Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

So, I got to thinking about just how controlled news and social media has become and how hard it is to actually find out what's really going on in the world. This post is not about conservative or liberal or anything political, it is about access to information.

So, with it becoming harder to find out real information, where do you go to find information?

An example of a bubble is search engines. If you go to Google, for example, and do some kind of search, you will find after a few pages, the results get repeated over and over. So instead of getting access to a lot of information, you only get a little bit of information.

Similar happens on social media. You can scroll and scroll or go to page after page and the result begin to repeat.

Similar even happens on places like YouTube.

My only suggestion is to use something like SearX ( https://searx.space/ ) or some kind of meta search engine and maybe keep an eye out for word of mouth, but word of mouth tends to get so distorted and wrong the further it goes.

So, I decided to make a post to ask others what they do to see if maybe there is more I'm not aware of and the benefits and drawbacks associated.

I create my own information as I don't believe anyone anymore!

Tippe wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 3:35 pm

I create my own information as I don't believe anyone anymore! ;)

lol, I do something like that......

Does the reporting consist of facts or include judgements and read more like a narrative?
If a narrative, ask your self what facts seems to be missing, and make a detailed query to see if someone covered the story with more who, what, when, where, (and less whys and without making characterizations)

• social media is evil, avoid using them to get information

• find some reputable news providers that tends to give as much plain facts as possible, those that also avoid expressing opinions/sensationalism

• for examples you can follow a/some reputable and famous news provider of your country plus a/some international one (eg https://www.aljazeera.com/news/ ) .

Once you have got a list of reputable source of information, international and/or national, you follow them, maybe using the website's RSS service.

RSS , if you are not using them already, can be a game changer, for several reasons.

If you do not know how they work you can easily learn it by searching on your favorite web search engine (or using youtube for graphical support )

You will need an RSS client, my favorite is this one , you can always use a graphical one, just search for it. Lots of people prefer to use an online RSS feed reader .

I can't really find any that are not biased or propaganda. The only way to recognize what is truth or partial truth designed to fit a narrative or a plethora of lies designed to lighten up your emotional side, is to start thinking like those that create news. One must must get familiar with their techniques and tricks. Once you pick up those you will start to see familiar patterns.
Understanding the ideology of the interests is crucial for decoding reality. In who's self interest is to think in one way or another. Who wants you to be afraid. Public mind is created by the people you never heard of. Yuri Bezmenov told us how USSR used psychological warfare, recruited and trained journalists. But Americans also had their own, Operation Mockingbird. It was proven but it still says "alleged" on Wikipedia. What do you think is there another operation running under a different name? Did it ever stop?
There is a good documentary that explains how propaganda works: "The Century of the Self". A long time ago Edward Bernays convinced American women to smoke by alluding to their emotional side. But there is much more.

It is an old Chinese Shaolin Master wisdom (or I saw this in an awesome US-film?)
to better reject pupils who do not trust anybody - they will not trust their teacher.

And Sokrates was not stupid when he said: "I know that I know nothing"
No, he liked to scrutinize and think more about what he saw.

Finally, if one has nobody to trust, nobody for networking
(undisturbed, with privacy),
he can be the cleverest man on earth but will not get to know much!

I recommend to read the
"Allegory of the Cave" by Socrates
and as "the very basics" for networking the
"Little Prince" by A. Saint-Exupéry

I mostly read or hear the news on :
- news.google.com
- youtube.com
- odysee.com (right wing people)

I dont think that facebook or instagram or tiktok or any social media were made to read the news, because their main goal is to show about people's lifes and ideas and to connect people etc...

Common sense is my tool.

If something seems not to follow that simple principle of common sense.

Most likely it is not true or totally true.

Example of common sense:
The recent attempt on President Trumps life.

Some news organizations are trying to say, he was hit in the ear, by broken glass, from a teleprompter screen.

so, why are both of the teleprompter screens still exactly in place and nothing has moved?

If something hit one of them, with enough force to break a piece of it off, and fly out to hit someone.

That thing would be at least moved in some way or laying on the floor.

I have seen wind moving those things around.

So the people in that news organization, are not going to get me listening to them, and anything they say.

Just like the head of the Secret Service saying "no one was on the roof, because it was a slopped roof".

When they show Secret Service snipers, on a slopped roof of a different building!

The best lie contains a kernel of truth. I suggest finding the most extremist lies on both sides, then the actual truth somewhere in the middle. Or else its ignored by both sides in favor of pure spin.

Typical American politician, right or left: