DHS will spend nearly $700,000 to investigate ‘radicalization in gaming’

[BoomSlang]

https://www.theblaze.com/news/dhs-will-spend-nearly-700000-to-investigate-radicalization-in-gaming

My tax dollars are going to what?????

[Majbasil]

OK.... SOURCE.... LOOKED IT UP -->    OH, IT IS A PROPAGANDA MACHINE.

Conservative political commentator Glenn Beck launched The Blaze as a commercial alternative to mainstream media outlets in August 2010. What originally started as an “online-only network” that featured Beck’s TV show has grown into a multimedia entertainment platform that hosts podcasts, radio programs, cable news, and the entertainment streaming service Blaze TV. However, its most unique feature is the ensemble of online conservative commentators paired with its internet-based network which attracts half-a-million subscribers, making this media business one of the most profitable in today’s conservative media ecosystem. Yet, critics would say this is at the cost of true journalism, leading The Factual to ask how biased and factual is The Blaze.

Note: The Factual’s analysis is specific to online written content and does not include tv, radio, or other media products.

How Factual Is The Blaze? 

The Factual’s news-rating algorithm analyzes more than 10,000 articles a day along four metrics: author expertise, publication history, writing tone, and cited sources and quotes. These metrics combine to produce a single percentage score — what we call a Factual Grade — which indicates the overall quality of an article. (See our How It Works page to learn more.) For this study, we analyzed 1,000 articles each from 245 major news sources.

Over a dataset of 1,000 articles, The Blaze scored an average Factual Grade of 53.4%. This is below the average of 61.9% for all 240 news sources that we analyzed. This places The Blaze in the 15th percentile of our dataset.

These low scores are explained by The Blaze’s tendency to publish articles that lack quality news sources, use less supporting evidence for their claims, and feature authors with low expertise on specific topics. The Blaze has experienced numerous layoffs in the past few years which may be a contributing factor to these scores. 

Like any news source, scores for articles from The Blaze varied widely. For example, some scored above 80%, while others scored below 50%.

  

[Majbasil]

Next, look at content, now that we have established that the source of said article above was produced by a far right wing propaganda machine...  GLEN BECK  (uck)  A snake oil salesman if I have ever seen or heard one.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Beck

 

Quote

Far-right extremists are a growing presence in gaming, researchers have found, while the industry’s hidden metrics, lackluster content moderation and head-in-the-sand attitudes get in the way of assessing and combatting the problem.

Yes, indeed there is a problem!  As what happened to Germany in the 1930's (Nazism, Hitler, Dictatorships, Far Right Extremism to which includes Japan), it is happening, has happened, and can happen here in the USA, as well as other 1st world countries.  As far as the amount to be spent the above article says $700,000,... I would be willing to bet that amount is much higher than that.   I say this alot, humans are the most dangerous species on earth.  As long as there are folks trying to stomp out others "freedom" to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by suppressing say, women's rights, or LGBTQ rights, or the will of the majority to vote in their political leaders, well then we do have a problem.  If the far right groups are using gaming platforms to recruit, indoctrinate and subjugate others, well we do have a problem now don't we?   Dangerous times when we elect greedy, selfish idiots into office.  2 cents  

Edited September 20, 2022 by Majbasil
as per usual, note to self, please proof read BEFORE clicking send/save button

[Sammy]

Best to read the source document, in this case from the DHS, and not website 'explainers' attempting to steer you towards their insistence of what the 'truth' is. And in this case, your link is 'explainers' linking to other 'explainers'. They tend to cherry pick and spin the pickings into pushing their agenda. Gotta watch out for spinners spinning the spinners.

https://www.dhs.gov/tvtpgrants

Middlebury's Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC)

Type 1: Raising Societal Awareness, Type 2: Media Literacy and Online Critical Thinking Initiatives, Type 3: Civic Engagement
$699,763.00

Over the past decade, video games have increasingly become focal points of social activity and identity creation for adolescents and young adults. Relationships made and fostered within game ecosystems routinely cross over into the real world and are impactful parts of local communities. Correspondingly, extremists have used video games and targeted video game communities for activities ranging from propaganda creation to terrorist mobilization and training. Game developers in general–from small, independent studios to billion-dollar multinational corporations–have lagged in awareness of how extremists may attempt to exploit their games, and how their communities can be targeted for radicalization. This joint project from the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Take This, and Logically seeks to develop a shared framework for understanding extremism in games. This includes the development of a set of best practices and centralized resources for monitoring and evaluation of extremist activities as well as a series of training workshops for the monitoring, detection, and prevention of extremist exploitation in gaming spaces for community managers, multiplayer designers, lore developers, mechanics designers, and trust and safety professionals.

That should be a no brainer especially for the cesspool and toxic hate filled console sphere that we all know very well and avoid. And that the developers do little about. Facebook is a poster child and makes the news for various shit. Activision and gaming social media? They are just games and not worthy of our attention. Then again, social media in general wasnt looked at much. Until we tracked down the first suicide bomber or killer that was recruited via social media. Isis was pretty good at that remember and the world knew nothing.

In this case the explainers decided to throw in a whole section about first amendment rights. They also decided to throw in Biden and 'white supremacy', since both are the current buzzwords de jure, when neither were mentioned in the source. Again... spin to push their actual agenda onto you. Pick a couple convenient parts to lure you in then pivot to their agenda and what they really want you to read.

[TBB]

Would be more productively spent trying to figure out why we like to be called  >IDIOTS<

[RobMc]

Yet again by the liberals and lefties there is no 'right' only the words 'far right' come out of them when anyone even dares to disagree with their biased outlook. Perhaps we need to redress the balance by calling Basil and Sammy 'far left', when in fact as a normal free thinking individual I consider their views reasonable and will listen to them, unfortunately it is a one way street.

[Sammy]

Nice try. For others there is no left only far left. Even middle of the road people are called far left by various right leaning strangers that don’t have a clue what others think. Free country however so think what you want while everyone else doesn’t give a shit what that is. ‍
 

Todays logic: they don’t think like I do, therefore, they are all far right/left.

[RobMc]

10 hours ago, Sammy said:

Todays logic: they don’t think like I do, therefore, they are all far right/left.

Tis true Sammy, however I rarely see far left quoted in any dialogue, in fact I wonder if anyone understands what each one is any more. I watched a Youtube video the other day on Russia by a supposedly eminent USA professor, in it he quotes several times of the Nazi regime in Russia and their 'far right' leanings. This is bullshit, Russia is one of the worlds top Communist states, the antithesis of Fascism, correctly he should have said far left, but it was clear he thought what he said was true. The sad thing is that the current lot are no different to the ones they supposedly despise, yet neither side think themselves wrong.

I stand in the sidelines, an observer of events and I very clearly see a big swing to the right in the Western world, your current President will ensure that in the USA. That most liberal of countries Sweden have amazingly just voted in a right wing Government, including a hard line right wing party that is incidentally the 2nd most supported in the country. This is happening throughout Europe, fed up with the weakness of politicians, Germany has had the biggest wake up call of them all, I'm watching closely and expect big trouble.

Nothing new in history, it has all happened before, the difference nowadays is will it happen again?, let us hope so, these are dangerous times.

[TheLastColdBeer]

On 9/19/2022 at 5:12 PM, Majbasil said:

Next, look at content, now that we have established that the source of said article above was produced by a far right wing propaganda machine...  GLEN BECK  (uck)  A snake oil salesman if I have ever seen or heard one.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Beck

 

Yes, indeed there is a problem!  As what happened to Germany in the 1930's (Nazism, Hitler, Dictatorships, Far Right Extremism to which includes Japan), it is happening, has happened, and can happen here in the USA, as well as other 1st world countries.  As far as the amount to be spent the above article says $700,000,... I would be willing to bet that amount is much higher than that.   I say this alot, humans are the most dangerous species on earth.  As long as there are folks trying to stomp out others "freedom" to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by suppressing say, women's rights, or LGBTQ rights, or the will of the majority to vote in their political leaders, well then we do have a problem.  If the far right groups are using gaming platforms to recruit, indoctrinate and subjugate others, well we do have a problem now don't we?   Dangerous times when we elect greedy, selfish idiots into office.  2 cents  

Maj, why do you even look at Wiki for anything anymore? The founder himself said his site has been hijacked by radicals that show no tolerance for anything that they disagree with. It's become a propaganda voice, nothing more. Certainly not a site I would use for fact checking.

Edited September 21, 2022 by TheLastColdBeer
forgot to type my response in

[Sammy]

There is a reason why, long ago, schools would not accept wiki as source material or citations in research papers or essays. For awhile various reporters and writers did when making on their reports. Until they also got nailed by the lies and false entries in wiki.

Wiki is a good idea in theory. However such things depend on the the idea of human intelligence, reflection, discussion, rationality, and all the rest. However humans are stupid. Selfish. Unintelligent. Ruled by their passions and demands. Easily manipulated. Will believe and promote anything that appeals to their base instincts. And are fully enamored by their self-righteousness. You might get one in a hundred that overcomes this. But thats it. And no matter what they do, it all amounts to nothing. So occasionally they say to hell with you other 99 while sooner or later you will destroy yourselves. Then we all get to pick up the pieces and try again, unsuccessfully. And thus the world turns.

[RobMc]

2 hours ago, Sammy said:

However such things depend on the the idea of human intelligence, reflection, discussion, rationality, and all the rest. However humans are stupid. Selfish. Unintelligent. Ruled by their passions and demands. Easily manipulated. Will believe and promote anything that appeals to their base instincts. And are fully enamored by their self-righteousness

Sammy ? are you absolutely 100% sure you are cut out to be an idiot?, they love base instincts (and the rest)

[Sammy]

Maybe devolution is a side effect of playing 100’s of hours of video games every month. Think of it as a modern incarnation of the boob tube generation that watched 6 hours of tv every night. 

Not saying that has to do with any long time XI game player. 

[Totty]

Play freezetag or sit and watch the propaganda machine,,,,, it's a no brainer, which is why we are Idiots

[NorCal_Jared]

On 9/19/2022 at 3:00 PM, Majbasil said:

OK.... SOURCE.... LOOKED IT UP -->    OH, IT IS A PROPAGANDA MACHINE.

Conservative political commentator Glenn Beck launched The Blaze as a commercial alternative to mainstream media outlets in August 2010. What originally started as an “online-only network” that featured Beck’s TV show has grown into a multimedia entertainment platform that hosts podcasts, radio programs, cable news, and the entertainment streaming service Blaze TV. However, its most unique feature is the ensemble of online conservative commentators paired with its internet-based network which attracts half-a-million subscribers, making this media business one of the most profitable in today’s conservative media ecosystem. Yet, critics would say this is at the cost of true journalism, leading The Factual to ask how biased and factual is The Blaze.

Note: The Factual’s analysis is specific to online written content and does not include tv, radio, or other media products.

How Factual Is The Blaze? 

The Factual’s news-rating algorithm analyzes more than 10,000 articles a day along four metrics: author expertise, publication history, writing tone, and cited sources and quotes. These metrics combine to produce a single percentage score — what we call a Factual Grade — which indicates the overall quality of an article. (See our How It Works page to learn more.) For this study, we analyzed 1,000 articles each from 245 major news sources.

Over a dataset of 1,000 articles, The Blaze scored an average Factual Grade of 53.4%. This is below the average of 61.9% for all 240 news sources that we analyzed. This places The Blaze in the 15th percentile of our dataset.

These low scores are explained by The Blaze’s tendency to publish articles that lack quality news sources, use less supporting evidence for their claims, and feature authors with low expertise on specific topics. The Blaze has experienced numerous layoffs in the past few years which may be a contributing factor to these scores. 

Like any news source, scores for articles from The Blaze varied widely. For example, some scored above 80%, while others scored below 50%.

  

What news outfit doesn't push propaganda?

[Totty]

1 minute ago, NorCal_Jared said:

What news outfit doesn't push propaganda?

That is a question that has no answer as far as I know

[Sammy]

The question is, which one pushes the most and worst propaganda.

The answer? The one that tells the most of what you dont want to hear.

[Totty]

Fearmongers , they are the worst

16 minutes ago, Sammy said:

The question is, which one pushes the most and worst propaganda.

The answer? The one that tells the most of what you dont want to hear.

 

[Majbasil]

I always ask myself -  who gains, who suffers, what is affected, why is this important, and is there a hidden agenda/goal for the profit of just a few vs everyone/everything else?   That is how I determine propaganda.  https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-2-what-is-propaganda-(1944)/what-are-the-tools-of-propaganda

 

(some of the tools propagandists use are catch phrases and the use of symbols - one brilliant catch phrase that worked to  get a killer freed was by using the term,  "If the glove don't fit, you must acquit."  (O J Simpson trial)

 

And a famous propaganda symbol is the red MAGA hat.  Some regard the hat as a symbol of patriotism and loyalty, to others it is a clear and present example of a symbol of hate / Nazism in USA.   

 

2 examples of propaganda)

[Sammy]

6 minutes ago, Majbasil said:

(some of the tools propagandists use are catch phrases and the use of symbols - one brilliant catch phrase that worked to  get a killer freed was by using the term,  "If the glove don't fit, you must acquit."  (O J Simpson trial)

Yup I remember that one. Then again, at the same trial the prosecutors kept trying to scheme their way into a victory as well. And in that case dumb as rocks having him try on gloves while wearing protective vinyl gloves. Probably why he got acquitted. The jury said 'fuck all of you' to the prosecution and defense. And I dont blame them.

[TheLastColdBeer]

If propaganda is news you don't want to hear, I guess kitco.com, & nasdaq.com are off the list. That goes for my local Kroger ads, Ameren Power & even my own checking account statements. They're all telling me things I don't like. That's the problem with reality, it doesn't hold whitewash or sugarcoat very well.