Monday 27 March 2017

Fake news the EU and the Vatican...dont get fooled again...please




The cure to eliminate fake news is that people stop reading 140-character tweets and start reading 600-page books.” 

Two days ago I wrote with a colleague a story called “Vatican in EU bombshell”. The story is entirely made up. We have created broken links and mixed it true historical events. We invented the names of academics, mixed it in with a real title of group called medieval org. We wrote it to illustrate how certain groups make up stories bad how people do not check them out or apply any critical thought to any of claims. It was not written to make anybody feel stupid or ignorant it was written to wake people up http://all-to-human.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/vatican-in-wales-eu-bombshell.html I shared the information on this fake news article with all my students in the three courses I run weekly. The experiment was interesting, concerning and most alarming. I am yet to see any one coming at it from a historical position. Most disturbing was that no one checked the links.


It has made me laugh though. One guy on a certain Facebook group told me off for copying and pasting a “scholarly article” and passing it off of as my own work. I am sorry David Sheldrake it was. It was written to sound like a scholarly article when you written enough of them its easy to replicate them.  He then went on to lay into me about making observatuions about Aberfan and the death of Martin McGuinness. Each of these last two pieces were historically accurate and clearly reserached. One must ask interesting questions about how fake news can be used and how real news can be denied......I am also thankful to Mr David Rhys Thomas of Cadoxton and Cardiff for sharing his ideas and his suggestion of Donovan`s song "Universal Soldier" davi dis an old friend who has always warmly supported me


The other reason was to promote our Asclepius Course on Plato, Trump and Fake news that starts next Wednesday, March 29 at 10 am.. We live in the world iof fake news and post truth. If you are interested you can ring us to discuss the course. The details of the course are as follows

What we are now calling fake news—misinformation that people fall for—is nothing new. Thousands of years ago, in the Republic, Plato offered up a hellish vision of people who mistake shadows cast on a wall for reality. In the Iliad, the Trojans fell for a fake horse. Shakespeare loved misinformation: in “Twelfth Night,” Viola disguises herself as a man and wins the love of another woman; in “The Tempest,” Caliban mistakes Stephano for a god. And, in recent years, the Nobel committee has awarded several economics prizes to work on “information asymmetry,” “cognitive bias,” and other ways in which the human propensity toward misperception distorts the workings of the world. This is a ten week. two hour a week course thats costs £50. For more deytails ring 01792 480245 or 07592330467 


I liked this comment from Graham Mallaghan " I enjoyed your spoof and went along with it. I especially like the medieval.org graphic, with the twee little strèet scene. Of course what you propose in the spoof article would have effectively recreated the Papal Monarchy of the middle ages - in the form the EU. This was based on a wonderful piece of early fake news - a forged document called "The Donation of Constantine" in which the Roman Emperor Constantine I transferred rulership over the western empire to the Pope. As the Donation of Constantine was part of the body of canon and Papal court law that you mentioned in the spoof, the adoption of these codices by the EU would in theory have made the Pope head of that organisation - and the of a reborn Western Roman Empire. 

Of course, the medieval Papal Monarchy was also based on the idea that as God is superior to man so the spiritual is superior to the temporal and earthly kings are subjects of the Pope. This is why English kings and Welsh princes were called "Your Grace" - your Majesty first being used for Henry VIII after he broke with Rome and became "an emperor in his own country" - no longer subject to the Pope and his equal before God. It was also the reason that King John was able to get Magna Carta annulled by Pope Innocent III after 52 days, so that it has never (for the most part) been part of English and UK law. I wonder, Martyn what you think of the idea of the EU as theocracy, which is what your spoof article was proposing!

What is also interesting is that the independent kings of Gwynedd and the kinglets of the the rest of medieval Wales all claimed descent for their royal houses from the same Constantine I, through the marriage of Helen of Caernarfon (Elen Luyddog) to usurper of the western emperor Magnus Maximus (relative of Constantine - member of the same Flavian dynasty, known as Macsen Wledig (Mad Max!!!) in Welsh). So, the last indpendent rulers of Wales were actually very keen to show their Romanitas and demonstrate their affiliation to the last attempt at a European Union!


Course synopsis for Plato, Trump, and fake news and face-book.

Week 1 Martyn 29th March:- Plato and Post truth
Week 2 Martyn 5th April:- Britebart and belief
Week 3 Martyn 12th April:- Descartes in denial

Week 4 Jenni 19th April:- Public and private. Plato’s Greece and internet privacy.
Week 5 Jenni 26th April:- Facebook Farage and the Sophists
Week 6 Jenni 3rd May:- Wiki and the Whitehouse
Week 7 Jenni 10th May:- Sex lies and cyberspace.

Week 8 Martyn 17th May:- Symbolic logic

Week 9 Jenni 24th May:- Logical fallacies.

Week 10 Martyn 31st May:- Science and the sceptic


Here is clear evidenve to do it properly........

21 Mar 2017, 3 comments
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"I was sent this information by some old friends who live in Italy. I have no idea on its validiity  but I think its very interesting. I respect scholarship and evidence. I leave the rest to you. With thanks to Renaldo and Clara Balsamo of Venice for thinking of us in Brexit island.

Vatican in Wales EU Bombshell
A report published recently on the history website site Medieval.org. suggests supporters of Brexit in Wales may have started celebrating too soon. The article draws attention to an ancient and obscure text which might mean Wales can remain in the EU even if British prime minister Theresa May triggers article 50 at the end of the month.

Dr. Miriam Goldstein author of 'The Unknown Scrolls' and senior researcher at Medieval.org. writes "A Papal decree 'Sicut Cambria' (Thus to Wales) which was issued in 1135 by Adrian IV the only british bishop to ever occupy the papal throne not only recognised Welsh independence under the rule of Owain Gwynedd - considered by historians to be the first Prince of Wales - but also links Wales and the Vatican 10 centuries later”.
This is because the Treaty of Rome signed in the Italian capital's Palazzo dei Conservatori 50 years ago this week, and which created the EU, included in a subsection of its founding articles - at the insistence of the Italian government - the Acta Apostolicae Sedisin. A document which comprises the entire body of vatican law and papal decrees and among which was Sicut Cambria”.

Many of these Vatican statutes however were soon removed from the treaty by a special work group created by EU commissioners, as many of them referred to ancient european states and provinces no longer in existence or conflicted with member states laws. But it appears that 'sicut cambria' was not among those to be removed from the Treaty of Rome's subsection and it remains in force to this day".
Vatican texts Historian Professor Sheldon Lloyd-Williams who has spent the last 12 years working at the Vatican library told Medieval.org."Sicut Cambria is definitely an authentic document. It's got the Papal Seal and the inks and parchments used correspond to those that were in use in Europe in the 12 century. And it means that unless both the Vatican and the people of Wales through their elected government - which would be the Senedd these days i guess - annul the decree Wales would remain in the EU even after the British government has completed the process of brexit”.
Yes it could be revoked. The Welsh government could indicate it wanted to do so or there could be a referendum held in Wales to revoke it by a vote of the people but there is no certainty Pope Francis would do so as it would be almost unprecedented for a Pope to revoke a decree issued by one of his predecessors"."
The Vatican office and the Welsh Government were unavailable for comment.


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