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This post was originally titled "The Leslie Jones Factor" but I've re-named it because I think we've done Leslie Jones to death and she deserves a break from being picked apart by strangers. She is who she is; more power to her. In another post, on another thread, dated August 10th, CDBurns wrote: ..."Name me any point in the history of us in the US where we were considered respectable, lady like, and gentlemen." Come on, Chris, there has always been a black affinity for what was ladylike or gentlemanly dating back to slavery times when there was a difference in the demeanor of the field hands and the house help. In the ensuing years after slavery "ended", a unique black culture began to evolve, and after the great migration began in 1915, huge numbers of blacks came North, settling in the urban areas where there was always, within the black population, people who adopted middle class values attempting to mimic that lifestyle. Church-going folks and those employed as maids, chauffeurs, Pullman porters, civil service and postal workers exemplified propriety and shunned the unruly niggas who were referred to as lowlifes and riffraff. I understand there was a very elite set of well-to-do black people who occupied Harlem and Washington DC in the early 1900s. Also, in the south, there was a black caste system where the preachers and teachers and doctors and lawyers, raised their children to be mannerly and cultured. They were who sent their children to the HBCUs.. Beginning in the 1920s, my hometown was typical among the suburbs of Chicago where blacks moved to and settled in. Where I was born and raised. there were civic and political groups, Masons, Eastern Stars, an American Legion Post, social organizations and clubs all existing in a polite society apart from the neer-do-wells hangin' out on street corners, swilling cheap whiskey and acting drunk and disorderly, (But enough about my family. ) Anyway, white people acknowledged the differences, and liked non threatening well-behaved negroes. And, of course, we know that the black middle class is still around, doing their thing, acting like civilized people. You just don't hear that much about them because they aren't edgy or exciting. It's hard to pinpoint when the bad behavior reached epidemic proportions but some say in the early 1940s, the final wave of migrants from the south were from the lower class, black sharecroppers who brought their crude country ways with them and settled into the inner cities, merging with the existing population of shiftless people. Well, you get the idea. Finally, I do think Rap music was instrumental in giving black women a bad reputation. On the threshold of my 83rd birthday, these are my reflections. Chris. As a man in your 40s, why do you think differently?

While misinformation is more pervasive today, I think it is natural progression of lies and propaganda. If social wasn't here it may have took a bit longer but this is not a new thing. It is being done quicker now and that is all. Think about it in terms of the old experiment of standing people in a line and telling the first person one thing and then asking the last person what was said. Dis and Misinformation will always be around. Social has its good qualities. While many people form their opinions based on the info on social, a lot of people get good information. You can definitely get a feel for public opinion on social, you can also be misinformed. The fact is this study does nothing but verify that likeminded people share and report the same things. If you get rid of Facebook tomorrow those people would be on the porch sharing misinformation, or they would be at the pub/bar/club agreeing with each other about whatever it is being discussed. Any person looking to condemn social as a threat could have written this. Any person looking to establish the opposing argument could have written a similar 6 page report. if Social media is a threat to society, then Hitler must have had one of the best computer networks in history right? Likeminded people congregate. Maybe Facebook allows this to happen at a much faster rate, but I've seen kids at a school, without a social network or computer get the message out to jump another student during a 50 minute class. I guess now it would only take one minute, but the result is basically the same.