[ExI] Satirical News Sites (Was Nulla contro lo Onion)

[Darren Greer]

BillK wrote:

>That's the problem with satire today. The world has gone so crazy that
Onion articles get quoted as real news stories and satire becomes
impossible.<

Just so. What is real news often seems like satire. And what is satire often
seems like real news. Did you ever watch the internet documentary The Obama
Deception? I did, just to see what Alex Jones et al were up to now. That
film was so masterfully edited and pieced together from half-truths, lies
and shock footage that it runs like an extended Orwellian two-minute hate.
It plays ingeniously on all the prevalent fears and manages to combine the
concerns of the hard left with the paranoia of the hard right so seamlessly
that you no longer know which side is which. Amid all of that is mixed in
some actual facts about Glass-Steagell and the creation of the federal
reserve and some other very real economic and political issues that people
are right to be concerned about.  So it's easy to see how bright people get
sucked into this New World Order Conspiracy, in ways I imagine that some
intelligent people got sucked into the The Elders Of The Protocol of Zion
paradigm in the thirties.  All it takes to debunk a lot of it is a
reasonably fast search on the 'net, but few do it. (I was guilty of that
today, my desire to believe and personally motivated outrage overwhelming my
critical faculties.) And if they do find credible evidence it isn't true,
they can always tell themselves that the debunking sites are seeds of
disinformation sowed by the Imperialists as part of the conspiracy too.
 Information, disinformation, satire, pundits, fiction, science, religion.
It is at times bewildering. One of the most valuable functions of Exi and
some of the other groups I belong to is that stuff is usually vetted before
I get it, and I tend for the most part to trust the collective scientific
skepticism apparent in many of the groups.

Darren



On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 3:23 PM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2010/11/29 Darren Greer wrote plaintively:
> > But then again, I had to read THIS story twice to make sure IT wasn't
> > satirical. Thanks guys. My faith in Internet news is now in play.
> > Signed,
> > Shaky McNet.
> >
> >
>
>
> That's the problem with satire today. The world has gone so crazy that
> Onion articles get quoted as real news stories and satire becomes
> impossible.
>
> The current European bailout of Greece and now Ireland is ongoing
> craziness masquerading as official policy.
>
> The European Central Bank has stated that all debts must be paid and
> defaults will not be permitted. (i.e. protect the billionaire bankers
> at all costs).
> <http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE6AS00Y20101129>
>
> One of the financial bloggers attempted to write a funny satirical
> interview, but so many people believed it that he had to add a
> disclaimer at the end.
>
> <
> http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/11/bond-threat-dismantled-much-maligned.html
> >
>
> Quotes:
> Said ECB president Trichet in an exclusive interview...
>
>    "This is a victory for much maligned bondholders everywhere. I am
> pleased to announce we have effectively removed the word investing
> from the vocabulary of bondholders."
>    "Starting today, bondholders need not be concerned with who they
> lend money to, why, or what risks there are in doing so."
>
>    "Not only will this help ease turmoil in the markets, but
> bondholders can now think in terms of winning rather than the more
> mundane investing because the ECB and IMF will backstop all losses
> from trading bonds."
>
> In a followup interview Trichet commented, "The debt crisis is over.
> We are willing to grant Greece and Ireland as much time as they need.
> If an extra-four-and-a-half years to repay emergency loans proves
> insufficient, we are willing to wait an extra-hundred-and-a-half
> years".
>
> When asked if he meant 150 years or 100.5 years, Trichet replied, "I
> mean as long as it takes to make the ECB whole, forever if necessary.
> The important thing is for bondholders to never suffer losses. Heaven
> forbid we should ever unsettle bondholders by insinuating they may
> have to take some losses. Bondholders in general, not just Goldman
> Sachs bondholders, do God's work."
>
> -----------------
>
>
> The craziness keeps on coming.
>
>
>
> BillK
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-- 
"In the end that's all we have: our memories - electrochemical impulses
stored in eight pounds of tissue the consistency of cold porridge." -
Remembrance of the Daleks
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