Troy

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?

Yes we Black forums, web sites, newspapers, magazines, etc, but how do you get Black people to support and use them?

I do too but not in the face of people more informed on a subject. If I trusted my own observations I wouldn't know anything about climate change, I would still believe in multiple races of people, or have any idea how vast the universe is. Well these would not be very good journalists. If you are a descending reader you can pick this up, which is why some publications are better than others. I find foreign media like the Guardian, Al jazeera, BBC's to be superior to American Media. I'm not missing your point because you've failed make one. How exactly did the social media save energy? What task did social perform? Soooo, You are equating the reach of some unknown dude on Twitter (is that the platform right?) with that of Don Lemon on CNN?! Come on try to be serious. Again, @Pioneer1 what are personally boycotting as a result of something you've read online?

Again this is a consequence of the web, reporters say the Brother deserves a medal and you call it "spin." When journalists can't be trusted at all, and people debate reality the republic is in jeopardy. This is why so many people don't believe the election results, climate change, or the effecacy of the vaccine. Things will get worse before they get better.

Have y'all watched the last episode of 60 minutes? I watched it a couple of hours ago and it was a scathing, indictment of the president. Trump's cconversation with the Georgia election officials a was inexcusable. That recording alone was damnable, but wasn't even the worst of it. There is no reasonable explanation to justify his behavior.

This is the first time I watched the video. I can tell what his is doing. If I were to speculate it looks like he was communicating with fellow officers which is probably why he had back up at the end of the video. What happened next? I think he was justified in drawing his weapon and firing on people who deliberately failed to comply with his instructions. He could only hope blasting a couple of people would have gotten the others to disperse, but shooting a couple of others may have had the opposite effect. But I'm not in law enforcement what he did was probably what he was trained to do. I'm not about to about to second guess him. Again good reporting would have explained all of this. I rather wait for that reporting. Has any been released?

The reason for such disparate and mutually exclusive view of the same event is a consequence of the corporatization of the world wide web and social media in particular. Despite off of this technology no one really has the truth. The web has made it possible to assemble content that maps perfectly with any perspective. People don't seems to question sources. Even here I've seen sources cited to support an argument, but when you read the document or the original source document the point it was supposed to support is actually refuted. The ability to see what one wants to see is so strong that reason, logic, facts, even the obvious is rendered meaningless. Did Trump incite the rebellion? The notion that this is debatedable is astonishing given all the information we have access to. Collective we are too dumb to assimilate all of the information we have access to...

Yes that is why we need people to dig deeper, for what you and I "see" is largely driven by or biases and attitudes -- none of which has anything to do with what actually happened. Do you see why we need trained journalists? Again I don't even watch the videos they are posted as entertainment, seeing someone get shot is not entertaining to me. I don't want to speculate about what happened when it comes to something as serious as this. Come on man, that goes without saying. Why would you even say something like that unless you are trying to say, like Trump, that all journalists lie? You know successful boycotts existed long before social media was invented right? That said, on the surface, it seems unlikely that social media was only or even the primary reason the boycott was successful. I suspect he was physically there discouraging people from using the gas station and shared what he was doing on social Am I missing anything? OK, how? Presumably you see calls for boycotts all the time on social media. I called for Amazon to be boycotted. Do you pre-emptively everything someone posts on social media? D you boycott Amazon, R. Kelly, the NFL?

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I'm inclined to agree. That is an interesting perspective. I guess that is why 45 was so able to easily convince his followers that journalists are all liars and propagators of fake news. Consider the video that you watched of the brother running from the mob who stormed the Congress, you felt the brother was running away in fear and worthy of ridicule. While the truth is that he is a hero, who led an angry mob away from the senators. The elimination of the last daily black owned newspaper I guess it's been over 30 years now was a tremendous loss. The remaining weekly newspapers are mere shell of what they used to be, lacking writers, investigators, photographers salespeople etc. Someone posting cell phone video on social media is a pathetic replacement for professional reporting. @Pioneer1 would you just summarize what the brother did, to use social media in the meaningful way, as described in the video I listen to the first few minutes of it and it was really kind of hard, I can't tolerate a whole hour of that kind of content. Also explain how what he did could not have been done without social media.

The local radio station here said the brother was not running away but distracting the mob redirecting them away from the officials. They were saying that the brother deserves a medal.