Fact check time! I haven’t blogged here in ages, but the weird memes and false “facts” just keep coming.

Here’s a meme I’ve seen several times recently, and it jumped out to me immediately.

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First, has it been deleted three times? I have no way of fact-checking if it was “deleted”, but I know what appears to be the original post was flagged as “false news” on Facebook, which I’m thankful is something that happens now, though not often enough.

Second, does it even make sense, mathematically? Uh, no, not really. Here’s a fact check article on this from PolitiFact.

Third, this meme actually seems to show the problem with the Electoral College–by showing how little the vote of an individual in a more populous state compares to the vote of an individual in a more sparse, rural state. Why should my vote mean so little for president just because I live in New York instead of North Dakota? It doesn’t make much sense to me as a New  Yorker. I’m no political expert, and I know there are arguments to be made for the Electoral College, but this meme doesn’t seem an effective (or accurate) one.

Where do so many crazy conspiracy theories and nonsense stories originate on the internet? Click here for a good article on Sophos about the sources for a lot of insanity that seeps into social media and the rest of the web from weird fringe communities. You may not ever tiptoe into those corners of the internet, but their creepy conspiracy theories may affect you anyway. Hat tip to my friend James Hofsiss for sending me this link.