good means to find unbiassed reports about politics

Sun Jan 26 07:19:02 MST 2025

On 2025-01-26 07:12, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss wrote:
> David Schwartz you are one of the smartest guys I know,  I have deep 
> respect for you.  It is very disappointing that we are polar opposites 
> when it comes to politics and religion.
> 
> In reading this post I am biting my tongue.  I would ask that we all 
> refrain from getting into political discourse.
> 
> I have lots of LAMP questions and all of you on this list have 
> something to offer.
> 
> As mentioned in a post yesterday I might currently be the most active 
> member of this list.  As said I have tons of LAMP questions. For
> 

Some how I hit send....

Last thought was for a number of reasons I was kind of absent from tech 
from 2019 until about a year ago. My lat Linux experience was with 
CentOS....

I did a few projects however my skills got stale.  Thanks to the members 
of this list and ChatGPT I am now able to configure Ubuntu into a LAMP 
server that is configured with PHP-FPM.  For me that was a huge step 
forward.

I need everyone of you and I do not want to get into any fights over 
politics and/or religion.

Keith

> 
> On 2025-01-26 03:51, David Schwartz via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>>> On Jan 26, 2025, at 12:51 AM, Steve Litt via PLUG-discuss
>>> <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> David Schwartz via PLUG-discuss said on Sat, 25 Jan 2025 12:44:19
>>> -0700
>>> 
>>>> And when claiming ChatGPT is  giving you unbiased information
>>>> about
>>>> politics, especially anything that involves Trump, you’re
>>>> fooling
>>>> yourself. Trump says whatever he wants and doesn’t care because
>>>> he
>>>> conned the SCOTUS into ruling that he has “absolute immunity”.
>>> 
>>> See. I knew the original post would come to the preceding.
>>> 
>>> SteveT
>> 
>> I guess that means you will NEVER, EVER, under ANY circumstances,
>> complain about the shift happening on large social media platforms to
>> stop fact-checking things.
>> 
>> Because what we call the “truth” today is now a matter of
>> political convenience and leverage rather than rooted in anything
>> based in fact.
>> 
>> And if facts and truth are unrooted, then why should you expect
>> anything on a platform like ChatGPT to be any different?
>> 
>> Remember that this whole conversation started out with an assertion
>> that ChatGPT is a BETTER SOURCE OF FACTS AND TRUTH than traditional
>> news media. For media that cares about the FACTS and it’s own
>> INTEGRITY, then I’d say that’s total BS. My experience with these
>> AI platforms is that it’s VERY BUGGY in terms of accuracy.
>> Unfortunately, if you aren’t familiar with the subject matter,
>> you’re not going to know that. Or even if you are but you trust it
>> and don’t bother reviewing the material with a critical eye.
>> 
>> FWIW, I was having an interesting conversation with ChatGPT about a
>> variety of financial topics, and at one point it showed a split-screen
>> type of display and asked my opinion about which response I thought
>> was better — the one on the left or the one on the right. It was the
>> same basic info just presented differently.
>> 
>> i chose the one on the right, even though it had a blatent error in it
>> that was displayed correct on the left side:
>> 
>> In a bullet item that related to a corporation making a loan to you as
>> an owner/employee, it said this regarding the interest paid on the
>> loan:
>> 
>>> _You repay the loan with interest, and the business can even deduct
>>> the interest as a business expense!_
>> 
>> In fact, this was the most BLATENT error I found during the rather
>> lengthy discussion we had, but hardly the only error I encountered. (I
>> caught over a dozen, and I’m not a CPA or even an accountant.)
>> 
>> As far as people who like to wave stinky allegations about “the
>> Biden crime family” taking a $10M bribe” — the one that a Senate
>> investigation turned up nothing but a guy who lied repeatedly to the
>> FBI, then owned-up and SAID IT WAS ALL A LIE — and yet don’t even
>> wince when someone mentions that Trump’s son-in-law — with
>> absolutely zero experience doing financial management — was handed
>> $2 BILLION to manage and given a 1.25% management fee ($25M), then I
>> rest my case.
>> 
>> NEITHER OF THESE PREVIOUS STATEMENTS IS FACTUALLY DISPUTABLE. THE
>> FORMER IS A BLATENT LIE THAT’S REPEATED OVER AND OVER AS IF IT’S
>> TRUE, AND THE LATTER IS 100% FACTUAL THAT NOBODY WHO REPEATS THE
>> FORMER LIE WILL **EVER** DISCUSS!
>> 
>> Facts don’t matter any more. It’s that simple.  They're merely a
>> lever to be used by political opportunists.
>> 
>> Just for contrast, the alleged $10M “bribe” paid to “Biden crime
>> family” is just a bit smaller than the ~$25M fee — paid ANNUALLY
>> — to the “Trump crime family” as part of a totally inexplicable
>> transaction that nobody in their right mind could rationalize given
>> the other “facts” in play (that are also totally ignored).
>> 
>> I’M NOT TALKING POLITICS HERE!!!!
>> 
>> This thred is about one simple question: DO FACTS STILL MATTER?
>> 
>> There are people who will go to their death bed swearing that the LIE
>> in the case above is more compelling than the TRUTH. I know that.
>> Y’all know that. And I’m sure someone here might even be tempted
>> to try defending it. (That would only reinforce what I just said
>> here.)
>> 
>> If 40 milloin people “can’t be wrong” about this, then who are
>> we to say ChatGPT isn't 100% factual AND more accurate than
>> traditional news outlets — in spite of the clear evidence to the
>> contrary?
>> 
>> If you want to argue politics, then declare where you stand FIRST
>> about whether FACTS MATTER TO YOU.
>> 
>> Because if they do, then don’t waste our time with lies.
>> 
>> Most political discussions today are a waste of time because they have
>> become rooted in lies. And I am not interested in debating lies.
>> 
>> -David Schwartz
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