Russia Is Investigating Fidget Spinners After Reports Claim They 'Zombify' Youth (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: In a recent report, Russia-24, a state-owned news channel, suggests that fidget spinners are being used by Russian opposition parties in order to recruit young people. As reported by The New York Times, the reporters in Russia-24's initial story say, "It is a mystery why it has become so popular in Russia right now. Who is promoting this to the masses so actively?" The video segment says the toys were being distributed at a rally for opposition leader Alexei Navalny and in online ads that direct viewers to YouTube channels that promote opposition politicians. The reporters said that while the toy's popularity was declining in the West, fidget spinners are more popular than ever in Russia. "As you can see here there is only writing in English, on the other side there is not a word in Russian," says one of the show's anchors during the report, presenting a new spinner in its packaging to the camera. According to Newsweek, a second report on Russia-24 also aired on July 12th, directly saying fidget spinners were an "object for zombifying" and a form of "hypnosis." The program featured a report from psychologist Svetlana Filatova, claiming that the spinners could help dexterity in children but otherwise "dulls" people's minds. The reports spurred Russia's consumer protection agency, Rospotrebnadzor, into action, saying on Tuesday they would launch an investigation into the toy.

Comments

Imagine

[MightyMartian]

Imagine a country where all the media is basically Breitbart

Re:Imagine

[grasshoppa]

CNN has already retracted..what? One story about Trump and Russia? Yes, you can argue that by retracting it they are maintaining their integrity, but that they published it in the first place kind of gives lie to it.

Huffpo is no better than Breitbart in my book, it's laughable you'd include it even the same sentence as CNN.

Point being, no news source is balanced. Accepting a 'balanced viewpoint' is effectively surrendering your own critical thinking skills in favor of theirs. That's why you read all of them. You learn to see their bias, and you learn how to correct for it.

As far as my "political compass"; I've been horrified by politics ever since I started voted ( before really ). That's really the only rational response to the insanity that plays out every couple years across the country.

Re:Russia says...

[Anonymous Coward]

Repeat slowly until it sinks in: STATE. RUN. MEDIA. SOURCE.

Re: Warning: MSM purchases sock puppets

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty damn obvious when a post saying "one should read them all" gets moderated troll, and the name calling posts against Breitbart get moderated +5 insightful.

Yes, that GLMDesigns, is, like yourself, recognized as a troll, and the community also realizes that Breitbart is a steaming pile of shit.

So a non-genuine bit of sophistry gets modded down, and you, a fellow traveler, get upset over it. Because, admit to it or not, you really are desperate for affirmation?

Facts may hurt on occasion, but they are facts.

Facts are slippery things, and well-suited to misrepresentations and deceits. You should know that yourself. You do make quite a considerable effort to build your house of lies on a slim foundation of truth.

All of media today lies, plain and simple. CNN, and NBC have both been caught repeatedly fabricating, staging, and editing content to promote a narrative instead of performing actual journalism. Watch either of those 2 stations and you hear the half a set of fact they need to support the narrative they want you to hear and believe. Nothing more. Not unique to them, just the most obvious offenders.

No, there are much more blatantly obvious distorters pushing their narrative agenda out there. Sinclair Broadcast Group, for example, is quite egregious.

You really don't have much discernment on that regard.

It is the information vacuum which gives rise to sites like Infowars. They lie too!

No, it isn't a vacuum, it is a fan that blows a lot of shit.

If you want to see how bad US media has become with propaganda, just read about the same topic on NYT and Breitbart and compare.

Or put a camera on a bunch of children, then ask them their story about what happened when they start misbehaving. Or trained police officers. Or yourself. You know you've given accounts that vary based on your mood at the time.

Watch CNN and Fox and compare. Same subject, two separate sets of facts being discussed, and two completely different opinions being presented. Amazingly, they both tend to favor the leftist agenda.

Oh, silly s.petry, still beholden to a false narrative portrayal of political spectrum. You would be less of an arse if you simply abandoned that concept of two-dimensional politics.

Journalism in the US is dead, and has been for quite a while. The only difference between today and 10 years ago is that it's easier to see media caught in the act.

Or you could just watch Citizen Kane. Or a Shakespeare play. Or a Greek drama. It's like you are way out of touch with the actual historical record.

Or maybe you just aren't very sophisticated.

Trust in Journalism is the only thing lower than approval for politicians.

Mysterious how much trust you have in those polls, when you use them to craft your own narrative. Most mysterious.