Most Annoying Sites...

This is a list of the sites that really honk me off every time I happen upon them. On some of the more irritating sites there are constant complaints that the US public is being lied to by the corporate media and statements made declaring that the US public never knows the "real truth" about anything. I peruse various news sources from across the world and have never found any evidence to support this position. The people making this argument seem to think that the Internet is a secret trove of information and nobody in the US knows anything about it. They consider themselves information elitist and spend most their time congratulating each over on how smart and informed they are. The level of stupidity these people display on a regular basis is astounding and scares the hell out of me.

What also scares me is the fact the Internet provides the perfect mechanism with which people can promote their views as the truth with no regard at all for the "real truth". An example would be setting up several blog sites under different user and domain names filled with their "facts"  stating the world is flat. Someone could then say "Yes, the World is really flat!, Just look at all the sites and articles that support this "fact" I found on the Internet!". 

 Before the Internet came along almost all of the books and newspapers were sourced. This was because the publishers could be held responsible for publishing erroneous information and they needed to avoid that to remain in business. How could a newspaper or book publisher succeed if their publications contained falsehoods and mistakes? On the internet bad information can be published anonymously with no consequences for the person publishing the disinformation and lies.  People wishing to publish BS can setup elaborate cross referencing sites several layers deep with each site using the others as their "reference". Sometimes even this is not necessary because the idiots out there who believe anything they read on the internet if it supports their opinion. If the information does not support their opinion it is written off as lies.

This will be a growing list as time goes on.

1. http://www.antiwar.com/ - Reasonably well written articles but full of one-sided analysis and faulty reasoning. Except for a couple of nutcases there are not that many people who go around describing themselves as pro-war in general. People can be for a certain war and be against other wars depending on the situation. For someone to describe themselves as anti-war no matter the situation shows a really poor understanding of the history of human civilization and basic reality. Some still hold the mistaken belief that  humans today are less vicious and competitive than we were 5000 years ago. The world we live in was shaped and is still being shaped by confrontation and war. We are still a long way from the "can't we just get along?" Utopian paradise envisioned by the "peace not war" crowd. Nothing of substance has every been achieved without some sort of violence. And as cold as it sounds the human race is not in any danger of going extinct so as long as the nuclear weapons are left in their bunkers so the world population in general can absorb any loses accrued in the occasional war. Humans are not above the species imperatives and tendencies built into our genes. We have witnessed animal species that have evolved over millions of years and the one thing they all have in common is that the strongest always replaces the weakest. Even humanities earlier models the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons competed with one another with the Cro-Magnons defeating the Neanderthals in the great survival contest. We will never work our way towards universal peace unless we acknowledge upfront what thousands of years worth of history has shown us about our base nature.
2. http://www.salon.com/ - Well written articles but full of incendiary incitement, sensational pronouncements, and biased interpretations of the facts at hand. Most recently has been the ongoing hand wringing over the soldier being held for supplying Wikileaks with classified data. The word torture has been bandied about and that is a real shame. Arguments like this are made to inflame passions but they make a mockery of the real torture applied throughout the world. Sort of like referring to Gaza as a concentration camp that has no cattle cars, gas chambers, or ovens. Or claiming that water boarding is an evil of unprecedented dimensions. Comparsions like these are distorting what a concentration camp or torture really is. The soldier's pre-trial incarceration in no way can be considered torture unless you are willing to claim that any one in any prison is being tortured. Prison is for punishment. The accused has had access to a lawyer, friends, and acquaintances. He is in solitary to protect him from other military inmates that might consider him a traitor to his country. Military types can be very touchy on the subject of violating sworn oaths. He is also in solitary due to the nature of the offense he is accused of. If he were permitted to mingle among others in an uncontrolled environment what is stopping him from divulging even more classified information verbally? Propping this guy up as some sort of hero is sickening. I have not seen any revelations from the released leaks that could possibly be worth heroic praise or spending 50 years in jail for. He made a gigantic mistake and unfortunately he will have to suffer the consequences.
3. www.cnn.com - I glance at this website just about every day to get a brief overview of what is happening in general. It's hard to find any real details but it does catch most of the newest headlines which I can then use to search the web for more information if I am interested. The worst part of this site is the reader comment's section. For every valid comment their are 10 idiotic comments. Sometimes even finding 1 on point comment is asking to much. You can find idiotic comments on just about any non-moderated site but I think you would be hard pressed to find anything worse than the comments on the CNN site. What's worse is that you can always identify the intentional trolling posts and ignore them but when the non-trollish comments contain such nonsense, blatant lies, stupidity, and incendiary rhetoric it really astounds me that people can be that stupid. I'm surprised they can even turn on their PC given the intelligence level they expose in their posts.
4. http://english.pravda.ru - If your native language is English and you hate the US this is the site for you. The stories are rather bland but the comment sections are filled with anti-us propaganda. The comments on this site also run towards the "echo chamber" model where all the posters agree with one another in their hatred. One of the silliest ongoing conversations is to call out and criticize anyone who refers to the US as America. The posters will point out that America covers the whole continent from Canada to Brazil and there will be 30+ posts on this type of non-sense. When people refer to America 99% of the time they are talking about the US. To use this as another reason to pile on the hate is a bit juvenile to say the least. 
5. http://www.commondreams.org/ - This site has to be rated in the top 5 of sites dedicated to spewing anti-us propaganda mixed with a healthy dose of stupidity. The intellectual titans that post on this site revel in throwing around words like fascist, sheeple, Bushitler, and other unflattering remarks. These people like to pretend that through their innate intellectual powers they, and only they, know the real truth. They use anecdotal evidence and unsubstantiated information to support their positions while ignoring any inconvenient facts that might contradict their deeply held beliefs. They are not shy when it comes to criticizing anyone who actually attempts to address today's problems. All they add to the equation is hate, reckless condemnations, and insults. This site is also a major league "echo chamber" where the posters do nothing but congratulate each other for thinking the same as they do.
6. http://www.slashdot.org/ - This is a tech site that publishes stories covering technical and science related news items. In my opinion the site discussions and commentaries have been slowly degrading over the past couple of years. There are some very smart people in these discussions but they are a minority when compared to the other discussion participants. Things start to get really annoying when the discussions evolve into political situations. This includes the politics of the computing industry as well as national and international related topics. Another annoying factor is the article submission procedure. When the submitter publishes a story sometimes they create article headlines summaries that do not match up with the content of the article being published. It seems like majority of users never bother to actually read the articles but will enter into the discussions using the headline and summaries as the basis of their remarks. This results in discussion threads that are totally off topic.  
7. http://www.rationalskepticism.org/ - this site is the perfect example of how information can be twisted to support anyones point a view. I did not really get annoyed at this site it is just so over the top I just had to laugh. However, I am a little worried about the type of people who actually think any of this information is true.
8. http://worldnewstrust.com/ - This site is a real winner. If anyone comes across this post please check out this site. It contains a detailed thesis on the downfall of the US in 2010. Seeing as it is 2011 I guess his thesis sort of came up empty. I assume he will update this article and put in 2011 as the year the US disintegrates.  It has graphs and diagrams that split the US territories up for other countries to rule. The author of this non-sense really needs to get back on his meds. The really scary thing is that there are people in the world (including some Americans) who think this will happen and even those who want it to happen. I do not know how anyone could believe the US would disintegrate and not take the rest of the world down with us. There is a real war coming in the not so distant future. None of this half assed spare the civilians BS type of a war either. We are talking total war. Hopefully I will be dead by that time this happens.
9. http://www.wired.com/ - This site contains a lot of good information and commentary on the tech industry but the Politics section has pretty much dragged down the entire site in my eyes. It's utterly amazing the types of comments populating their forums. Even some of their recent tech related articles have lost all credibility. One of the recent articles claims that it was the US and Israel who created the Stuxnext computer virus. The article contained nothing but BS and at the end they finally admitted that there was absolutely no proof to back up any of their assertions made in the article. How does crap like this get posted on a site that is supposed to cover the technology industry not technical fantasies?
10. http://sarthanapalos.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/a-guide-how-not-to-say-stupid-stuff-about-egypt/ - Another "Progressive" site that is a perfect example of the "echo chamber" discussion. Everyone is congratulating themselves over their enlightened attitude toward the Egyptian political situation. They have included the obligatory US bashing, stereotypes, and revisionist history to make their point. It will be very interesting to see who actually ends up running the country. For some reason they tend to ignore the fact that no matter what form a government is running the country their will always be dissenting groups ready to make compromises to secure their power base.