I would make one minor semi-correction. Reddit can have good stuff, but often the subreddits are moderated by people with limited and extremely biased views. I have had multiple history-related posts removed for being "false," and I can promise you that all were true. I corrected someone who did not know what the Nazis were actually called (NSDAP-National Socialist German Workers Party), and my correct answer was removed because the idiots running the subreddit clearly never read anything about Germany from 1933-1945.
Another post was removed claiming that the Aztecs never had skull racks. Another was removed because they mistakenly thought Chocolate's raw material (cacao) came from Africa (it originated in the Americas, specifically Central and South America). I had another comment removed for claiming that the Bulgars and Alans came to Europe from the Eurasian steppe (100% true) and another comment was removed for the true claim that modern day Turkey used to be Greek, then part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.
There is more false information on reddit than anywhere else. There is good stuff too, but it is not a resource one can trust. It is great for opinions, but for facts one must consult real resources. I personally stopped visiting any history subreddits because they are all filled with ridiculous misinformation. Most of it appears to be of the idiot social justice warrior variety (everything is "colonialism" or bizarre justifications of Islamic slavery). I assume most of those writing are young and have not had any formal classes in history (no way of verifying information, no knowledge of academic resources, and overwhelmingly a lack of understanding in how the study of history works and the use of primary resources).
I have seen similar ridiculous statements about economics, but none of those posters were claiming to be economists or have special knowledge, and most acknowledged that they did not have the tools to understand (calc, linear algebra, probability,...), but in many other subjects there are authoritative statements that are demonstrably false, and posting links to the sources that explain reality results in posts getting removed.
But reddit is great for watches, coin collecting and other hobbies, but NEVER trust anything important to the random statements there. Forums with real names are better places.
I only have my Economist subscriptions left, although I will probably get Foreign Affairs again. That one is good as well. The Financial Times in the only paper I trust now, but I no longer work in finance and need to keep up (not that I would not simply use Bloomberg and Factiva to read stuff, but I no longer have those tools in my public sector job).
Perhaps it is not the echo chamber, but the failings of our public schools that matter. I know teachers here in Chicago, and many are sickened by the lack of care displayed towards students. There is no real effort made to teach essential subjects needed for lifetime success. The top students go to magnate schools that are great, and everyone else is often subject to the bizarre rantings of whichever teacher is having an emotional crisis. The lack of basic skills and basic knowledge results in pathetic adults who have no idea that the word "Nazi" was slang and never printed or put on formal documents. Many have no idea how many died under communist dictatorships or that Portugal, Spain, Italy and much of Latin America were ruled by fascists, but the US never was (although at the time Roosevelt was tarred with the epitaph).
Excellent points! I used to subscribe to Mother Jones just to get the well thought out positions of the left. These days I should probably listen to NPR when driving.
However, it does not good for a righty to watch MSNBC or a lefty to watch Fox News. Alas, the right is weak when it comes to outlets which are more data and less editorializing.
I lost all respect for Mother Jones when they published the misguided ramblings of Sean Penn regarding Venezuela. The article was full of glowing praise of Hugo Chavez while he looted and destroyed the country. I cannot fault Mr. Penn as he is not too bright and obviously uneducated, but the editors of Mother Jones should have known better. The country was massively increasing debt (Chavez paid for everything via debt), and locking up anyone who dared to complain or discuss corruption).
At first I thought the piece was a joke, but it was serious. It read like a 1930's CPUSA hagiography about Joseph Stalin and the glory of the USSR. I kept waiting for the discussion of model workers or the increases in steel production. Sadly, the simpleton was serious. In a country with a massive increase in poverty, a collapse in production of all good and a total collapse in agriculture, he wrote about how great the leader-for-life was. I suspect if Sean Penn visited North Korea he would write about their beautifully fit people, with the country avoiding obesity.
Agreed. I let my subscription lapse years ago. Mind you, I frequently cringed while reading Mother Jones, due to the different sense of life, but I respected much of their deep reporting. Kevin Drum's article on the Koch Brothers was surprisingly fair, unlike the execrable piece in Rolling Stone.
Mother Jones was early reporting on the dangers of the estrogen mimics. And Mother Jones had a cover story on how Reagan crushed the Hormel meat packer's union through his illegal alien amnesty, and how working conditions were brutal to the imported workers. There is some overlap in the goals of the progressive left of years ago and today's MAGA right.
Good points. Corporations have been using immigrants to smash unions for over a century. I started laughing when I read about the Mexican-American hero Caesar Chavez. He was a hard-core anti-immigration fanatic who supported mass deportations. There was no other way to raise agricultural wages. I just wish the Republicans would do a grand bargain where they allow more legal immigration in exchange for draconian controls on illegal immigration (ideally keeping illegals in offshore holding centers--something Australia used with great success).
In general I am angry at the Democrats for abandoning real labor (not government unions, but factory and warehouse workers). I usually ignore conditions because journalists are so soft that they cannot understand, but wages and benefits matter, along with core safety. The workers compensation insurance industry has done a lot to keep accidents down (high premiums are very persuasive), but the mass public sector unions have taken over and have no empathy for their far more numerous private sector brethren. In the absence of unskilled immigration, there would be so many more highly-paid jobs, but business owners have the ears of both parties, so companies can exploit immigrants to their wallets' contentment.
It would be a dream if the MAGA right actually did something to help regular working people. It would devastate the Democrats, but they became the rich people party long ago. Mother Jones has done some good articles, but they have definitely taken the yuppy plunge with the rest of the left.
I would make one minor semi-correction. Reddit can have good stuff, but often the subreddits are moderated by people with limited and extremely biased views. I have had multiple history-related posts removed for being "false," and I can promise you that all were true. I corrected someone who did not know what the Nazis were actually called (NSDAP-National Socialist German Workers Party), and my correct answer was removed because the idiots running the subreddit clearly never read anything about Germany from 1933-1945.
Another post was removed claiming that the Aztecs never had skull racks. Another was removed because they mistakenly thought Chocolate's raw material (cacao) came from Africa (it originated in the Americas, specifically Central and South America). I had another comment removed for claiming that the Bulgars and Alans came to Europe from the Eurasian steppe (100% true) and another comment was removed for the true claim that modern day Turkey used to be Greek, then part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.
There is more false information on reddit than anywhere else. There is good stuff too, but it is not a resource one can trust. It is great for opinions, but for facts one must consult real resources. I personally stopped visiting any history subreddits because they are all filled with ridiculous misinformation. Most of it appears to be of the idiot social justice warrior variety (everything is "colonialism" or bizarre justifications of Islamic slavery). I assume most of those writing are young and have not had any formal classes in history (no way of verifying information, no knowledge of academic resources, and overwhelmingly a lack of understanding in how the study of history works and the use of primary resources).
I have seen similar ridiculous statements about economics, but none of those posters were claiming to be economists or have special knowledge, and most acknowledged that they did not have the tools to understand (calc, linear algebra, probability,...), but in many other subjects there are authoritative statements that are demonstrably false, and posting links to the sources that explain reality results in posts getting removed.
But reddit is great for watches, coin collecting and other hobbies, but NEVER trust anything important to the random statements there. Forums with real names are better places.
I only have my Economist subscriptions left, although I will probably get Foreign Affairs again. That one is good as well. The Financial Times in the only paper I trust now, but I no longer work in finance and need to keep up (not that I would not simply use Bloomberg and Factiva to read stuff, but I no longer have those tools in my public sector job).
Perhaps it is not the echo chamber, but the failings of our public schools that matter. I know teachers here in Chicago, and many are sickened by the lack of care displayed towards students. There is no real effort made to teach essential subjects needed for lifetime success. The top students go to magnate schools that are great, and everyone else is often subject to the bizarre rantings of whichever teacher is having an emotional crisis. The lack of basic skills and basic knowledge results in pathetic adults who have no idea that the word "Nazi" was slang and never printed or put on formal documents. Many have no idea how many died under communist dictatorships or that Portugal, Spain, Italy and much of Latin America were ruled by fascists, but the US never was (although at the time Roosevelt was tarred with the epitaph).
Excellent points! I used to subscribe to Mother Jones just to get the well thought out positions of the left. These days I should probably listen to NPR when driving.
However, it does not good for a righty to watch MSNBC or a lefty to watch Fox News. Alas, the right is weak when it comes to outlets which are more data and less editorializing.
I lost all respect for Mother Jones when they published the misguided ramblings of Sean Penn regarding Venezuela. The article was full of glowing praise of Hugo Chavez while he looted and destroyed the country. I cannot fault Mr. Penn as he is not too bright and obviously uneducated, but the editors of Mother Jones should have known better. The country was massively increasing debt (Chavez paid for everything via debt), and locking up anyone who dared to complain or discuss corruption).
At first I thought the piece was a joke, but it was serious. It read like a 1930's CPUSA hagiography about Joseph Stalin and the glory of the USSR. I kept waiting for the discussion of model workers or the increases in steel production. Sadly, the simpleton was serious. In a country with a massive increase in poverty, a collapse in production of all good and a total collapse in agriculture, he wrote about how great the leader-for-life was. I suspect if Sean Penn visited North Korea he would write about their beautifully fit people, with the country avoiding obesity.
Agreed. I let my subscription lapse years ago. Mind you, I frequently cringed while reading Mother Jones, due to the different sense of life, but I respected much of their deep reporting. Kevin Drum's article on the Koch Brothers was surprisingly fair, unlike the execrable piece in Rolling Stone.
Mother Jones was early reporting on the dangers of the estrogen mimics. And Mother Jones had a cover story on how Reagan crushed the Hormel meat packer's union through his illegal alien amnesty, and how working conditions were brutal to the imported workers. There is some overlap in the goals of the progressive left of years ago and today's MAGA right.
Good points. Corporations have been using immigrants to smash unions for over a century. I started laughing when I read about the Mexican-American hero Caesar Chavez. He was a hard-core anti-immigration fanatic who supported mass deportations. There was no other way to raise agricultural wages. I just wish the Republicans would do a grand bargain where they allow more legal immigration in exchange for draconian controls on illegal immigration (ideally keeping illegals in offshore holding centers--something Australia used with great success).
In general I am angry at the Democrats for abandoning real labor (not government unions, but factory and warehouse workers). I usually ignore conditions because journalists are so soft that they cannot understand, but wages and benefits matter, along with core safety. The workers compensation insurance industry has done a lot to keep accidents down (high premiums are very persuasive), but the mass public sector unions have taken over and have no empathy for their far more numerous private sector brethren. In the absence of unskilled immigration, there would be so many more highly-paid jobs, but business owners have the ears of both parties, so companies can exploit immigrants to their wallets' contentment.
It would be a dream if the MAGA right actually did something to help regular working people. It would devastate the Democrats, but they became the rich people party long ago. Mother Jones has done some good articles, but they have definitely taken the yuppy plunge with the rest of the left.
Need less legal immigration too. https://rulesforreactionaries.substack.com/p/the-h-1b-question
Thank you. Confirmation that my decision to not have accounts with the popular social media platforms was a good decision.
Already read this yesterday through your other platform. Fantastic post and really cool, novel news source.
Would be a better world if people thought this way and used nuanced platforms to train that skill.
Congrats to you for partnering with several companies but more so respect for choosing reputable ones like this that you believe it.