# No, Snopes in NOT a left-wing extremist website supported by George Soros! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 7, 2015, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217 "2015-08-07T05:40:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/1 "2015-08-07T05:40:39Z")
I’m in a conversation with someone who is adamant that Snopes is politically biased and owned by George Soros. Obviously it’s nonsense but the claim seems to be all over the web on right-wing sites. Sometimes they say he supports it indirectly through left-wing orgs; sometimes they say he owns it. Snopes adresses this: > **[About Us | Snopes.com](https://www.snopes.com/about/)** > > The definitive Internet reference source for researching urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation. > [@](#): > > Because [snopes.com](http://snopes.com) is all about rumors, it was only a matter of time before rumors began to circulate about it and its operators, such as the following: > Snopes receives funding from an undisclosed source. The source is undisclosed because Snopes refuses to disclose that source. The Democratic Alliance, a funding channel for uber-Leftist (Marxist) Billionaires (George Soros etc.), direct funds to an “Internet Propaganda Arm” pushing these views. The Democratic Alliance has been reported to instruct Fundees to not disclose their funding source. > The [snopes.com](http://snopes.com) web site is (and always has been) a completely independent, self-sufficient entity wholly owned by its operators, Barbara and David Mikkelson, and funded through advertising revenues. Neither the site nor its operators has ever received monies from (or been engaged in any business or editorial relationship with), any sponsor, investor, partner, political party, religious group, business organization, government agency, or any other outside group or organization. Of course they’re not going to believe this since they don’t trust Snopes to begin with. This issue arose because Snopes debunks a claim my acquaintance is making and I’m disputing. When I ask him to prove that Soros has some connection to Snopes, he ignores it and goes back to the original subject (for which his original source is essentially a friend of a friend). I might as well argue with a brick wall. Any source I give will likely have already been demonized all over the web. It seems like anything that deals in actual facts has been painted as left-wing and somehow connected to George Soros or Al Gore. Am I getting a little too close to CT territory if I say that it almost seems like there’s an organized effort to demonize factual sources? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/2 "2015-08-07T05:52:11Z")
C’mon, you’ve been here long enough to have seen the whole notion of fact-checking get disparaged by the forces of evil during the 2012 election campaign. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/3 "2015-08-07T05:59:30Z")
Of course, I’m just irritated as hell right now at this guy’s obstinance. And it’s been going on much longer than 3 years. How do we get through to people when they won’t accept factual sources? We end up more and more polarized between knowledge and ignorance. That can’t end well. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/4 "2015-08-07T06:14:13Z")
MUCH longer than three years, yes. IIRC, the adage _“Reality has a liberal bias”_ dates back to the first Shrub administration. As to what we can do about it, I’m reminded of the quote from Nietzsche (paraphrased) _“The struggle against evil must be undertaken not only without fear, but without hope.”_ That is, keep beating our heads against the wall. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/5 "2015-08-07T06:22:08Z")
But Snopes? Snopes is mostly about Mexican rats and swallowing spiders in your sleep. This guy says that they’re a radical left-wing _news source_! It’s insane. Yes, they do occasionally touch on political claims and the point I’m arguing is a claim about a candidate, but really, why would George Soros have any interest in supporting Snopes? Why would they even need his support? They’re a very popular website and should easily be able to survive on advertising revenue. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/6 "2015-08-07T06:38:11Z")
Maybe the solution is to persuade Soros to actually and publicly fund a competing fact-checking site… ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/7 "2015-08-07T06:41:10Z")
_Snopes_ wanted to be the _Straight Dope,_ but by the time they were willing to deal with the caloric content of semen, the issue was settled. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/8 "2015-08-07T06:47:48Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Maybe the solution is to persuade Soros to actually and publicly fund a competing fact-checking site… They’d just say that he supports or owns both sites. These people have been virtually transported into a reality free bubble, and convinced that anything that may break through that bubble is suspect or even evil. It’s like some sort of psyops. Lie, then lie about anything might expose the first lie. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/9 "2015-08-07T06:49:24Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > _Snopes_ wanted to be the _Straight Dope,_ but by the time they were willing to deal with the caloric content of semen, the issue was settled. Think about it. The Straightdope, which has a passion for facts, has also been painted as left-wing. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/10 "2015-08-07T09:08:29Z")
Facts are _so_ left wing. Could be the Fox strapline. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/11 "2015-08-07T09:52:56Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > IIRC, the adage _“Reality has a liberal bias”_ dates back to the first Shrub administration. That’s a Colbert coinage. > [@Stephen Colbert](#): > > I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in “reality.” And reality has a well-known liberal bias. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/12 "2015-08-07T11:16:39Z")
Ah. _Second_ Shrub administration, then. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/13 "2015-08-07T12:30:30Z")
[QUOTE=davidm] Am I getting a little too close to CT territory if I say that it almost seems like there’s an organized effort to demonize factual sources? [/QUOTE] This has long been a tactic among woo-ists, whenever solid evidence is used to debunk their loony ideas. Any research/experts you cite are automatically dismissed as being Funded/Corrupted By Corporate No-Goods. Example from yesterday: I had responded to an online question about whether it is safe to eat apricot kernels (consuming cyanide, even in relatively small amounts is actually not so hot an idea). My point was waved aside by a cyanide fan, who urged the original questioner to “do your own research”, but avoid any Mainstream Western Allopathic Medicine sites, which just want to suppress herbal remedies. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/14 "2015-08-07T12:53:43Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Think about it. The Straightdope, which has a passion for facts, has also been painted as left-wing. Painted? I had to laugh at that. Try expressing a conservative point of view around here and you’ll quickly find that this board tilts wayyyy to the left. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/15 "2015-08-07T13:14:25Z")
When that conservative point of view is mostly based on fact-free little believies, it’s indeed quite likely ;). ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/16 "2015-08-07T13:15:00Z")
Perhaps it’s because what’s considered “left” in this country actually has facts and logic on it’s side? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/17 "2015-08-07T13:37:13Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Perhaps it’s because what’s considered “left” in this country actually has facts and logic on it’s side? While there are loony lefties who are just as bad as loony righties, when one moves to the mainstream left versus the mainstream right, this is true. Even when I disagree with the left, which is ~35-40% of the time, the left is usually (not always) much better at using facts and logic to support its arguments. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/18 "2015-08-07T13:39:20Z")
A good example of what I’m talking about is the thread here on this board asking “Why the liberal ‘pooh-poohing’ of the Ebola danger?”. There was nothing “liberal” about not overreacting to Ebola and not wanting to quarantine people for no good reason. It was simply the best fact-based way to react to the threat (and the incontrovertible fact that we had no epidemic in this country supports this after the fact). Yet it was being painted as being a liberal viewpoint, and not just by that thread. Why? It makes no sense, but there it is. Time after time, taking the logical, fact-based, scientific view is painted as being “liberal”. [ul] [li]Climate Change[/li][li]Evolution[/li][li]The handling of the Ebola crisis.[/li][li]Homosexuality[/li][li]Transgender issues[/li][/ul]That’s just a few things off the top of my head. Not that the left is totally innocent. GMO and “big pharma” tend to be left-wing boogiemen, and the anti-vax nonsense doesn’t seem to be associated with any particular leaning, but the left doesn’t go around consistently demonizing fact-based knowledge and science. (And for those painting this board as “liberal”, notice where the general sentiment around here is on those issues. It’s with the science and the facts, not the politics.) ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/19 "2015-08-07T13:57:20Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > A good example of what I’m talking about is the thread here on this board asking “Why the liberal ‘pooh-poohing’ of the Ebola danger?”. > > There was nothing “liberal” about not overreacting to Ebola and not wanting to quarantine people for no good reason. It was simply the best fact-based way to react to the threat (and the incontrovertible fact that we had no epidemic in this country supports this after the fact). Liberals like Andrew Cuomo and Bill DiBlasio did overreact. Whether that was to quiet the crying hordes afraid of a bogeyman (and who couldn’t be bothered to actually learn the true threat, which included a significant number of local news reporters), or because they truly believed they were helping, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217/20 "2015-08-07T14:09:22Z")
Reality has a well-known liberal bias. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-snopes-in-not-a-left-wing-extremist-website-supported-by-george-soros/727217.md?page=2)