I know some people say that questioning details about horrific stories is a way of downplaying or denying the horror, but it’s really not: wartime propaganda is corrosive and insidious and a tool for manipulation, and truth is worth caring about even in the face of utter tragedy.
This. It is an ugly truth of a war that tragedies will inevitably be 1) falsified or 2) magnified. And such an accusation is grossly inhumane and serves a purpose to "otherize" the enemy, a key tactic. I really hope this turns out to be untrue.
It isn’t just propaganda. It’s panic & fear inducing people to either overstate facts or misinterpret them. We just have to remember the immediate days after 9/11.
I’m old enough to remember 1991 tales of Kuwaiti babies being removed from incubators that were later shown to be propaganda. Caution is reasonable.
The truth is awful enough. NPR played an interview yesterday with a distraught man whose family has been taken and halfway through an answer her states a common wartime myth without evidence that is used to dehumanize the other side. He's got my sympathy, but NPR should have gotten a fact check up.
Also, the moment a very divisive or emotional issue goes on social media, there are hangers-on who use it, false rumours and all, to increase their own engagement. I've seen Indian far right ppl on former-twitter amplify dramatic claims, when they have no way of confirming these.
Sidebar: this is an excellent example of why it's a good thing to get your news from multiple sources, so that you can integrate what you hear and determine what's actually going on. Emergency managers recommend this as well.
That may be how it started, but there is now at least one eyewitness making the claim on record to CBS www.cbsnews.com/live-updates...
The death toll in the Israel-Hamas war continues to climb 5 days after the Palestinian militant group launched a bloody, coordinated terror attack on Israel from Gaza.
Lies and distortions never advance the cause of justice. If anything, allowing distortions to go unchallenged gives unnecessary ammunition to those who will try and deny the horrific events that did happen.
Absolutely. I went back and forth with someone about this yesterday. Obviously, the slaughter of 40 babies and toddlers and children is horrible, but the details do matter. I don't want to be manipulated by any side.
Also: the attacks are absolutely horrifying on their own terms and don't need exaggeration beyond the facts to convey that horror.