toastykitten (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
toastykitten) wrote2025-01-11 07:13 am
toastykitten) wrote2025-01-11 07:13 am
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Sorting out truth from nonsense is impossible these days
The thing about having followed the news over the past year and a half on Gaza has left me sufficiently skeptical of most things I’ve read in legacy media, including the big ones like New York Times or even NPR. Like, are they accurate on day-to-day stuff in the US? Sometimes? Anything that has to do with cops? Absolutely not. If it’s something to do with basic non-political stuff, maybe. This leaves me sometimes with having to dig through multiple social media sites, multiple news sites, multiple analysts, to actually arrive at the truth. Which, no one really has time for that. I only do it because the actual truth matters to me.
Case in point: the contention of whether the budget for LAFD was cut by $17 million. This has played out over the past few days with even Chris Hayes weighing in on BlueSky, and then deleting the post because he got confused.
1. He cited the Politico article claiming that Democratic mayor Karen Bass was taking heat from “far left activists online” and asserted that they were flat out wrong, without actually linking to the budgets.
2. Over the next day or two, the “far left activists online” pushed back, as did the LAFD fire chief going on TV and various news shows saying that the overall budget cuts did hamper the emergency response.
3. Also not mentioned in the news story is right-wing assholes citing DEI for somehow the huge fires not getting put out and blaming the fire chief because she’s gay and somehow that means she’s incompetent.
4. The LAFD chief got called into a closed door meeting with the mayor, leading to rumors spurred by the Daily Mail that she’d been fired or forced to resign. The mayor has denied this.
5. Yesterday, the LA city controller Kenneth Mejia laid out everything on social media - 61 civilian positions were eliminated as a result of the new budget, raises were allocated after the budget, but haven’t been transferred yet, because they’re being held for the liability and litigation payouts for LAPD.
Like, do I have the capacity to analyze whether Mejia is accurate on what he claims? No, I do not. I have to trust that he’s telling the truth because of his prior record, and that the charts and budgets he’s showing are accurate. I liked his campaign and if I lived in LA still I would have voted for him. But you know who’s supposed to actually make a judgment and tell me if things like that are true? The so-called “mainstream media”.
Case in point: the contention of whether the budget for LAFD was cut by $17 million. This has played out over the past few days with even Chris Hayes weighing in on BlueSky, and then deleting the post because he got confused.
1. He cited the Politico article claiming that Democratic mayor Karen Bass was taking heat from “far left activists online” and asserted that they were flat out wrong, without actually linking to the budgets.
2. Over the next day or two, the “far left activists online” pushed back, as did the LAFD fire chief going on TV and various news shows saying that the overall budget cuts did hamper the emergency response.
3. Also not mentioned in the news story is right-wing assholes citing DEI for somehow the huge fires not getting put out and blaming the fire chief because she’s gay and somehow that means she’s incompetent.
4. The LAFD chief got called into a closed door meeting with the mayor, leading to rumors spurred by the Daily Mail that she’d been fired or forced to resign. The mayor has denied this.
5. Yesterday, the LA city controller Kenneth Mejia laid out everything on social media - 61 civilian positions were eliminated as a result of the new budget, raises were allocated after the budget, but haven’t been transferred yet, because they’re being held for the liability and litigation payouts for LAPD.
Like, do I have the capacity to analyze whether Mejia is accurate on what he claims? No, I do not. I have to trust that he’s telling the truth because of his prior record, and that the charts and budgets he’s showing are accurate. I liked his campaign and if I lived in LA still I would have voted for him. But you know who’s supposed to actually make a judgment and tell me if things like that are true? The so-called “mainstream media”.
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The disinformation, though, is getting worse. I went to my mom's for lunch and she started ranting about how much better the Chinese government is at dealing with fire. I had to explain to my sister how the climate and fire issues in China are way different than whatever CA is dealing with.