Most of us have seen or been in these situations on ATS before:
******
Me: Yesterday was Tuesday. That means today must be Wednesday, right?
Poster X: Prove it. Link or it didn't happen.
Me: [sigh] OK, here's a link to a news site. They always have today's date on the top:
www.foxnews.com...
Poster X: No way, Fox News is unreliable. They lie. I'm not clicking that. Fail.
Me: [exasperated]: It's just the freaking
day of the week. I'm not asking you to march in lockstep with their editorial page. Even if they lie
about some things, this is a basic and easily verifiable fact that can be confirmed using any number of sources.
Poster X: Fine, then give me another source. If Fox says today is Wednesday, that means it probably isn't.
Me (rolling my eyes): OK, here's a link to today's Huffington Post, a liberal source. Note the date. Same as on the Fox source:
www.huffingtonpost.com...
Happy now?
Poster X: kthanksbai.
Poster Y (entering the conversation): Waitaminute, now I don't believe you because you posted a liberal source.
Me: nnnnnnggaaaaaaaahhh! (smashes face against keyboard).
*****
Too often do people on ATS use the ideology of a source or a link as an excuse to avoid thinking or engaging with a topic. Yes, Fox lies sometimes and
has a conservative slant in general. Yes, Huffington Post is a "liberal rag" with a largely liberal slant. But this doesn't mean *everything* posted
at these sources is a lie. I've seen people refuse to believe something like a disaster or a big fire actually happened, just because the link posted
is to a news source that jars with their ideology. I'm talking about the
basic fact it occurred, not the spin or interpretation. This is just
plain pigheaded stupidity, folks!
Don't be lazy and stupid. The evil link is not going to poison you. You are a big boy or a big girl, surely you have the ability to separate what is
basic, objective fact from what is spin and opinion at a questionable source, at least in most cases, right? Or are you so brain-dead and insecure in
your own views that you can't even trust yourself to read critically?
Not everything at Fox is a lie. Not everything at Huffpo is a lie. Not everything at a site ending in ".gov" is government propaganda. Don't use the
source as an excuse for not thinking. If you truly mistrust a basic fact from Source A, use Source B that you trust to verify it...rather than
demanding the person who posted the first link do so. Grow up.
Rant over.
edit on 12/5/2012 by silent thunder because: (no reason given)