, i click through to see if the links say what they claim, i school them on how to tell bs, and ya know, the next day they post the same stupid shit.

if we dont overcome our confirmation biases, we will go extinct, and we will deserve it.

[Roy Rolling]

8. It's an Information War

Whoever uses bullshit as ammunition is the opposition. That is the dividing line—propaganda or truth.

[defacto7]

9. Hear hear!

Well spoken. The propaganda machine is well oiled and in full force. It's not only aimed to prop up the rw, it's tuned to undermine our solidarity and break our focus on reality. That's you, that's me, we are the target.

[marble falls]

13. Tweets is fer the birds!

[malaise]

17. +1,000

[Leith]

18. Thank you!

As much as I find such stuff a guilty pleasure for a few seconds, retweeting and believing lies is not who we are.

rethugs give us plenty of real ammunition to use against them. We don't need the lies.

[kozar]

20. I agree, and,

sometimes noobies make a mistake and post something to LBN out of concern or it broke on a link on their computer. I did this last night,, it wasn't malice,or disinfo as you seem to imply in OP. It was something I saw,, maybe over reacted to, but posted in LBN for my first post there. I got blasted with replies,, eventually top got locked. I thought msn was a reputable source, Actually I am good with all that, but will take offense that all is disinformation, ill conceived,, or in your words bullshit. I feel bad that I apparently screwed up ;ast night. And the coincidentally, you post shows up this morn. I am not a bullshitter, I do not spread disinfo,, Atticus,, sometimes ,even if this OP was not directed at me, human beings make a mistake! but your post seems to imply we all have to be perfect.. no reply is needed as I am probably certain you were "not talking about " my post. But I will say the part of DU I do not enjoy is how we ar eall Dems and have same mindset. And then I read posts that are condescending and if anyone posts anything,they better be perfect befoer they post.

Have a Merry Christmas Friend.

Koz

[Atticus]

22. A couple of things---first, I have no knowledge of your post that got locked. To my knowledge, I

never read it or even saw it.

Second, my post was not "about" any specific post. I have seen several posts---again, none of yours to my knowledge---repeating the latest "bombshell" from sources with a known track record for baseless claims. Some of these "sources" are, IMHO, either foreign bots or paid shit-stirrers. They depend on our laxity and gullibility to spread their hate and drive their wedges to separate us.

That's all. The OP had nothing to do with you.

As for your getting "locked"--- been there, done that. It stings, I know. We all have our share of bad days and we have all had something we wrote taken in a way we did not intend. That sounds like maybe that's what happened to you. I don't really know.

That was more than I really intended to say and maybe more than you wanted to read.

Merry Chistmas and Happy Holidays, friend.

[kozar]

25. Ok I accept

your replay,and given that you were blocked I assume you knew why I responded. I will add once again friends,sometimes our members make a mistake, I agree with Atticus, sometimes is intentional,, sometimes a mistake. Lets be what makes us Democrats,, we take a breath,,and then we talk in open,, it is what solved what could have been an issue between Att and I , no replied quickly, in either reply. Atticus posted his post in morning, I assumed it was in regards to my post last night,, I stopped,waited a few hours and replied in open. Seems Atticus and I are arr good,,he did not blow up at my reply and I totally accept his response to me. My point is,,this is how Dems work, we feel,,then we talk,openly, and so quickly it gets solved. And I apologize to Atticus again her..

Merry Christmas all

Koz

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. It's not just political stuff.

And it's not just ignormanuses who repost bullshit.

I don't tweet, but I am on FB and here on DU, and I frequently see utter bullshit posted/reposted because too many people can't take 30 seconds to see if something is true.

Makes me crazy.

[Arthur_Frain]

24. Makes us look as stupid as the porn ring in a pizza parlor gang.

Ok not that stupid. But I’ve been tired of this for a while now. Stop it.

If I could, I’d give this whole board that Pelosi “oh no you won’t” look every time somebody posted one of those.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. Absolutely! Everyone is susceptible to confirmation bias,

but just because you want something to be true doesn’t mean it is. Check your sources. Don’t pounce on and amplify some juicy tidbit some blogger posted just because you want to believe it. Be honest, be fair, be skeptical, and don’t assume facts not in evidence.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

27. I saw Elvis in Vegas today

It was on tv at a college football game so I know it's true.
Where's your skepticism now, eh?

[Behind the Aegis]

28. The new normal.

It isn't just fake news, it is also "yellow journalism" and "Dean Scream" type of bullshit which keeps popping up.