SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Meteorologists targeted in climate misinfo surge:
Once trusted faces on the news, meteorologists now brave threats, insults and slander online from conspiracy theorists and climate change deniers who accuse them of faking or even fixing the weather.
Users on Twitter and other social media falsely accused Spain's weather agency of engineering a drought, Australia's of doctoring its thermometers and France's of exaggerating global warming through misplaced weather stations.
"The coronavirus is no longer a trend. Conspiracy theorists and deniers who used to talk about that are now spreading disinformation about climate change," Alexandre Lopez-Borrull, lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences at the Open University of Catalonia, told AFP.
[...] "In this context people feel alienated and end up listening to people they never listened to before, with messages appealing directly to the emotions."
(Score: 2) by quietus on Tuesday May 16, @11:23AM (4 children)
Two winters ago I was hiking, along with a buddy, in a corner of the Hainaut province (hilly, forested, wild boar, deer, hunting) in my country. At one point, we ended up in a small town built around a castle on the top of the hill.
To get to the castle, we had to cross a small square. There was a plaque in that square, informing that this had been the place where witches were burnt at the stake. Information panels detailed who had been those so-called witches: in large majority widowed women with property. The last information panels were the most interesting though.
There had been 2 periods of witches' persecution, both in the 1500s, with a space of 20-30 years in between. (I believe the first one started around 1530-something.) Before that time, people didn't even know what witches were: there were no local legends nor folk stories where their existence was even mentioned.
Then came the printing press, and an influx of cheap, mass produced, books which popularized tall stories of witches and their evils. From there, it was only a small step to believing those tales, and mass hysteria.
(Score: -1, Troll) by VLM on Tuesday May 16, @12:10PM
The irony of this story, is both sides really ARE correct when they claim the other side is weaponizing climate change.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday May 16, @06:47PM (2 children)
What I think funny is that real "witches" were actually members of a Pagan religion called "Wicca." I doubt any of the women hanged and burned were actually Wiccans.
But it was a very long time after Gutenberg that books were cheap enough for the proles to afford, so I don't think you can blame printing.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Tuesday May 16, @09:46PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday May 23, @09:17PM
Thanks for clearing my misinformation, Wikipedia agrees. Now I still need to find out what a "witch" is.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience