Snopes Fact-Checked These Images in 2021

Posted on 2021-12-19 by arjaybe


Readers send suspect photos in to Snopes for verification or refutation. In the linked article they present some of the best of 2021.

This should go without saying: Not every realistic-looking photo you see online is a true depiction of reality.

That said, Photoshop and other digital editing apps can be tricky, tricky tools that even fool people who consider themselves pretty media savvy.

In May 2021, a video claimed to show Bill Gates with breast implants

In September 2021, the day after the country’s strictest abortion law went into effect in Texas, a photograph started circulated on social media that supposedly showed the new “Handmaid’s Tale” uniforms of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

I guess some of the perpetrators are just having fun, but some of them are serious. They want to cause trouble, maybe even to the point of destabilizing society. It’s good to have Snopes and others to watch out for us, but it’s disheartening that so many of us want to take the fake images at face value.

rjb

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The Whoppers of 2021

Posted on 2021-12-17 by arjaybe


The FactCheck website has published its compilation of the biggest fibs of the year. It covers lies about vaccinations, election fraud and red meat. Here are some samples. Click the link for the full article.

Mass rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines has been the defining story of 2021, yet for all its success, vaccination rates remain stubbornly low in some populations.

Another prominent line of misinformation is a carry-over from 2020, former President Donald Trump’s continued instance that massive voter fraud caused him to lose the 2020 election. The president’s false claims came to a head in a fact-challenged Jan. 6 speech in Washington, D.C. that preceded a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol while Congress was meeting to certify then-President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

And, of course, we fact-checked numerous claims made by, and about, the new Biden administration, which took office this year. Among the false claims: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s statement that “all” Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan were evacuated by early September, and Republican claims that Biden had plans to drastically cut U.S. red meat consumption and force families to sell their farms.

Liars will lie and believers will believe.

rjb

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Human Rights — Article Twenty-Two

Posted on 2021-12-05 by arjaybe

Credit Klemdy – CC-BY-SA

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages.

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

This one is somewhat more abstract than most of the preceding ones. It mentions ‘social security’ and ‘realization of economic, social and cultural rights.’ Social security probably means that all members of society are entitled to economic and social stability. A place where they can grow and live without want or fear. The realization part says people have a right to live with dignity, and with the possibility of fulfilling their potential.

Everyone should be able to be safe and to be their best possible self, and this should be achieved ‘through national effort and international co-operation.’

rjb

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