• US occupying forces in northern Syria are continuing to plunder natural resources and farmland, a practice ongoing since 2011
  • Recently, US troops smuggled dozens of tanker trucks loaded with Syrian crude oil to their bases in Iraq.
  • The fuel and convoys of Syrian wheat were transported through the illegal settlement of Mahmoudia.
  • Witnesses report a caravan of 69 tankers loaded with oil and 45 with wheat stolen from silos in Yarubieh city.
  • Similar acts of looting occurred on the 19th of the month in the city of Hasakeh, where 45 tankers of Syrian oil were taken out by US forces.
  • Prior to the war and US invasion, Syria produced over 380 thousand barrels of crude oil per day, but this has drastically reduced to only 15 thousand barrels per day.
  • The country’s oil production now covers only five percent of its needs, with the remaining 95 percent imported amidst difficulties due to the US blockade.
  • The US and EU blockade prevents the entry of medicines, food, supplies, and impedes technological and industrial development in Syria.
        • nahuse@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I’m a critical thinker and student of public policy and global society and political discourse?

          I have a deep and lasting dislike of authoritarianism, no matter the political orientation?

          I value media literacy and critical thought?

          I dislike the exploitative trend of capitalism, it believe that ny ultimate purpose is to use my own privilege to try and soften the blow for humanity in whatever small way I can, thinking globally in scope while emphasizing engagement with my own immediate community?

          But really, I’m just weirded out by the attack on critical thought around here, when all I did was question a questionable source. I’m also wondering why the fuck my political orientation is relevant here, and why you think you’re able to condescend to me in such a childish way.

          • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            I have a deep and lasting dislike of authoritarianism, no matter the political orientation?

            You’re literally the one appealing to the authority of MBFC here, irony is truly dead.

          • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            This conversation is entirely being driven by you saying irrelevant things and using garbage sources like mediabiasfactcheck.com

            Nobody is stopping you from finding sources that contradict the original posted story. Nobody is stopping you from explaining why the original posted story is wrong.

            Dying on a hill about the usefulness of a glorified amazon review ass source isn’t critical thinking.

            • Sightline@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              “Nobody is stopping you from explaining why the original posted story is wrong.”

              Breaking news: There is a teapot orbiting Mercury.

              Use your sources to prove it wrong.

        • nahuse@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Like a tool in a media literacy toolbox?

          You’re showing your own bias. It’s not the resource. It’s one that does an awful lot of legwork in checking bad sources of news, very often accurately.

          So. Don’t call me a “lib,” pal.

          • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            If you ever bother looking who funds the tool it will become clear to you whose biases it promotes. It’s incredible that there are people so gullible as to genuinely believe that this is some sort of an altruistic project.

            • nahuse@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              You are making the claim about its funding. Please provide your argument, rather than making oblique references to things.

              I haven’t had time to watch and contextualize the long video you sent me to respond to it.

              But if you have concerns about the bias of a well known and widely respected source of fact checking (not even first hand news), then please expound and cite it.

              Otherwise, I have to assume you are making a bad faith argument, and cannot source your assertions, so I don’t have any need to engage with you.

              • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                I mean it’s right on their site, the fact that you can’t figure out how to find basic information on the internet says a lot about you. It’s funded in large part by ads. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/funding/

                There are also plenty of criticisms of the site and the methodology that are well known. For example, The Columbia Journalism Review has described MBFC reviews as subjective assessments that “leave room for human biases, or even simple inconsistencies, to creep in”

                https://www.cjr.org/innovations/measure-media-bias-partisan.php

                There is an obvious inherent bias given that what’s considered centre is liberal mainstream centre in the west. That’s what’s known as anchoring bias, being to the left of what’s the current mainstream in the west doesn’t make something extreme in objective sense.

                MBFC has also rated US propaganda outlets such as VoA and RFE as being “least biased”. Even wikipedia considers these sources unreliable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Potentially_unreliable_sources

                Just a few examples for you there. Hopefully that’s enough expounding and citing for you to get a picture.

            • Sightline@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              I’ve been watching you for years dude, you don’t have room to talk about biases.

              • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                I’m pretty open about my biases dude, and never pretended otherwise. The point here, is that western mainstream constitutes a bias just like anything else. All you’re complaining about here is that my biases are different from yours. There’s no such thing as unbiased content. Deal with it.