10 ways to Spot Fake News!

This is the 21st century, the age of unreality. Fake news is everywhere. Heck, this could be a fake website for all you know, it's administrator a Russian-created spambot. So, how can you, a level-headed citizen, sort through what's real and what's fake? Read on and you'll learn

10 ways to Spot Fake News! 

1. Check the comments section of the website you're reading. Are the commenters spelling words correctly? Stringing together complete sentences? Spouting unchecked hatred toward minorities, women, religious groups? While you may occasionally find one or two weird comments on just about any website, if most of them fit into these categories, you've fallen into a quagmire of fake news, my friend.

2. Does the information you are reading support a version of reality widely held as false? Does it support anarchism, Putin, the plutocratic elite? Does the information maintain that Elvis is one of Trump's staffers? Does the article present fascism as a viable alternative to democracy? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, do yourself a favor and unplug for a bit.

3. Alternately, one way to gain assurance that what you're reading is accurate news is if the President of the United States has recently claimed it's fake news. If the President says it's fake, it's not.

4. Has the President advocated a news site, or is the President business partners or affiliated with an editor of a website? You guessed it: fake news.

5. When you look up the author of the article you are reading, do you find information about how they intentionally create fake news to pile up revenue? When a writer boasts about the money they make by creating fake news, that pretty well sinks their ethos to the bottom of the well.

6. Does the website you have found an article on have a merch site? Now, be assured that a merch site doesn't necessarily discredit any of the information on a website; however, the type of merchandise sold is a good indicator of whether you have found a fake news site. Can you buy various items through the website to ready yourself for an apocalypse? What would that be? Oh, you know, assault rifles, bullet-proof vests, muscle enhancement pills, biological safety masks. Don't laugh--or, at least, after you laugh, realize that this is real.

7. You read something about a reality TV show star becoming the president of the US? Sorry to tell you, but that's all real.

8. Does the news you read assert that gun massacres or holocausts never occurred? Fake! Be aware that this piece of advice is tricky. Sometimes fake news, especially news issued from the White (lie) House will claim false gun massacres did occur. Be assured, they didn't.

9. Do you get agitated, depressed, angry, scared, or have other negative emotions while reading the news in question? Sorry to tell you, but that's the nature of the 21st century. 

10. Did you follow the link from someone's twitter, facebook, or other social media post? That doesn't automatically mean that you've found fake news, but it certainly raises the suspect levels a notch or two. Do yourself a favor and unfriend any Russian spambots you might have hanging around on your friend list. What is a Russian spambot? Anything in a bikini, usually.

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For a science fiction read you can't put down, buy Joseph Hurtgen's cyberpunk romp, Tower Defender