I’ve seen articles from the Epoch Times popping up more often online - seems pretty right wing and apparently affiliated with Falun Gong and very anti-CCP. I was shocked to see a full stack of print edition being sold at Safeway. A) it seems too obscure to have a regular print edition and B) it seems to far right for any business to want to promote.
They sell those things? They’ve randomly come in the mail from time to time, and I thought they were just sensationalist junk mail.
I always assumed they were categorically similar to those religious comics that get delivered that say things like “and God saw the young man acting foolishly, and sentenced him to BURN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY!”
…now I’m just thinking of all my favourite crazy junk mail.
Too many conservatives buy into this crap simply because it’s anti CCP. Two things can be true at the same time, both the Falun Gong movement and the CCP are abominations to human life.
Last edited by Cowboy89; 08-17-2021 at 11:12 PM.
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Too many conservatives buy into this crap simply because it’s anti CCP. Two things can be true at the same time, both the Falun Gong movement and the CCP are abominations to human life.
They sell those things? They’ve randomly come in the mail from time to time, and I thought they were just sensationalist junk mail.
I always assumed they were categorically similar to those religious comics that get delivered that say things like “and God saw the young man acting foolishly, and sentenced him to BURN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY!”
…now I’m just thinking of all my favourite crazy junk mail.
I should clarify....they were stacked in the typical newspaper rack in the store, actually the Sun’s rack. I assume they were for sale but perhaps not. But they weren’t amateur little flyers they were full on broadsheets as large and think as the Globe or Herald, which I confused it with at first. It was only when I looked closely at the headlines that I realized it was some right wing (?) screed.
It is definitely a far right, Trump supporting rag associated with the Falun Gong. It was, I believe, the second largest purchaser of Pro-Trump conspiracy theory crap on Facebook. It loves conspiracy theories and Qanon.
It the Epoch Times publishes an article that says "water is wet", you should get independent confirmation.
The only thing Epoch Times is useful for is lining bird cages. You have to live in a completely different dimension to take anything seriously from that rag.
Is there anywhere reliable to check news sources for 'bias'?
AllSides lists Epoch as just right of center.
I guess the news bias sites are biased?
I've always used media bias check/chart. They rate all agencies based on factual content as well as how left or right leaning they are. All their methodology and ratings are explained and they are transparent about it with lists of articles and sample data. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ https://www.adfontesmedia.com/
I've always used media bias check. They rate all agencies based on factual content as well as how left or right leaning they are. All their methodology and ratings are explained and they are transparent about it.
Upon review though, anything listing CNN as mostly central, in the same area as BBC, is probably suspect.
Where are you seeing CNN is mostly central? The old chart I posted? Everything I see says they are skewing left.
The old static chart is from 2018, CNN has skewed left in recent years and their factual reporting has gone down though this depends program to program. CNN you gotta be careful if you are watching their live news segments or on one of their hosted opinion talking head shows. See the updated interactive chart
Last edited by FlameOn; 08-18-2021 at 09:47 AM.
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I recently got together for beers with friends who I hadn’t seen in a long time due to covid. One of them, who has always been a fairly mainstream Alberta small-c conservative, relentlessly made far-right, conspiratorial comments about covid, Trudeau, etc.
I tried to engage and challenge him on a factual basis. But it soon became evident that we were operating under different realities. We had no common facts on which to even hold a rational discussion. I asked him where he got his news, and he said the Epoch Times (which I had never heard of before).
I have never let political beliefs get in the way of friendships, especially long-lasting ones. But up until recently, people still operated under a shared reality. I don’t know what to do now that a couple people in my circle of friends have become angry political types who are immersed in a post-truth media sphere. Put a ban on politics when we get together? Cut them out of my life?
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Last edited by CliffFletcher; 08-18-2021 at 09:49 AM.
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You're probably missing that "media", like American politics, has been dragged way to the right in the past 30 years. I'm not talking about a small shift, but a huge radical shift. CNN, and the traditional media, have been left to straddle where the center line used to be, which is now substantially left of center because of the migration rightward by the center point. When you consider the sources that people from different persuasions get their news, it is a stark contrast and explanation as to how and why we are where we are. When you have the majority of conservatives getting their news from Fox, OANN, Beitbart, and InfoWars, everything else is of course going to be way left. When the fulcrum is moved to maintain balance of these new far right sources, it only makes the traditional media appear left leaning. They haven't changed much. The mechanism used to measure that media has been affected by the shift in mid point.
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I have never let political beliefs get in the way of friendships, especially long-lasting ones. But up until recently, people still operated under a shared reality. I don’t know what to do now that a couple people in my circle of friends have become angry political types who are immersed in a post-truth media sphere. Put a ban on politics when we get together? Cut them out of my life?
I was asked once whether I could remain friends with an anti-vaxxer or anti maskers and the conclusion I reached was no. These are people who are so selfish, so self-righteousness and arrogant that they believe they know better than experts. They also lack empathy to the point they are willing to endanger the lives of others for the sake of their own perceived personal freedoms. If you do not belong to their tribe, they will be more than willing to pick a fight with you and throw you under the bus.
Does this sound like someone you want as your friend?
In general though, I don't bring up those types of topics anymore, even with members of my family. I just ask the question "what would it take to change your mind", and if that is info readily available, they cannot compromise and choose to ignore facts... they aren't worth getting into any deep topic with at all.
Last edited by FlameOn; 08-18-2021 at 10:28 AM.
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I recently got together for beers with friends who I hadn’t seen in a long time due to covid. One of them, who has always been a fairly mainstream Alberta small-c conservative, relentlessly made far-right, conspiratorial comments about covid, Trudeau, etc.
I tried to engage and challenge him on a factual basis. But it soon became evident that we were operating under different realities. We had no common facts on which to even hold a rational discussion. I asked him where he got his news, and he said the Epoch Times (which I had never heard of before).
I have never let political beliefs get in the way of friendships, especially long-lasting ones. But up until recently, people still operated under a shared reality. I don’t know what to do now that a couple people in my circle of friends have become angry political types who are immersed in a post-truth media sphere. Put a ban on politics when we get together? Cut them out of my life?
I was similarly hanging out with friends the other day, one of which we haven't really seen for two years (here and there). I was warned that they'd "gone off the deep end." The rest of what followed was me watching someone singularly focused on one topic area, bringing every topic back to it. The government was controlling us, we're going to socialist hell, the fascists are forcing vaccines on us, etc. When they started to make it personal (we have a friend who is a new dad, and they started telling him that he was abusing his child and sentencing them to death for following along with everything) that was it.
I don't plan to see this person ever again. I'm sure it's harder if you're older as I know making friends as time goes on gets harder, but it was like common ground just ceased to exist in a way that I don't think could ever be rebuilt.
I'm happy to disagree with someone, even if it gets catty (you know this, Cliff!). But I was honestly shocked. Like you said, it was someone living in an entirely different reality. I have plenty of friends I disagree with on political, social, or moral grounds. But this was beyond that.
So I don't know what you should do, but for me, there's definitely a line where a friendship no longer gives equal to what it takes.
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Epoch Times
