IF UR FLIMINIOHIN FLYIN YET!
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Smore #1 Media Literacy
watching tv
wordle
social media
Smore #2 What do you pledge?
Smore #3 Superbowl Commercial Analysis
Smore #4 Men Don't Do Chores
Smore #5 Media Manipulation
Smore #6 Should Apple Fix?
Smore #7 -1984 Agree or Disagree
Smore #8 Get It Straight
Ted Cruz a Republican said the quote "There have been multiple media reports about (Donald Trump's) business dealings with the mob, and the mafia." during an appearance on “Meet the Press” on February 28. The story behind the quote was, Trump himself said that he was associating with the mob and in the past years Trump has said that he has hired the mafia himself. Mainly dealing with construction, the mafia is in charge because of the area that Trump wanted to build Trump Towers which was their land, so Trump basically had to be on good terms with them in order to build the towers. Them being different people in mafias such as Kenneth Shapiro, an associate of mob boss Nicky Scarfo, and Felix Sater, "a twice-convicted Russian émigré who served prison time and had documented mafia connections". With that being said Cruz was in fact correct about stating such a crazy quote, because without him bringing up the topic, the citizens of the United States, the voters of the next president might not have done their research and voted for a politician that is intertwined with the mafia. A politician is hard enough to trust so adding on that he is associating with the mafia does not make Trump seem any more trustworthy for a possible corrupt future government. In order to make an informed and full position on this topic I actually had to look up the backstory of how Trump was affiliated to the mafia to take a stand on the subject. Overall, my thoughts were that politicians can easily bring up any subject about one another but only then will people care.
During the Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire Hillary Clinton said ISIS is "going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists." The whole story behind this is that Clinton made false rumors about Trump, worrying everybody about whether or not the claims were true or not. Within that day the press and Clinton’s campaign diligently tried to find evidence or any type of proof to connect Trump to ISIS enabling each other. But in the end there were no results to the two helping each other, making the quote from Hillary Clinton false. In order to make an informed and full position on the topic one would have to understand the backstory of what Hillary said and how her words could have been mixed up, which she obviously did. She, Hillary Clinton, made up a false claim to attack her opponent, Trump. My thoughts overall would be that the political campaign is full of made up stories to make each other’s look bad so it is never easy to trust what these candidates say on live television. They can easily twist their words but one would never know unless they looked it up.
On Tuesday, October 13th, 2015 in the first Democratic debate, Bernie said "Today in America, we have more people in jail than any other country on Earth." He argues that we spend way too much money on putting people behind bars, when we could be using that money towards something good. "Today in America, we have more people in jail than any other country on Earth," Sanders said. "It seems to me that instead of building more jails and providing more incarceration, maybe, just maybe, we should be putting money into education and jobs for our kids." After reading the back stories of the candidate’s quotes, most of the things they are saying are false. The media and news give us some facts and tell us when some of the candidates lie, but the majority of the voters aren’t going to go search and see if what they hear is true or false. So the candidates escape with false claims and many of their voters believe what they hear. We can’t rely on the media to supply us with all facts of the candidate’s comments, but they do help. The problem with not searching for the truth is we then start to believe the lies and we are sucked into a false reality. For example, many of the things Donald Trump has said at rallies and debates aren’t accurate, but many of his supporters believe him, thinking he wouldn’t lie to millions of Americans if he is trying to gain their trust. That is exactly what he wants, because he is not accurate with what he says or does, but Americans don’t care enough to fact check him so he gets away with it. The people are the ones who vote so they have the power, but until they start doing research to try and understand and know the grounds of why the claims were called upon, we are like what Orwell says in 1984 “mindless robots”.
Smore #9 Ain't Rebellion Fine
Between 1941-1943, underground resistance movements developed in approximately 100 100 ghettos in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. Their goals were to organize uprisings, break out of the ghettos, and join partisan units in the fights against the Germans. The Jews knew the uprisings would not completely stop the Germans, and they knew the chances of them actually escaping were very slim, but they could not simply do nothing. They had to fight back; it is human nature to stand up for yourself. You cannot just stand by and let someone abuse you.
What makes rebellions so powerful is the passion people have to escape their abuse. When people join together to rebel it is usually because they are being mistreated. Not always, but usually the number of people being mistreated out-weigh the people abusing them. When they join together and stand up for themselves you see the power they really do possess.
In the particular article I read, people were inspired to act because they were being held against their will in ghetto camps, abused, killed, starved, and deprived of their basic human rights. The Nazi camps were by far one of the worst things to ever happen in this world, I think anyone in their position would be inspired to rebel.
Techniques they used in their uprising were sneaking weapons into the ghettos. Inhabitants in the ghettos resisted with force when the Germans began to deport the ghetto populations. The Warsaw ghetto uprising in the spring of 1943 was the largest single revolt by Jews. Hundreds of Jews fought the Germans and their auxiliaries in the streets of the ghetto. Thousands of Jews refused to obey German orders to report to an assembly point for deportation. In the end the Nazis burned the ghetto to the ground to force the Jews out. Although they knew defeat was certain, Jews in the ghetto fought desperately and valiantly. Under the most adverse conditions, Jewish prisoners succeeded in initiating resistance and uprisings in some Nazi camps. The surviving Jewish workers launched uprisings even in the extermination camps of Treblinka, Sobibor, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. About 1,000 Jewish prisoners participated in the revolt in Treblinka. On August 2, 1943, Jews seized what weapons they could find—picks, axes, and some firearms stolen from the camp armory—and set fire to the camp. About 200 managed to escape. The Germans recaptured and killed about half of them.
So although there techniques weren’t really much help to them, they still did their best. They stuck together and they resisted orders no matter what outcome they got.
In society today, you could technically say Trump is an uprising. He has caused riots and outbreaks and fights between protesters. Who knows what more is going to come from his running, and if he were to actually be nominated, I think half of America would go crazy.
Smore #10 The Government Wins Again
Edward Snowden worked for the NSA and was allowed access to top secret information. He used his level of intelligence to turn against the government and reveal the truth to the people of America. He collected documents and important information that revealed the secret methods the NSA uses to spy on the American people. He then flew to China where he was out of USA jurisdiction and met with journalists from the U.K. publication, The Guardian, as well as filmmaker Laura Poitras. Later on Snowden says, "I'm willing to sacrifice [my former life] because I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," On June 14th, 2013, federal prosecutors charged Snowden with "theft of government Property," "unauthorized communication of national defense information" and "willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person." Snowden remained in hiding for slightly more than a month. The following month, Snowden made headlines again when it was announced that he had been offered asylum in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia. Snowden wanted to seek temporary asylum in Russia and possibly apply for citizenship later. Russia agreed to this and Snowden thanked them and said "in the end the law is winning." it's no secret that governments are able to intercept telephone calls and text messages. Many activists specifically avoid using the telephone and instead, they use tools like Skype, which they think are immune to interception, but they aren’t. Rather than intercepting the communications as they go over the wire, instead they now hack into your computer, enable your webcam, enable your microphone, and steal documents from your computer. The police can sort of sit in an air-conditioned office and remotely monitor someone without them having any idea that it's going on. You know, your webcam light won't turn on. There's nothing to indicate that the microphone is enabled. Hacking Team's software is being sold to governments around the world. The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States does have the budget to build their own surveillance technology. Like Gamma and Hacking Team, the FBI also has the capability to remotely activate webcams, microphones, steal documents, and get web browsing information, the works. We all use the same kinds of computers, so when governments go into hacking for terrorists, pedophiles, drug dealers, journalists and human rights activists they not only have the capability to hack into the computers of the real bad guys, they also have to have the capability to hack into our devices too. Soghoian ends this talk by saying that there have been no congressional hearings. There's no law that's been passed specifically authorizing this technique, and because of its power and potential for abuse, it's vital that we have an informed public debate.
Smore #11 Is Technology from Heaven?
Over the last fifty years, technology has advanced for the good and for the bad. The advancement in technology has changed the world in medicine. It has allowed physicians to better diagnose and treat their patients and countless lives have been saved, but the internet also has its bad sides. It has turned our existence upside down. It has revolutionized communications, to the extent that it is now our preferred use of everyday communication. In almost everything we do, we use the Internet. Ordering food, buying clothes, sharing a moment through social media, etc. Before the Internet, if you wanted to keep up with the news, you had to walk down to the newsstand when it opened in the morning and buy a local edition reporting what had happened the previous day. But today a click or two is enough to read your local paper and any news source from anywhere in the world, updated up to the minute. “All this technology we have it’s just an illusion. Community, companionship, a sense of inclusion and when you step away from this device of delusion, you awaken to see a world of confusion. We’re surrounded by children who since they were born, have watched us living like robots and think it’s the norm. It’s not very likely you’ll make world’s greatest dad, if you can’t entertain a child without using an iPad. When I was a child I’d never be home, I’d be out with my friends, on our bikes we’d roam. I’d wear holes in my trainers and graze up my knees, or build our own clubhouse high up in the trees. Now the park is so quiet it gives me a chill, see no children outside and the swings hanging still. There’s no skipping, no hopscotch, no church and no steeple, we’re a generation of idiots, smart phones and dumb people…” Gary Turk.
Smore #12 Happiness vs Freedom
Over the years we as humans have had to weigh our wants for freedom and happiness. The difference between the two is with freedom, we have no governmental assistant and are all on our own. That is possible for those who are self-sustainable, but over time, we as a race have begun to lean more and more on the government’s assistance to help make life run smoothly. To many this brings happiness, but you are giving away a part of your privacy by allowing the government to put limits on what you do. Happiness isn’t always about being 100% on your own and without any watching eyes, but privacy is an important quality many people want. To avoid the watching eyes or “big brother”, you have to make a choice of what you see as more important for your life. I agree with Winston in his society of Oceania with the over dominate Big Brother, but disagree with Winston in our society because at least in the United States, our Government brings happiness through protection and order providing roads, the military, an public services including water, electricity, and public facilities.
Smore #13 Gaslighting
Gaslighting is a form of mental abuse in which a victim is manipulated into doubting his or her own memory, perception and sanity. The classic example of gaslighting is to switch something around on someone that you know they’re sure to notice, but then deny kowing anything about it, and to explain that they “must be imagining things” when they challenge these changes. An example of gas lighting as shown in the article is Donald Trump. Trump has used gaslighting in many cases like saying there has been no violence at his rally’s even when there are hundreds of videos of violent protests. People in our country have been gullible enough to believe Trumps statements, allowing him to be able to brain wash our citizens into his false lies. It has become so popular in America that you are able to get away with gaslighting as long as you are able to turn the argument against someone when they are coming at you. It takes a group to make a change, not single individuals to fight the gaslighter. Hillary Clinton is another example of gaslighting through her private email scandal and the things she says about Bernie Sanders. Enough people in the world cared about hearing the truth and when the truth was revealed, she was then hit with the nationwide spotlight.
Smore #14 Can we Autocorrect Humanity (Performance Final)
Technology has become a huge crutch for humanity in this century. I never really realized how determined our uncontrollable addictions are towards everything that deals with the outside world through technology. I can admit that I am a part of this horrific epidemic and after listening to Prince Ea’s spoken word, it became evident how scary our dependability on technology has become. It seems as though it has become impossible for us to go backwards to a time of actual reality, not the fantasy that we live in now. However, Prince Ea has made it clear that the there is a small bit of hope left for humanity to come back to its roots of true communication, but only if people are willing to do that. I believe that overtime I will be able to change my ways if I pledge first to admit and recognize my problem, then decrease my unhealthy habits of consuming all of my time and days through technology. Also, just a tip for future generations, I believe it will be helpful to not introduce them to the dangers of technology until they are able to understand that it is threatening and needs to be handled with responsibility. By doing this, we are able to both keep the primary benefits of technology as well as having a bridge to true communication. However, there is also a chance that this world can possibly change to one that is irreversible to technology’s overbearing on us all. And if we cross the boundary of an evolved world that solely operates on technology, the return of actual humanity will be gone forever. We will have become a world of cold, hard robots with no knowledge on what life is supposed to be. But aren’t we already turning into that now with our heads consumed in another realm of fiction? And if we are how can we reverse it? Well, I believe that we can start by simply acknowledging our problems.