False and misleading posts about the Ukraine conflict continue to go viral on major social media platforms, as Russia’s invasion of the country extends beyond 500 days.
It’s depressing seeing the shit that people will believe. I’ve immersed myself in learning about conspiratorial thinking and still never stop being surprised at the dumb shit people believe. I mean, stuff that just defies imagination (baby factories being the example in this article).
I think religion is the primary common thread. People who believe fantastical stories start somewhere and I think it’s the christian bible.
For example, when the NordStream exploded, we were told that Russia did it. It was considered disinformation by the western authorities to question this. It turned out a year later it was a group of Ukrainians.
Western leaders have stopped short of directly accusing Russia but the EU has previously accused Russia of using its gas supplies as a weapon against the West over its support for Ukraine.
Meanwhile UKrainian involvement you cite as a fact, is from a NY Times article quoting US intelliegence sources. It's possibly true but has never been stood-up
It does not support the fact that the factthe "German government knew" anything - rather that there was a police investigation into evidence. Once again "Western Media" is a broad brush, but the coverage I see at the time certainly explored the idea that the Russians may have destoyed the pipeline as one possibility - at the same time point out that there was uncertainty. This is not "pushing a narrative" particularly - it's trying to explain a mystery.
As a wise person once said: "things are usually not as black and white. People who complain about misinformation/disinformation are usually guilty of it themselves."
Western media pushed “Russia destroyed Nordstream” narrative to generate support for the war in Europe. There was never any reason to think that Russia would destroy their own pipeline. People who thought otherwise are gullible people that were misled by a very successful misinformation campaign.
Of those, the Wallstreet Journal is the one that appears to be guilty of factual inaccuracy, as far as I see. NATO never formally accused Russia, from what I can tell. The Fox piece - yes thats pushing the opinion - but I would point out that it's an opinion piece, by a guest writer - not a news piece. Fox, also ran pieces saying that it was a pro-Ukranian group.
The BBC's report that you linked to seems like worthwhile journalism, reporting on an investigation by Nordic public service broadcasters that Russian naval vessels with transceivers turned off were in the area.
But quotes from that article include:
The cause of the blasts is unclear.
and
In the immediate aftermath, some in the West pointed the finger at Russia, while Moscow blamed Western countries, including the UK.
More recently, there were reports that intelligence pointed towards pro-Ukrainian operatives, although not the Ukrainian government itself.
So you do believe in giving someone the authority to “decide” (or really just tell you) what objective reality is. But, what, only when the thing they tell you comports with your previous understanding of that reality?
Let me put this in simpler language you’ll understand: I don’t think it is a good idea to empower the government, or some corporation to be the arbiter of what the truth is. Because they will inevitably abuse this power.
It does not mean I reject the concept of objective reality, or our ability to learn it.
Lol, it’s adorable how many people think NATO has any control over global news networks. It kind of flattering that you think the west is that much more powerful than the rest of the world
No worries. It confused me at first, thought I was just struggling to see a link. But I’d read it a few minutes before anyway and thought it was a good article and worthy of a share.
Now, this is odd. Perhaps it's a bug in Lemmy? I'm reading this post on kbin (here's the link to it on kbin.social, you can look without an account) and @Some_Emo_Chick's original post has the link just fine, it's the header link as you'd expect. If I go over to lemmy.world and view the same post, the header link instead points to a webp thumbnail from the article, hosted on lemmy.world itself. This seems to mean that the correct link was posted, since it's what we got on kbin, but Lemmy fumbled somewhere and replaced it with the thumbnail.
Contacted by BBC Verify for a response to the false and misleading Twitter Blue posts highlighted in this article, Twitter’s press office acknowledged receipt of our enquiry, but declined to comment.
An interesting variation on the obligatory “automated poop emoji” disclaimer
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