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Comment Re:Some people think bilingualism causes confusion (Score 1) 221

Françoise Dolto worked with migrant children and found that the problem was more about the fact that the children were confused about the reason behind the different languages; one even said "it's the language for making babies" -IIRC- so they did'nt know which language they were allowed to speak without trespassing their parents' intimacy.

Comment Re:Facts are facts... or are they? (Score 1) 143

This. This is very important: the necessity to seem "non-partisan" for those sites makes it wayyy too easy for the liars. After all, if you get to lie all the time and the "fact checkers" feel compelled to scrutinise your opponents extra-hard just so they can say that both sides have about the same lying rate, it's win-win!

There are issues where there are two sides. But more and more, people fight over _facts_ and this means that one side is right and the other wrong, and if you claim otherwise, you are delusional. There is no middle ground to the debate on the shape of the planet. If you say that gay parents cannot raise a child, this is a statement of fact, not an opinion. If you tell me there is no global warming, this is a statement of fact, not an opinion. If you tell me that the gold standard is a good idea, this is a statement of fact, that reducing taxes will increase revenues, and so on, and so forth.

All things amenable to experimental verification -- and in many case which have been previously experimentally checked -- should not be debated. Journalists should just mock the politicians saying stuff which is obviously false.

There are actually facts and opinions, but there are known facts and unknown facts...

Of the later sort what we have are opinions about these facts, which leaves room to political debate.

What a side usually calls a truth is usually a truth inside a system, and may be challenged by thinking outside of this system.

Most of your examples are debatable in this way... this is not the same thing as deliberately lying.

The problem is not that some people challenge the scientific consensus about global warming, to take one of your examples - the problem is that those who does receive disproportional coverage, thanks to energy corporations' lobbying.

Comment Re:Cool video (Score 1) 219

Yes but bombing an airplane does some screening on who you target: you still have a lot of collateral damage but basically you get to kill a lot of high-ranking citizens. And it strikes imagination better, too - probably because those who decide what will make the headlines in the media do travel by plane.

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