• TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Are you sure it’s not a school report? I remember seeing plenty of essays in 5th grade misspelling the names of people they’re quoting like this.

      • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net
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        4 hours ago

        So now you’re gonna be petty and criticize their spelling as if that matters? It’s a meme. It isn’t that serious.

        • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          “So now” I’m going to? No; I already have been since the first comment.

          I’m not going to sit down and explain why doing the bare minimum to source a quote you slap into a shitty, zero-effort meme is important when you’re releasing it out into an ocean of disinformation. That should be obvious, and if you take offense at that basic notion, then I’m just going to wallow in the clownery you started instead of wasting my time.

          • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net
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            4 hours ago

            Again, it’s a meme not a dissertation or report.

            There are no expectations that the meme is a legitimate source of information and should never be treated as such. If you take memes seriously as a source of information then you have issues.

            The issue with misinformation isn’t people providing sources or not but people being too stupid to have skepticism of things they read online and taking everything so seriously all the damn time.

            • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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              3 hours ago

              If you take memes seriously as a source of information then you have issues.

              I don’t – which should be obvious based on the fact I decided to source the quote. A frightening amount of people do, and that’s not limited to one political side. It’s 2026; we’ve been watching widespread media illiteracy and intellectual laziness destroy society for at least the last decade. You can’t just pretend you’re totally separate from that when you put media out into the world to be consumed by others.

              And if you think basic sourcing is limited to “dissertations” or “school reports”, then writing school reports ironically taught you jack shit about why sourcing is important.

              • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net
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                2 hours ago

                The fact you went out of your way to source a quote on a meme shows you take it more seriously than necessary.

                Oh, and speaking of media illiteracy, just because I used those as examples doesn’t mean that was an exhaustive list of all possible examples.

                Citing sources is only necessary or important when the media in question is presenting itself as a legitimate source of information. Since, this is a meme and not a dissertation, a journal article, or any other outlet that is presenting itself as a legitimate source of information, none of those obligations exist.

                Just because media is being distributed to the public doesn’t make that media obligated to present itself as legitimate. The fact that it is a meme should already be proof enough that it is not legitimate and should not be treated as such.

                Media illiteracy and intellectual laziness are issues but you do not solve them by catering to the inept. You solve it by educating them out of their ineptitude.

                • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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                  2 hours ago

                  or any other outlet that is presenting itself as a legitimate source of information, none of those obligations exist.

                  If this meme isn’t presenting that the quote is real, then why the fuck does it exist? I mean “to be easily created and disseminated propaganda”, obviously, but why should it exist? Sourcing your shit isn’t “catering to the inept”; it’s catering to the people who care about the truth. If sourcing is “catering to the inept”, then why is it done in those contexts you mentioned? When does it stop “catering to the inept”? The answer, obviously, is it doesn’t, because it never was.

                  If you want to think that an expectation of basic sourcing should be limited to e.g. academic contexts, journalism, etc., to the point that the notion of expecting that from anything else offends you, then whatever I say isn’t going to convince you out of your own laziness and stupidity. You’re part of the problem.

                  • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net
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                    2 hours ago

                    Because it’s a meme and its creator wanted it to for shits and giggles. My assumption was that it was made up to be funny and bash on Obama for being a warmongering oil baron.

                    Things don’t need a reason to exist.