Bretigne Shaffer's Blog, page 6

Beautiful Smackdown of FB "Fact Checkers" from the Editors of the BMJ

 

Image: Public Domain.

 

Christmas has come a little early this year.

The editors of The BMJ have published an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg today, calling him to account for the abomination that is Facebook's "fact-checking" enterprise.

There's really nothing that needs to be added to their letter as it provides the full context for their complaint. And it is a thing of beauty. It's not long, and deserves a full read, but here are some highlights:

 

We find the “fact check” performed by Lead Stories to be inaccurate, incompetent and irresponsible.

-- It fails to provide any assertions of fact that The BMJ article got wrong

-- It has a nonsensical title: “Fact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials”

-- The first paragraph inaccurately labels The BMJ a “news blog”

-- It contains a screenshot of our article with a stamp over it stating “Flaws Reviewed,” despite the Lead Stories article not identifying anything false or untrue in The BMJ article

-- It published the story on its website under a URL that contains the phrase “hoax-alert”

We have contacted Lead Stories, but they refuse to change anything about their article or actions that have led to Facebook flagging our article.

We have also contacted Facebook directly, requesting immediate removal of the “fact checking” label and any link to the Lead Stories article, thereby allowing our readers to freely share the article on your platform.

 

Merry Christmas!!!

 

         

Looking Forward to Appearing on Millenniyule 2021!

 

I only found out about Millennial Woes because my friend Radical Liberation was going to appear on Millenniyule 2021. I checked out Millenniyule, and what he was talking about really seemed to fit with a lot of the things I'm doing and writing about, so I wrote and asked if I could be on this year, and... Woes signed me up to come on the show on Dec 28th!



Now, after listening to RadLib's Millenniyule episode, I'm even more excited. Nearly everything (of course not EVERYTHING because that would just be spooky) they talk about resonates with me, and much of it is stuff I've written or spoken about over the years. For example, this, and this.  This,  this, this and this. Also this. And especially THIS!

...and it just reaffirms my belief that this is a time when many of us are finding our true tribes. Not necessarily the ones we were born into, or even the ones that we thought lined up with our ideologies or spiritual beliefs... but the ones that really DO line up. And what I think it is is that a whole lot of us have a pretty good idea of what the big problem is. Maybe none of us perceive it completely, but a whole bunch of us have a good rough idea. And we are passionate about finding solutions. So here we are, coming from different directions, right, left, libertarian, Christian, not Christian... and we're all aiming at the same thing while at the same time trying to formulate in our own minds what that thing looks like. And it's pretty awesome.

Anyway, this is well worth listening to:

 

 

...and be sure to listen to my episode on Dec. 28th UK time, (4pm the 27thPacific Time.)

 

 

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Free Introductory Class: Austrian Economics for Teens, from Freogan Fellowship

 

From Freogan Fellowship:



Have you been hearing a lot about the "Austrian School of Economics" lately? Are you interested in finding out more, but not yet sure about committing to an entire semester-long course?



Join us next Tuesday, December 21, at 6:00pm Pacific Time, as instructor Josh Mawhorter takes students through an issue that is central to the debate between free markets and a centralized economy, and that illuminates some of the key distinctions of the Austrian School: The labor theory of value.

To sign up for this free class, just send us an email!*

Here, Josh explains one of the fundamental problems with the labor theory of value:

*Note: Because we are a private membership association, students who take our classes must become members of the Freogan Fellowship. This is free, easy to do, and can be revoked at any time!

        Related Stories"Propaganda and the Personal" Free Introductory Class, Wednesday, Dec. 22Mike & Vanessa Colomb on PMAs for Healthcare, and "Healing Hubs" Starting up Around the Country"A Change in the Weather", Video 

"Propaganda and the Personal" Free Introductory Class, Wednesday, Dec. 22

 

What are some of the techniques that have been used to control large numbers of people through the manipulation of information and mass media, and what makes us susceptible to it? How can we avoid falling prey to propaganda?

Join Lila Stone for a free introduction to her course "Propaganda and the Personal", on Wednesday, December 22.

Visit www.FreoganFellowship.org to sign up.

 

 

        Related StoriesMike & Vanessa Colomb on PMAs for Healthcare, and "Healing Hubs" Starting up Around the Country"A Change in the Weather", VideoOur Classes Start Next Week! 

WTMWD #75: The PMA Revolution, with the Renegade Nation's Mike Colomb

Mike Colomb and his wife Vanessa have been building their own Private Membership Associations, and are now working to help others build theirs. From sustainable food production to education and healthcare, the Colombs are helping to rebuild the crumbling edifices of state-dominated systems. I talk with Mike about what PMAs are, why they are not subject to statutory law, and how they work.



Learn more about Private Membership Associations, and about working with the Colombs, here.



Mike and Vanessa's PMA, the Renegade Ranch, is here.



And their new venture, The Renegade Nation, is coming soon!

         

WTMWD #74: Constitutional Sheriff David Hathaway

I speak with Sheriff David Hathaway, of Santa Cruz County, Arizona, about accountability in government (or the lack thereof), immigration (his views may not be what you expect), and the power of the sheriff.



Sheriff Hathaway recently gained notoriety for standing up against COVID restrictions as the Sheriff in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Before that, he was known as a devout student of Austrian Economics and a prolific libertarian writer having written many articles for LewRockwell.com and the Libertarian Institute.



He is also known in libertarian circles for the book "Immigration: Individual versus National Borders" where he debunks the mistakes point-by-point made by certain Austro-libertarian philosophers who have strayed from free market private property  principles in order to advocate state-run border controls. On this issue, David is in the ranks of prominent libertarians Will Grigg, Scott Horton, Bob Higgs, and Todd Seavey in their opposition to that fallacious non-Austrian idea.



David is a cowboy at heart and is part of a five-generation Arizona ranching family. He and his wife Karen have nine children together which they have homeschooled. David also spent many years working as a supervisory DEA Agent and saw the failure of the drug war first hand.



Learn more about Sheriff Hathaway here.

 

         

Mike & Vanessa Colomb on PMAs for Healthcare, and "Healing Hubs" Starting up Around the Country

The Freedom Angels spoke again with Mike and Vanessa Colomb, of Renegade Ranch. (Their earlier interview with the Colombs is here.) This one is very much worth listening to if you're interested in building parallel structures in areas such as healthcare especially. They talk about some projects they already have going, and about how others can get involved:

 

 

 

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"A Change in the Weather", Video

Thanks to Pam Popper for reading my article "A Change in the Weather" in this video back in October:

 

 

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WTMWD #73: In Case You're Not Scared Enough... I speak with Canadian Earthquake Researcher Brent Dmitruk

You may have seen "Canadian Earthquake Researcher" on Twitter, posting about the unusual tectonic "blocking" he is seeing, and what he thinks it means: A massive seismic disruption that will shake the entire world in a way humans have never seen before.



But he's just a guy on Twitter, right? He's not even a seismologist, right?



Right. But he also has a string of eerily accurate predications spanning the past couple of years.



Join me as I speak with Brent Dmitruk, AKA Canadian Earthquake Researcher. You can also find his videos on YouTube, here.



Brent's website is here, and you can see his list of predictions here.



The USGS earthquake monitoring site is here, EMSC is here, and Tertremo is here.



And here is the article about the Japanese research that Brent mentions.



"Dutchsinse", who he mentions in the interview, is on Twitter here.

 

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Our Classes Start Next Week!

 

Freogan Fellowship Learning's classes for teens start next week!

We're very excited, and we think you should be too. We are launching Freogan Fellowship Learning with classes that address two of the most critical issues facing our world today - especially for anyone who cares about ever again living in a free society:

"Propaganda and the Personal" explores the ways in which information has been manipulated throughout the ages for the purpose of manipulating human beings, and how to avoid falling victim to it...

...and "Our Common-Law Foundations" looks at both the philisophical and practical underpinnings of a society based in law that protects rights vs. law that protects rulers.

Our regular price for each of these classes is $320, or $640 for both.

But now, if you sign up for BOTH classes, we will drop the price from $640 to $499!

See the posts below for class descriptions, or contact FFL for more information, and to register for classes.

And yes... for now, these are for teens (and some pre-teens) only. Sorry adults! We may add some classes for you in the future.

Freogan Fellowship Learning is the education arm of Freogan Fellowship Ministry, a private membership association, serving members only.

 

 

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