So, what was it that Ralph Waldo Emerson said re consistency? Ah yes, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." OK, so perhaps hoping for total consistency from folks tweeting and re-tweeting the events in Iran is unrealistic! But how about some consistency , is that too much to ask for?
Some Twitterers apparently make no effort to have any consistency whatsoever, but tweet and re-tweet anything and everything that they see while on "keyboard patrol" (well actually, anything and everything from their trusted sources... you do have to watch out and weed out the false tweets from (Iranian) government stooges and provocateurs!
Let's consider a small number of tweets from @oxfordgirl. Let's start off by observing that her (?) location is "in the heart of free Iran" and she (?) now has a Persian avatar (though not green!)... Fine, she is following the 'we are all Iranians now' meme. More confusingly she (?) is tweeting as if she is the first person in her tweets. Perhaps this is as a consequence of her (?) following the "remove all possible identifying information from what you re-tweet" meme, or perhaps just an indicator of how much she has identified with the folks being oppressed...
OK, let's look at just a few illustrative tweets from a fairly short period of time, and check for any kind of consistency (see screen captures above). First she (?) had a large number of tweets similar to the first one above i.e. that Iranians should not be put off attending the rallies because of stories of people being beaten because these were false stories being planted by "government thugs" to discourage folks from turning out). Putting aside the fact that beatings and attacks are most likely actually occurring (after all , this is part of the modus operandi of the Basiji), how does this square with her own tweets a short time later re people being "disperced (sic) with tear gas", "... bomb, many ppl injured...", and "raging battles being reported"?
A warning not to send pictures from cell phones is followed by a thought that it would be great to have some pictures of "... baisj beating Mullahs..." as this would be helpful in turning the tide against Ahmedinajad.
The adherents of the Combatant Clerics also "...out despite rally being cancelled..." Wait a moment, wasn't all talk of rally cancelation a sure indicator of fake tweets by government thugs and provocateurs? Apparently not...
Bottom line: a lot of nonsense out there, one needs to search through the dross for the real gems. Also, some folks not really helping things by retweeting everything, and by 'anonymizing' the tweets when they re-tweet...
Some Twitterers apparently make no effort to have any consistency whatsoever, but tweet and re-tweet anything and everything that they see while on "keyboard patrol" (well actually, anything and everything from their trusted sources... you do have to watch out and weed out the false tweets from (Iranian) government stooges and provocateurs!
Let's consider a small number of tweets from @oxfordgirl. Let's start off by observing that her (?) location is "in the heart of free Iran" and she (?) now has a Persian avatar (though not green!)... Fine, she is following the 'we are all Iranians now' meme. More confusingly she (?) is tweeting as if she is the first person in her tweets. Perhaps this is as a consequence of her (?) following the "remove all possible identifying information from what you re-tweet" meme, or perhaps just an indicator of how much she has identified with the folks being oppressed...
OK, let's look at just a few illustrative tweets from a fairly short period of time, and check for any kind of consistency (see screen captures above). First she (?) had a large number of tweets similar to the first one above i.e. that Iranians should not be put off attending the rallies because of stories of people being beaten because these were false stories being planted by "government thugs" to discourage folks from turning out). Putting aside the fact that beatings and attacks are most likely actually occurring (after all , this is part of the modus operandi of the Basiji), how does this square with her own tweets a short time later re people being "disperced (sic) with tear gas", "... bomb, many ppl injured...", and "raging battles being reported"?
A warning not to send pictures from cell phones is followed by a thought that it would be great to have some pictures of "... baisj beating Mullahs..." as this would be helpful in turning the tide against Ahmedinajad.
The adherents of the Combatant Clerics also "...out despite rally being cancelled..." Wait a moment, wasn't all talk of rally cancelation a sure indicator of fake tweets by government thugs and provocateurs? Apparently not...
Bottom line: a lot of nonsense out there, one needs to search through the dross for the real gems. Also, some folks not really helping things by retweeting everything, and by 'anonymizing' the tweets when they re-tweet...
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