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OPINION
January 20, 2021
Please stop thinking Facebook memes are truthful Star Diavolikis Columnist Facebook memes are never a reliable source, no matter if that right-wing or left-wing Facebook page claims to only tell the truth. Chances are these memes contain cherry-picked quotes, misleading statistics and anything else to deceive. It’s 2021, we should all know how to get reliable sources by now. I recently saw a meme going around quoting Joe Biden regarding a statement he made addressing voter fraud. The meme stated something along the lines of, “BIDEN ADMITS TO ORGANIZING VOTER FRAUD AND GETS AWAY WITH IT, WAKE UP AMERICA” followed by a quote. Biden’s quoted statement is, “We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.” While this quote is real, it is cherry picked and lacks context from a podcast interview Biden participated in. The quote comes from “Pod Save America,” a podcast interview hosted on Oct. 24 by Dan Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer asked Biden for his response regarding citizens who had not yet voted nor do they plan to vote, and his response is where this quote comes from. Biden answers the question in multiple parts; firstly mentioning potential voters can make a plan to vote and proceeds to address resources available if citizens are having issues voting, where this quote comes from.
In short, this quote was taken out of will target any and all politicians in the context to deceive unknowing Facebook public eye. These memes may also target celebrities, users trying businesses, to get inorganizations volved in poland other itics without entities. doing propA Faceer research. book meme Biden’s “votshared by the ing fraud orpage Proud ganization” Republican is actually a USA shows system set an image of in place to boards being prevent votput in the er fraud, not windows of the other Detroit’s balway around. lot counting Thankfully center, with this post was the caption taken down, “Poll workhowever, ers board it wasgot up windows shared many at Detroit’s times from TCF Center one user beso observfore being ers can’t see removed for ballots being being miscounted.” leading. It T h i s is unsure is anothhow many er case of a right-leaning page being or anti-Biden Graphic by Meghan Salsbury misleading pages have regarding the election process, as the reposted this meme individually. Memes painting politicians in bad post implies the workers are hiding illelight happens daily on the internet, and gal activity. This led to comments such
as, “The only way Dems could steal [the] election!” Detroit Free Press reports the real reasoning for boarding up the windows is due to challengers being aggressive towards ballot counters and appearing intimidating, which also included members of the crowd attempting to photograph or record the counting process. Security addressed the issue by boarding up the windows. Please inform your grandma, grandpa, uncle, aunt and whoever else to fact check these memes before believing them and sharing them. We all most likely have one family member who believes in these with their heart and soul. There are many reliable sources to confirm these quotes and events in these memes. Reliable fact-checking sources include FactCheck.org, politifact.com and snopes.com. Facebook has recently installed a feature that notifies the user of “potentially misleading information” if a meme gets enough attention, and this feature also provides a source to explain why the meme may be misleading or incorrect. The public relying on Facebook memes as their main source of information for world news is harmful to both the general population and to journalism itself. Sharing of these misleading posts creates distrust for news outlets and distrust in the government, and while nobody can officially stop these memes from being created, we can all discourage the sharing and the trust put in these memes.
Believe it! “Naruto” has a valuable lesson to teach The Akatskuki are strikingly compelling villains, originally started by a war orphan named Yahiko as a means of pacifistically bringing peace to their country, I recently watched both “Naruto” and which often suffered from being caught its sequel, “Naruto: Shippuden” with my in the crossfire of larger warring counboyfriend at his request. It was an endeav- tries on either side of it. or that took us six months of watching inAfter the traumatic death of Yahiko, tricately plotted, at times convoluted epi- the new head of the group and one of his sodes during dinner, but it’s finally over. best friends, Nagato, decides that the only Admittedly, I went into “Naruto” and way that peace can be achieved would be its sequel expecting a children’s show for everyone to experience such resonatabout ninja fights. To my own surprise, I ing pain that they could never again willactually now believe that at the center of ingly inflict it on anyone else. Naruto is a lesson on the importance of He acts on this ideal, which through questioning why we hold our ideals and a long series of events ends up involving the value of critical thinking. Naruto. Up to this point in the anime, It wasn’t until we started getting Naruto has shown us repeatedly that he into “Naruto: Shippuden” that I realized is both steadfast in his ideals and able to “Naruto” was a show critically that, at its core, asks consider the its viewers to conperspecsider questions about tives of othwhy we accept ideals. ers. After a The examples it gave, devastating being at least a little attack on bit a show about ninNaruto’s vilja fights, were particlage by Naularly about how best gato, Naruto to end conflict. faces him in In “Naruto: Shipperson and puden,” a group of vilhears the lains called the Akatrationale suki are introduced, behind his and while it’s not beliefs. immediately all laid After plain, they’re working doing so, toward a larger ideNaruto exology while still posplains that sessing nuanced (and though he at times conflicting) can unGraphic by Ilse Orta Mederos worldviews of their own. The way these derstand Nagato’s reasoning, espeideologies unfold over the course of cially in the light of trauma Nagato the anime ended up surprising me with has undergone, he rejects the path how complex and intertwined they all to peace he is trying to take. Ulwere with each other and with the ninja timately, Naruto argues, cycles of world as a whole. hurt must be broken for healing to Bailey Tomlinson Columnist
begin, and this healing from hurt will bring peace. Naruto does this in a way that is so compelling, Nagato gives his own life to undo the damage he had recently done to the residents of Naruto’s village. I won’t try to pretend that to viewers Naruto’s argument is a give-your-life level of compelling, but for the purpose of the story it’s trying to tell the meaning is clear. Naruto believes in something more rooted in truth than Nagato does, and his willingness to listen and understand allows him to bring attention to Nagato’s faulty reasoning while proving the same flaws don’t appear in his own. We see Naruto do this many times over as “Naruto: Shippuden” progresses, facing off against ill-proposed solutions to conflict that range from ending all conflict by trapping everyone in a dream to becoming the most powerful villain in the world so everybody else must unite against them. Every time, Naruto argues that he won’t give up on the people he loves and that cycles of hurt must be broken for healing to begin, and every time he is able to show the villain of the moment that this holds more truth than their faulty, though just as tightly held, beliefs. This isn’t even to speak on the side plots that occur throughout the whole show. We see other characters struggle with questioning their beliefs, and surrounded by people who aren’t Naruto we see them led astray through faulty logic and malicious appeals. Because it is an anime and Naruto is the protagonist, he invariably leads them back to the correct path. But seeing these characters struggle throughout the show is just as powerful as seeing Naruto be right in the face of irrationally held ideals, I would argue. Naruto provides a pre-teen crash course in critical thinking, and I think him modeling how to critically think in this
way is a really valuable thing in a show, especially one aimed more towards the pre-teen age group. To that point, however, I’m 21 and I found the beginning and middle of Shippuden compelling. It has enough depth for it to be interesting for anyone who wants to engage with it, regardless of age. As far as how it is as a show in general, I’ll say that if you plan to watch it and you’re not 11 years old, I recommend you skip all of “Naruto.” As in, the entire first anime. Read a synopsis. Go straight to “Naruto: Shippuden.” Naruto as a young child is one of the most nerve-grating, exhausting ordeals I’ve been put through in the name of entertainment media and there’s not really enough payoff content-wise to justify it. By “Naruto: Shippuden” he is a teen, and though he’s the same person, it’s more bearable and the plot of the show becomes much more interesting to help make up for it. The ending of “Naruto: Shippuden” also takes a lot of big leaps very fast, which was disappointing. The focus shifts from the Akatsuki to other villains that get larger than life with otherworldly powers too quickly, and it reaches a point where it can feel entirely unrecognizable from the show it began as. Overall, in the parts where “Naruto: Shippuden” felt balanced and well-explored, I was pleasantly surprised with the questions it prompted me to ask myself about the situations it presented. There were moments throughout where some villains would explain their logic and for a moment I’d go, “Oh no, that makes total sense,” which I feel is the mark of a well-written villain with a compelling ideal behind them. I would show this to a pre-teen and fully believe that they could get something valuable out of it. I think many of us could be surprised at the value we could get out of “Naruto.”
