💾 Archived View for yujiri.xyz › argument › screenshots.gmi captured on 2024-02-05 at 09:56:04. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

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Screenshots prove nothing

I've seen enough internet character assassination drama to last a lifetime. I'm going to point out a simple and obviously provable fact that if people would realize would do a lot of good for the world: having a screenshot of someone saying something on the internet proves NOTHING!

Look, I'm not normally the kind of person who would use caps like that, but this just makes me so mad, especially since it's been used to character assassinate some people that I admired.

I wouldn't even need to be proficient in an image editor. Browsers have something called devtools. I can use them to fake anyone saying anything in any context in 5 minutes. It only takes a low level of technical knowledge. People who want you to believe something are willing to lie, and if it's easy to do that then they'll lie. Especially when the lie is an accusation of someone else lying, for god's sake people stop turning into mindless drones every time you see a goddamn image.

You see similar shit pulled against flat Earthers. I've seen people be like "Here's this image of the Earth I found on Google Images eat shit you retard". Irrationality is frustrating enough but the most frustrating thing is when the irrational people flame you for not being irrational in the same ways as them using those very ideographs.