Thread by @DrDannielle

Allow me a rant about @VICE and idiotic attacks on people who seek and research truth, but aren't corporate #MSM robots.

I watch @VICE on @HBO every night, pretty much. No surprise as @billmaher and @FareedZakaria r involved & they're both f--ing brilliant.

Unfortunately, VICE seems to have an issue both with @POTUS and with independent research a.k.a. "conspiracy theory." I view it as classism.

@CNN covered @billmaher w/ @FareedZakaria stating @POTUS vote is "protest" fueled in part by goo.gl/qJSChfps://t.co/EmyJRjrD92

Meanwhile @FareedZakaria took to @CNN to tell us "Why I called @realDonaldTrump a BS articnn.com/2016/08/05/opi…W1DjBvwPiO

74% of respondents 2 a @pewresearch survey said media biased but people still tell me they trust it more than social goo.gl/0xY4i3

So people still have a kind of blind faith in #MSM which is funded & fueled by people who have a cognitive bias. Nobody perfectly objective.

Socially the norm is to trust the media & the gov, even though actual polls show trust in both is relatively lgoo.gl/1wQtyteW0r

The reality is that people trust scientists & the military more than they trust elected officials, per @pewreseagoo.gl/1wQtyteW0r

Nevertheless there is a social label attached to questioning the government: "conspiracy theorist."

@VICE As a sociologist I view this as manifest classism. It is a way of keeping people under control. "They must tell us - we must believe."

@VICE However, it is NOT true that the CIA invented the term "conspiracy theorimetabunk.org/debunked-the-c…xzBoAg0tYj

@VICE Nevertheless many people think the @CIA actually invented this term goo.gl/oe7E1n.

@VICE Typical headline: "'Conspiracy Theory' Invented by CIA In Order To Prevent Disbelief of Official Government Storgoo.gl/rhCk8qoyOjFEem0T

@VICE The reality is more mundane. #1, as several have pointed out to me, the gov is not that clever.

@VICE #2, the actual problem w/ conspiracy theory is tendency to make up data to fill in gaps in knowledge.

@VICE #3 some argue that conspiracy theory is a way of self-soothing in the face of the unexplainable. goo.gl/WZkpuo

@VICE However, just b/c conspiracy theory can be wrong, doesn't make independent citizen researchers wrong or "crazy." Not at all.

@VICE Last night I saw the VICE story about HAARP. They featured the gov & a researchnews.vice.com/story/the-trut…hHI6

@VICE As someone who works 4 the gov (all opinions my own) I could understand perspective of facility employee bewildered & upset by hostile calls

@VICE But as a private citizen I could understand the concern of an independent researcher as well. news.vice.com/story/the-trut…

@VICE I do not know anything about this particular subject, but I did notice that @VICE employed a voice of authority to make this guy seem nuts.

@VICE For example, VICE asked the researcher to visit the gov facility, & he didn't want to. I'm sure he had his reasons. But --

@VICE -- they way they told his story, it seemed like his suspicion of gov was a personal problem.

@VICE In a healthy democracy, citizens should be suspicious of the government and they should criticize MSM media reports. That's called freedom.

@VICE Nowhere is this more apparent than in mainstream narrative regarding the #LasVegasShooting as versus the groundswell of social media repts.

@VICE I visit Facebook, Twitter, or alternative news media (@LauraLoomer) and get much better, more objective reporting than MSM.

@VICE Here's another example of how VICE squelches alternative media. They have covered #humantrafficking extensively. news.vice.com/topic/human-tr…

@VICE However, one of the biggest stories on social media this past year -- #pedogate -- has never been covered by VICE as far as I can tell.

@VICE Is this refusal by VICE to cover #pedogate (a.k.a. #pizzagate) due to the fact that the story is "debunked?"

@VICE Here's how people typically debunk: 1) You really think Hillary Clinton ran a child sex trafficking ring in the basement of Comet Pizza? or

@VICE 2) "Look at what your irresponsible partisan attack on Hillary Clinton caused, the Comet Pizza shooting"

@VICE Never mind that independent researchers caught the Comet shooting on Google listed BEFORE it actually happened that day.

@VICE The truth is that, throughout the whole #pizzagate/#pedogate story unfolding, people simply wanted an investigation.

@VICE Nobody actually knew what was going on, but we saw enough in the @Wikileaks emails about Podesta's odd "pizza codes" to be concerned.

@VICE We saw in enough in Alefantis' disgusting Instagram feed to be concerned.

@VICE When Ben Swann did a report on pizzagate he was promptly silenced.

@VICE When David Seaman reported on pizzagate he self-reported he was poisoned. We know that the media went after him and he was trolled nonstop.

@VICE @LizCrokin posted a video on YouTube about the threats she got for investigating neon-nettle.com/news/1917-jour…

@VICE To me it seems both classist and racist to focus human trafficking investigations on overseas countries when it is such a rampant crime here

@VICE Logically this illicit industry, such as it is, cannot possibly continue without factoring corruption in. neon-nettle.com/news/1917-jour…

@VICE Nearly 1,000,000 people have watched this vid of Dr. @StevePieczenik talk about the "Clinton Pedophilia connectgoo.gl/z2OkhkcFuzov14da

@VICE Robert David Steele is another well respected expert who has talked about children 4 sale on "restaurant menu&qugoo.gl/y9FJiej8EcSQ3kVd

@VICE It is not clear to me why @VICE and other MSM outlets are so determined to discount public concern of child sex trafficking by powerful ppl.

@VICE Has VICE done a story on #missingdcgirls? Maybe I missed it. Don't these girls matter? Are they all just "troubled runaways?"

@VICE The reason VICE coverage is so important is, #1, that its reporting is generally highly intelligent regardless of its biases.

@VICE And #2, VICE is a relatively new powerful media property as opposed to the older and more "tarnished" brands of CNN, MSNBC, and yes, FOX.

@VICE If you want to know an example of an independent researcher whose work is on a par with the best of the best -

@VICE Take a look at the work of @ThomasWictor. Sample post: "Everything You're Hearing Is Wrothomaswictor.com/everything-you…XQMl8Mk5pB

@VICE Here's my post covering @ThomasWictor's take on Hollywood #pedogate: medium.com/@DrDannielle/c…

@VICE Wictor simply says the facts. Which is what a reporter should aim for. Facts, point of view, tell both sides of the story.

@VICE As an American citizen, I want the truth. I do not want to be spoonfed lies, distortions, omissions and inaccuracies.

@VICE I have enough respect for my fellow citizens that I understand they want the same thing.

@VICE An @Uber driver recently said to me that he thinks "@realDonaldTrump is a total moron."

@VICE I asked him where he got that opinion.

@VICE He said, "@POTUS is narcissistic, everything has to be about him. A psychiatrist once told me so."

@VICE There is of course no logical connection between being a moron and a narcissist. You can be one, the other, or both, but they don't connect.

@VICE The point is that this individual has his own opinion because he has it. But where do such fixed ideas come from?

@VICE A big part of it comes down to where we get information. At the one extreme, censored press. At the other, wild theories.

@VICE If we truly want to unify the American people, a good place to start is respectful, informed civil discourse that respects free speech.

@VICE Thanks for taking the time to read my little rant. [END]