Chronicles of the Virus Day 39. Fake News and the Church.
We're told to keep our chin up, that we can get through this together, and not to listen to the doubters and the doomsayers. So, who's sowing the doubts and distrust? I don't know, but I do know to check out whatever comes through chats and Facebook.
My husband received a video the other day. It described a man going into the Facebook page of the Ministry of Health and going to a posted video with over forty thousand likes. He then "checks" to see who has liked or reacted to the page, and on the screen one can see just about the entire page with laughing faces. The man points out that all the names are foreign. He goes on to say that the Ministry is creating false profiles to fill their posts with reactions.
Fake news. While watching the video, I went to the same page through my Facebook, and found the post. The reaction page, when I opened it, didn't have laughing faces. Rather, it had angry faces and all the names were Spanish. When I clicked on a profile, it had been opened recently. The video was fake. The problem was, that the reactions were fake, too. I found explanations that trolls open up fake profiles and then attack the different government posts to make it look like the whole country is against the measures put in place.
When someone sees a video, one tends to assume it's true. But videos can be faked, just like photos.
Oh, there's plenty of stuff out there. Whenever I see something that makes my hackles start to rise, I say, "Stop." I note the information I'm being told, and then look it up on the internet. If enough, obviously serious publications run the same or similar news, then it's true. If there's just one mention, I'll see who's mentioning it. If they're not too trustworthy, I'll dismiss it. If it's trustworthy, I'll keep it on a "maybe" list. Sometimes, even the big media outlets can be deceived.
One thing that is true, is that the Spanish bishops of the Catholic Church don't want the minimal vital income to continue after the crisis. In Spain, the government is trying to implement a sort of universal salary, starting at five hundred euros a month, and capping at around nine hundred. It is meant for those who don't benefit from any other income, or if the other income is below two hundred euros. It's not much, but it's a lifeline. What the bishops are against is to continue that minimum vital income beyond the crisis. They agree that during the crisis it should be implemented, but not afterward. The bishops argue that living "subsidied" would deprive swathes of people from living off the fruits of their labor.
Shall we go into how the government has "subsidied" the Church? Every year, when every Spaniard fills out their tax forms, they have the possibility of saying where .07% of their taxes go: to social services or the Church. They may also not check any box. Many check for the Church, which means the Church gets on average from the state two hundred fifty million euros every year. But, if you add other privileges, they end up getting close to eleven billion in benefits. Because the Church pays no taxes, neither income nor property. Despite liberal movements in the nineteenth century to deprive the Church of property outside actual churches, it has since accumulated an obscenity of land and buildings, most of them worth fortunes. The Catholic Church is also a tenement lord. It has sold buildings in the center of Madrid worth millions of euros to hedge funds which then turned around and evicted the tenants, most of them elderly and working poor.
The State is indebting itself far into the future to try to keep the country's economy afloat when this is over. The Church has done nothing. It has only encouraged people to donate to Caritas, and to sacrifice themselves for the good of others. I must say that this organization has been working to help as much as possible. But the Church doesn't fund it, donors do.
Has this touched a nerve? Hell, yes, can't you tell?
Yes, everyone is watching television as if there's something worth watching, binging on Netflix and Amazon Prime (if they can afford it) and streaming videos all day long. Apparently, now there's a show online called Diarios de la Cuarentena, which tries to get people to laugh at their own situations. Like a psychologist mentioned on the video, humor is a human reaction to something that is overwhelming. So, keep laughing.
Life continues.
My husband received a video the other day. It described a man going into the Facebook page of the Ministry of Health and going to a posted video with over forty thousand likes. He then "checks" to see who has liked or reacted to the page, and on the screen one can see just about the entire page with laughing faces. The man points out that all the names are foreign. He goes on to say that the Ministry is creating false profiles to fill their posts with reactions.
Fake news. While watching the video, I went to the same page through my Facebook, and found the post. The reaction page, when I opened it, didn't have laughing faces. Rather, it had angry faces and all the names were Spanish. When I clicked on a profile, it had been opened recently. The video was fake. The problem was, that the reactions were fake, too. I found explanations that trolls open up fake profiles and then attack the different government posts to make it look like the whole country is against the measures put in place.
When someone sees a video, one tends to assume it's true. But videos can be faked, just like photos.
Oh, there's plenty of stuff out there. Whenever I see something that makes my hackles start to rise, I say, "Stop." I note the information I'm being told, and then look it up on the internet. If enough, obviously serious publications run the same or similar news, then it's true. If there's just one mention, I'll see who's mentioning it. If they're not too trustworthy, I'll dismiss it. If it's trustworthy, I'll keep it on a "maybe" list. Sometimes, even the big media outlets can be deceived.
One thing that is true, is that the Spanish bishops of the Catholic Church don't want the minimal vital income to continue after the crisis. In Spain, the government is trying to implement a sort of universal salary, starting at five hundred euros a month, and capping at around nine hundred. It is meant for those who don't benefit from any other income, or if the other income is below two hundred euros. It's not much, but it's a lifeline. What the bishops are against is to continue that minimum vital income beyond the crisis. They agree that during the crisis it should be implemented, but not afterward. The bishops argue that living "subsidied" would deprive swathes of people from living off the fruits of their labor.
Shall we go into how the government has "subsidied" the Church? Every year, when every Spaniard fills out their tax forms, they have the possibility of saying where .07% of their taxes go: to social services or the Church. They may also not check any box. Many check for the Church, which means the Church gets on average from the state two hundred fifty million euros every year. But, if you add other privileges, they end up getting close to eleven billion in benefits. Because the Church pays no taxes, neither income nor property. Despite liberal movements in the nineteenth century to deprive the Church of property outside actual churches, it has since accumulated an obscenity of land and buildings, most of them worth fortunes. The Catholic Church is also a tenement lord. It has sold buildings in the center of Madrid worth millions of euros to hedge funds which then turned around and evicted the tenants, most of them elderly and working poor.
The State is indebting itself far into the future to try to keep the country's economy afloat when this is over. The Church has done nothing. It has only encouraged people to donate to Caritas, and to sacrifice themselves for the good of others. I must say that this organization has been working to help as much as possible. But the Church doesn't fund it, donors do.
Has this touched a nerve? Hell, yes, can't you tell?
Yes, everyone is watching television as if there's something worth watching, binging on Netflix and Amazon Prime (if they can afford it) and streaming videos all day long. Apparently, now there's a show online called Diarios de la Cuarentena, which tries to get people to laugh at their own situations. Like a psychologist mentioned on the video, humor is a human reaction to something that is overwhelming. So, keep laughing.
Life continues.
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