Items

• 
  2021-06-05

  Someone else on the internet told me different!

  This is what I imagine people doing when they turn off NPR’s latest COVID vaccines update before heading to the feed store to buy Ivermectin for COVID treatment.
• 
  2021-08-26T14:54

  The not so boring every day life

  I used to work at a store called Bed Bath & Beyond. It was a mediocre job at best. Getting up at 9am and working until 5pm. The occasional customer who’d come in every now and then and brighten my day was nice, but there has to be a balance. The occasional customer who would come in with the sole purpose to ruin your day. Pre December 31st, 2019. After work I would come home and play some video games, do homework, and if I had time go to the skatepark late at night. When I wasn’t at work, I was at school. I went to Palmetto Ridge High School, and it was my junior year. I was looking forwards to just graduating already. It was fun, I met a lot of friends, but it was just getting tedious, going to the same classes over and over again, just to meet the state requirements. I couldn’t wait to go to college, to pursue only the classes I needed for my future career. Life was pretty much mundane, no action, repetitive. December 31st, 2019. I had just awoken from my sleep and was getting ready to go into school, since it was a Tuesday. I turned on my TV and switched to the news channel to see if anything interesting was happening on the news, and to my surprise, this “virus” was said to have started in Wuhan China. Our “wonderful” president said it was nothing more than the common flu, so I shrugged it off and got ready for school. A couple of days had passed since the announcement of COVID-19 and things only escalated. I still thought it was nothing more than a virus, because at the time I followed Trump, (still don’t know why I ever did). That was until a customer came in, coughing their lungs out. I made sure not to check her out because she looked really, really ill. I stayed in the back most of the day, claiming that “Today was just not my day, I am tired, and I do not feel well”. I asked to leave work early that day and left. January 21st, 2020. By now I was seriously worried. I heard over the news that COVID-19 was spreading fast, and that it had just infected its first citizen in the U.S. I did not know what to do to counter it, so I treated it like a plague. I wore a medical mask everywhere I went, and double layered my hands with two latex gloves. My coworkers teased me, saying I was too worried and that it would pass. I almost wanted to listen to them, but I stuck to my guns and wore my protective gear in work. March 14th, 2020. Schools were now closed until April 14th. Things were starting to get serious, now my friends weren’t doubting my use of masks and gloves and they followed in my footsteps. There was no school now, which meant I had to work more hours. It was really weird not going to class, but I was kind of glad we weren’t. I was just happy to still be earning money. March 15th, 2020. I was supposed to work today, it was a Sunday, but seeing as my job was overstaffed that day, I called off saying that I was sick. (I really wasn’t). I wanted to go to the skatepark today with my friends and did not want to work overnight today. I am glad now that I skipped because a customer that had COVID-19 was not wearing a mask and had infected two co-workers. This had forced the building to shut down, and had the CDC close the building down to quarantine it. I really dodged a bullet. August 26th, 2021. (Present Day) A lot has changed over these past few years. Mainly lockdowns and mask mandates. I have been fully vaccinated with Moderna and am going to take my booster shot when the time comes. Oddly enough after the first major lockdown, nature started to come back. A lot of deer in the roads, alligators in swimming pools, and a ton of insects and amphibians. It is present day now, and we have a new variant of COVID-19, named the Delta Variant. Mask wearing was mandated, and then unmandated, and since Trump left office cases dropped with real facts on COVID-19 daily, none of this “fake news” as Trump used to say. COVID-19 is starting to die down a lot more now, but it still is not over. Hopefully people will use their brains and get vaccinated, and if they don’t, hopefully they use masks.
• 
  2021-03-04

  For some, there will never be a "back to normal"

  "(via @readingstar18) When you say "I can't wait until things get back to normal" know that my life will never be "normal" again. When you say "Soon #COVID will just be a bad memory" know that Covid was a traumatic event and will always be a reminder of how my life drastically changed forever. When people say that #COVID19 is a hoax or only affects the elderly or people with underlying health conditions, remember I lost my young and healthy husband to this horrible virus. When you see something written about me and my family and say its fake news made up by the media as a scare tactic, I know that I am a very real person going through a very real tragedy and I share my heartbreaking and important story to show that #COVID19 can affect anyone. Nine months since my #HealthcareHero husband lost his life and the insensitive comments made by others continues to add to our grief. Covid is very real and has had a lasting impact on my children and me. So please be kind to those who are trying to heal and move forward."
• 
  2021-01-28

  Fake News

  This is a poem about how it's hard to know where your news is coming from, and what to believe.
• 2021-01-12

  What I think started Covid-19

  I dont really know the exact reasoning because I myself dont really watch the news and even if i did there is to much fake news that i see on tiktok and what other people tell me. I have heard rumors that vary from someone at a bat that they put the virus into and i have also heard rumors like it was made by people kinda like a sabotage so i cant really know what the real one is. If you look it up its says that the bat one is rights but no one will really know whats real and whats fake.
• 
  2020-12-13

  HERMIT HERALD VOL 1 ISSUE 85

  Fake news from 50 former U.S. intel officers;
• 
  2020-11-29

  International Businessman Oral History, 2020/11/29

  IMPORTANT NOTE: My professor, Dr. Blake Jones, approved of the anonymity of my interview subject. My subject is highly private and wishes to maintain that anonymity for business and personal reasons. Max is a businessman from the United States. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business and holds an M.B.A. He has been conducting business in the electronics industry for over 40 years. He has a wife, adult children, and dogs. Max has been heavily involved in Asian markets in his business for multiple decades. He was a vital part of the explosion of Japanese electronics onto the American market in the 1980's, the rapid introduction of the Internet in the 1990's, and has most recently been working to implement the next generation of lighting displays for consumer electronics. Max’s life and work has been one that has been vital to the development of the world’s technological progress in the past 40 years, although he is not a household name. Max has lived through multiple important events and has a unique perspective on all of them as a businessman, agent of free enterprise, and average American providing for his family. He holds several unique opinions on current events and is not afraid to state them plainly. In this interview, he reflects on the difficulties and silver linings that COVID-19 has thrown at him in his work and personal life.
• 
  2020-04-08

  "Viktor Orbán is Using the Coronavirus Emergency to Crush Minorities" - Jacobin

  In an article for Jacobin Magazine, Imre Szijarto and Rosa Schwartzburg describe in length how the far-right government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to pass a law to give itself emergency powers over civil society and the other branches of government. These emergency powers, which include the ability to censor journalists, attacks on LGBTQ rights, the power to grant government contracts (to Orban's cronies), and the takeover of art institutions, represents a blatant power grab that is unprecedented in Europe since the 1930s. Indeed, Orban's emergency power decree has drawn comparisons to figures as varied as Adolf Hitler and Emperor Palpatine (in Hungarian language memes), and the European Union leadership has strongly condemned Orban's decree as akin the "Enabling Act," which was passed by the Nazis in 1933. Orban's autocratic power grab and the democratic backsliding experienced by Hungary were already underway before the pandemic, but COVID-19 has allowed Orban to use a "state of exception" to effectively suspend liberally democracy in Hungary for the foreseeable future.
• 2020-11-01

  Covid-19 in One Word II: Over-exaggerated

  This word comes from a college student, a peer leader, and a girl who got those taken away this year. Over-exaggerated: to exaggerate (something) to an excessive degree, specifically a threat, danger, risk or its effect, impact, or importance Capturing this opinion of many, over-exaggerated, is meant to label something that misconstrues the truth by making it seem greater in importance than it actually is. Many people consider not the virus, but the media coverage of it, to be doing just that. It has become difficult to see what is true and what is lies. The line between accuracy and entertainment have become intertwined. In the race to reveal numbers and give advice on safety, rash decisions may have been made in what is put out to the public as news. This news informs a major population, and if it is misrepresenting the truth, that could be a very big issue. Now it is important to understand that there are good and true news sources. There are also sources that do the best with what they are given, which may not be pure truth. In this ever-intensifying war of words, citizens seeking to be informed must often sift through loads of over-exaggerated content to uncover the full truth. The situation of Covid-19 is no different.
• 
  2020-04-26T13:34:00

  Fake Images

  This Article shows how Mainstream news sources (for example CNN or FOX) can show its viewers misleading photos. During this Pandemic it is very important to get the full story of everything that goes on across the country involving Covid-19. This causes these images do more harm than good, when educating viewers on Covid-19. I feel it is important to stop the spread fake news, especially when a deadly virus is involved.
• 
  2020-05-06

  Coronavirus causes wave of fake new

  The Coronavirus is just a new way for the media to badger President Donald Trump. First when Trump called it the Chinesevirus he was immediately attacked by media and was being portrayed as a racist for saying something that is simply true. Then he was asked many questions about that comment. The media is also claiming that the coronavirus attacks African American more then white people. The media should stop attacking Trump and scaring American citizens with FAKE NEWS. *Date as submitted: 11:16 AM 5/6/2020
• 
  2020-04-27

  Arizona GOP chairwoman tells anti-lockdown protesters to impersonate health care workers

  The politically motivated fight to frame America's free press as "fake news" continues for Arizona GOP leaders urging stay-at-home-order protesters to don scrubs and medical masks to trick the media.
• 
  2020-04-01

  Russia and China push ‘fake news’ on coronavirus crisis, report claims

  This is an article outlining claims that both Russian and the People's Republic of China are attempting to sow disinformation in Europe amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, underming mitigation efforts by EU member states.
• 
  2020-04-26

  Bolsonaro in fresh crisis over son's alleged links to fake news racket

  There are reports that President Jair Bolsonaro's son Carlos Bolsonaro has been connected to a criminal fake news group. Bolsonaro denies these accusations.
• 
  2020-03-18

  Health, Healing, and the Coronavirus

  The “Found Conscious” Facebook page shared a video in which Thomas Cowan, MD describes the coronavirus pandemic in terms of his healing philosophy, claiming its related to 5G technology and metals. Within a week, Facebook reported more than 300,000 shares of this particular video. In the wake of ongoing concerns about “fake news,” social media platforms, including Facebook, have taken moves to censor expression. In this case, Facebook describes the presentation with a notice that it contains “False Information,” as checked by independent fact checkers. (See, for instance, the report of the independent experts: https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/viral-claim-falsely-asserts-that-covid-19-is-due-to-5g-technology-rollout-not-a-virus/?fbclid=IwAR0qoEAF9-cy2H2Y42gw6sQfiTCw_-CfPKWjpO2kzMUif5Z4vN05kD6qWCI.) Broadly, the video reveals how the Internet has become a platform for sharing alternative narratives of COVID-19 and the pandemic, revealing a public trying to understand what it means to live during a pandemic.