Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Please investigate the truth
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Old 03-24-2019, 09:12 AM
OrangeBlossomBaby OrangeBlossomBaby is online now
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There are also "tells" when you're cruising the internet, or when someone posts a video or picture or statement on their facebook page. If you hover over the hyperlink, you'll see the address of that hyperlink. If the address includes mercola or whaleto, you can be pretty confident that it's a conspiracy theory that has already been debunked by actual science. If, once you do click on a link, you discover that it's a commercial website created primarily to sell a product, you can assume their spin will be very heavily in favor of whatever product they're selling. They will cherry-pick actual facts, and draw conclusions based on correlations. Science says: correlation does not equal causation. Always keep that in mind.

I could come up with a few dozen examples of the above but they'd all turn this back into a political discussion. So you can try it out yourself. Come up with a current issue about anything. Now check mercola and whaleto to see what they have to say about it. Then, go to an actual scientific website (not WebMD, that is an aggregate that anyone can upload "articles" to). See the difference for yourself.

A hypothetical example: a friend sends you an article about how blue dye in cotton textile manufacturing causes cancer, and everyone is being told to avoid anything made by Acme Clothing, because they use blue dye.

If you trace that "information" far enough, you're very likely to discover that its original source is Smith Clothing company, which is Acme's #1 competitor. And when you check out "blue dye cancer" google searches, you'll discover that the top 20 results will all favor Smith Clothing, or be against Acme. If you add the word "hoax" to your search, you'll find that Snopes has debunked it.