Troy

Is that what she wrote or is that your interpretation? The you are confusing the reporting of what scientists believe is likely with what will actually happen? The reporting of the scientific community will to help us understand and prepare for what is happening. If we did nothing there would be many more deaths. Without this reporting how would we know how dangerous the situation we are is? The estimates originally reported at the start of the pandemic sounded unbelievable. Today the most conservative estimates have been blown out of the water. Why did so many people die? Because they called the reporting biased and fake. If it sad because our administration could have saved many lives if they did not sepnd so much time discrediting journalist they way you are now. So are you saying that journalists should ignore the scientists and just count the dead? Really? Again reporting important facts like a lying president is important -- INCREDIBLY SO! You can construe this as an attack if you like. Do you think journalists should just ignore Trumps lying the way Twitter and never point it out. Is that what you call unbiased? Who is Jessie?

I have no idea what you mean. Can you give me one example of professional journalism that was not actually professional Journalism/ Your apparent definition of "objective" is pretty loose. If the reporting reveals something that you do not like or disagree with you, like trump, call it biased or "fake news."

I have not looked it up either, but being paid for something -- particularly if you are earning a living at it makes you a professional. Otherwise you are an amateur. One's relative skill is not a factor, though you generally have to pretty skilled at something to be a professional at it.

Sure, that is an easy attitude to have, but once you learn the history it is impossible to see things that way. I've also experienced a bout, shall we say, of financial struggle so I saw first hand how much harder life is for you when you are struggling financially. I also know much of the financial hardship people face is not entirely due to their behavior; their are structural problem which explain this. Similarly, I also know that many of the people who are successful today are not that way solely based upon merit. The discrepancy is based upon historic, systemic, and cultural racism. It will take generations to root out. White people have only begun to see and publically acknowledge this in meaningful recently. As your question implied even some Black people don't see it. We still have a long way to go. @Delano First a lack of deep knowledge of the Proud Boys does not mean one does not read widely, so I reject the premise of the question. The point I was trying to make is that I've read widely enough to know about the Proud Boys existence, however I have not dedicated the time to delve deeply to much more more about them as you have. You, in your "wide reading" have chosen to put more focus into the Proud Boys than I have. The presumption that I don't read widely based upon that fact is flawed logic. Wouldn't you agree?

So why is this a problem. Because that is what Biden said. It is not a prediction it is a statement of fact. Some predict that we will see half a million American deaths by the end of February! This too is a statement of fact. If it make Trump look bad there is a reason for it... because Trump's reaction to the virus was horrible. Another Statement of fact. Are you saying Trump did not disseminate misinformation? I expected nothing less from you @Pioneer1 I doubt a professional journalist could convince you otherwise. You win I give up.

Well @Delano despite an insurrection and being impeached twice, 45 will, make it past Wednesday, and serve out his term as I predicted. My reason "trumped" your astrology this time huh?

Again just because someone is published in the mainstream media does not make them a journalist. People often confuse the commentary with journalism then use that commentary to deride actual journalism. For example, virtually all I've seen coming out of Fox "News" is commentary. People whose goal it is to "mold opinion" are not journalists. OK I await your diatribe against journalism 🙂

Yes the word has that connotation, which is why I used it. It would have been more descriptive for me to write office workers... you know people who spend most of their day working behind a screen versus fitting pipes, laying sheet rock, or arresting Black people. Anyone paid for what they do is a "professional."

I worked in defense early in my career and the republicans guaranteed large contracts. That was before I started AALBC and read "more widely." So I understand how greed and a narrow focus on your own self interests lead some to become fiscally conservative. @Delano and @daniellegfny it is not a matter of reading more widely it is a matter how the wide reading is focused. Danielle you may be surprised to know that many years ago I learned about people like Thomas Sowell listening to right Wing radio like WABC 770 AM in NYC. One of my favorite commentators was Bob Grant. I also listened to 1190 AM WLIB which was diametrically opposite WABC @Pioneer1 over time however the right wingers stopped appealing to me because their world view completely overlooks the institutional racism which hurts Black people. Indeed, they are the primary perpetrators of these schemes against us, and poor people regardless of color. So while I've heard of the Proud Boys I can't invest my time doing a deep dive into their leadership and the like. I just know they were some of those involved in the insurrection an activity which was profoundly ill-conceived.

The state we are in is not solely social media fault -- I never wrote that. But it is clearly a factor particularly when you appreciate that it is major contributor to disruption the existing business models' (however flawed to providing news to the public). Man that is easy. Just reference any othe sources I said that I liked. But for an example read the article from The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/15/biden-coronavirus-pandemic-covid-vaccination-plan it was the first article I pick upon visiting the website. It will be interesting to see how creative you get in you effort to extract an opinion from the article -- I'm sure you'll do it, because you have a creative mind and you'll do anything to defend a position LOL! Here is the good thing. I have no idea who the writer, Jessica Glenza, is -- and I don't need to, because I trust the integrity of the publication and can assume everything is true. With social media however, you must admit that you are FAR BETTER served presuming everything is a lie. Wouldn't you agree?

That is funny. I completely missed that. Given much of the activity on the platform it is aptly named 🙂 It may have been deliberate... Here we go!!! ROTFLMMFBAO!!! 😆 Man, you did a better job than the cat who posted this on "slacker."

Why does everyone know so much about the Proud Boys? What have I been missing?

@Chevdove the coworking space I work out of, here in Tulsa, wrote and article about me: https://www.36degreesnorth.co/news/2021/1/11/troy-johnson this will give you some idea about my experience thus far.

"Journalists" do not share their opinions. That is done on the editorial and opinion pages. It does not look like Trump or you understand the role of a journalist. Trump believes journalist are tools to help promote his agenda --- the way Twitter was. Anyone doing their job is simply "fake news." I know Trump has used the media as a tool, but you don't have that power Pioneer, so what is your excuse for disparaging journalists? What are these "alternative sources" are celebrating pioneer. The alternative source I'd like to see would be a daily Black run newspaper, or at least a Black run weekly magazine. All we have left is fluff or planforms that copy from other sources -- no serious independent reporting. So I get you frustration. I have regularly read the WSJ and the NYT and they are biased in ways that their editors can't appreciate. The balance we need to not people sharing misinformation on social media. We need more Black journalists covering stories that are important to us in ways that we can use and we simply did not have that. In my opinion, all things considered, we are worse off today, in the social media age, than we were when Johnson publication was firing on all cylinders, we had powerful Black owned newspapers, Radio and TV programming.

No I did not know that. But my point was in reaction to @Stefan's comment about the group of domestics terrorists being a group of red necks. I did not suggest that they were all red necks (what ever that means). Agree that they come from variety of positions, but they represent a small minority of Americans and are certainly not representative of the nation as a whole -- at least that is what I believe. I know there are a lot or Black right wingers (used to be one). But followers of Thomas Sowell were not the people storming the capital and ransacking Pelosi's office. Of course there are many Black gun owners, but the desire to own a gun does not mean you are also willing to overthrow an election. As witnessed there were some Black people who have, "thrown their lot in with these cretins." Still these Brothers (they were all men right) are too small a number to be concerned about. We need to bring back the drop squads on these cats.

The following message was shared with me on a Slack channel (really just a work related social media platform for "professionals") That I'm a member of: I understand that this information was first shared months ago on social media and I believe it has since been widely discredited. But how many people read this information and believed it? How many people were unnecessarily scared and even modified their behavior as a result? How many people brought a gun? How much distrust of white people was generated -- increasing the level of divisiveness in our country? Social media bombards us with misinformation. No one spends time on the NAACP's website reading what the NAACP actually writes; we consume our information on social media and are constantly being lied to. Have any of you seen this before? Did you believe it straight away? This message failed my "sniff test. I did not call the person out who posted this information the way I would have done here. Someone else called explained this was fake news, but the person who posted it, rather than acknowledging that the information was fake reacted by saying all they wanted to do was keep us safe. No harm no foul right? The person was not trying to spread misinformation or troll the channel (everyone's identity is known), they probably just wanted to warn us about the plans of white supremist groups. However, the veracity of the information was of little concern. This information is alarming and the more alarming lies are the more likely they are to be read and shared. We used to call this "gossiping." Gossiping with a neighbor over coffee is relatively innocuous, but social media has taken the morally dubious behavior, put it on steroids, and made it down right dangerous. From the NAACP's website: "The National NAACP has not released any such statement. While we take all matters of racial discrimination and racial hatred seriously, these statements are not from the NAACP. These social media posts and press releases appear to be associated with a Huey P. Newton group, which has no affiliation to the NAACP. All official NAACP statements can be found on our website at www.naacp.org or @naacp on official NAACP social media platforms." Good luck, NAACP getting Black people to visit your website to read what you have to say. That is what we have social media for 😉

@daniellegfny I'm not debating that the quote were made. My guess is that there are accurate, but curation it is not. Well I'm glad you deleted your Twitter account I think we all should -- seriously. It is obvious however the quotes you posted here were copied from somewhere I doubt Anna Khait compiled them either. I suspect it was some troll farm that churned this stuff out to to keep us at each other throats.

Then why did you even write the statement?! OK, it is painfully obvious that you can not explain how this guy used social media to successfully boycott a store. You don't know even know what this guy's reach is. This could have been all be made up as far I can tell. Can you at least share a tweet, or Facebook post, the guy made so that I can see the engagement. Even though engagement does not prove action in the real world it would at least give some indication social media could have had an impact. You heard this story on some YouTube video; it conformed to your belief system, you blindly accepted it, and then shared it as if it is gospel. That might work for you, but I need a some evidence. Your 3rd hand, unsubstantiated, stories are not enough. Again, this is why we need GOOD JOURNALISM!

What I was trying to point out was that people can view the same information completely differently, in much the same way you and Danielle view trump differently. Why do you think that is? This is what Trumps says too. This is why he has so many followers and this is why we need good journalism. People who use social media as their primary news source will be confused and can easily draw completely different conclusions and THIS is the problem I'm lamenting. Does the following accurately explain your position @Pioneer1? We are better severed getting raw information provided by the general public via social media for us to judge individually, than we are getting vetted, fact checked, thoughtfully reported information from trained journalists. Journalists "spin" stories, tell us how to think, and we don't really need them. Does that sum it up?

Then at least show me how you know that the tweet was viewed by 20 million people.

That is because it is not an original thought. @daniellegfny copied the it from the white racists he follows on social meda: More evidence social media has done the Black community more harm than good.

True, that was the opinion of the morning drive time DJ here in Tulsa, based upon reporting. Watch the latest 60 Minutes broadcast for the actual reporting. Absolutely! I was not there. I do not know enough to provide context. I have not done any research, interviewed witnesses, video the incident, nit have you what make me wonder why you think you know so much? Yesterday I was talking to a woman in her 30's lamenting the changes on airline dining. She said the food on airlines was crap. I told her I'm talking about food on the airline before you were born. She as "don't dismiss me." I could not help but do it because she was gonna argue with me about something I experienced and something she obviously know little about. Again people get an idea in their head and they do not let go of it -- despite access to better information -- indeed the reject it. Hummm again this is not based upon any evidence, just your opinion to justify your world view. I guess the LOL at the end illustrates that you don't really believe it yourself. Everything you've written is an example of the concrete thinking that @Delano described. I see getting your to consider an alternative like climate change, the importance of journalism, a single race is completely futile... Changing your mind based upon better or new information is not a sign of weakness man.

I just yesterday, I read a short love story about a church girl and a phyicist. The phyicist was able to reconcile science with a belief in God to the satisfaction of the church girl 🙂

@Delano "if I can just save one" mind all my work would be worth it. 😉

"Normal," really? It is easy to say everyone does this without proof. Why is Trump the only one getting caught?