Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Falling for Misinformation

I don't think anyone will be surprised if I say we're surrounded by an incredible amount of misinformation.   It seems every aspect of life has become politicized and gets used to raise emotions on one side or the other.  

I learned earlier in the afternoon that I had been suckered by one of these.  I saw this Tweet posted as truth and just believed it without questioning.  

Unlike me, one of the rare, real reporters out there (this one from Reuters) fact checked it with The Atlantic.  A spokesperson said it was fake.

“I can verify that this is not a real article from The Atlantic, and is indeed fabricated,” said Anna Bross the Senior Vice President of Communications at The Atlantic.

It would be easy to ask why such a silly story would be so easy to believe, but the answer to that is so obvious it doesn't need to be asked.  The commercial media is so completely in the tank for Biden we expect this sort of nonsense.  

Besides, it's not like the anti-Biden side didn't milk an entire five days worth of news out of the story that he fell off a bike.  My reaction to the fake story was to think it was an absurdly low bar to praise Biden for and that anyone over the age of 10 has probably internalized the "pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again" idea (to borrow a line from a song I grew up with).   Besides; I'm a roadie cyclist who rides with those pedals that lock your foot to them.  While learning how to ride those I fell so often that if falling and getting back up was "heroic," I should have gotten the Congressional Medal of Honor.


Speaking of this sort of reaction to a Tweet brings this one to mind.  

About a week ago, this caused a minor panic and I remember seeing that the Green Tip ammo had jumped in price right after the news broke.  

A couple of days later, GAT Daily did a story in a bit more depth.  It's a "Natzo fast, Guido" situation. 

The truth here is that Lake City, contractually under the control of Winchester, has been notified it will no longer sell M855/SS109 produced in excess of the military's needs to the public.  Get that?  They're being told that if they overproduce ammo made to that specification they can't sell it.  But they don't produce that - or, at least, not much of it.  The military has been phasing it out for over a decade.

The US Army started switching to the M855A1 version back in 2010.  In February 2011 it was reported M855A1 was being used more than legacy M855. The Marine Corps also started shooting it in 2010 with a purchase of 1.8 million rounds, adopting it officially in 2018, replacing its MK318.

The Military’s “need” for M855 is over.

The GAT Daily article speculates that the only M855 that Lake City may be producing is for export to allies.  

This policy is telling them they can't sell excess of something they're not even making.  It should have no impact at all.   

Now I have to admit I'm not as sure of this one being wrong as the Atlantic tweet, because this was written by one guy, the editor at GAT daily, and doesn't seem to be cross checked.  That said, it seems to be that overreaction to a news story is what's driving both of these stories.



8 comments:

  1. Mea Culpa, I but hard on the ammo story.
    It actually worked in my favor though in the long run.
    I threw such a fit about it, The Wifely Unit sprung for 1,000 rounds for me for Fathers Day.
    That wasn't cheap, trust me.

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  2. Don't be too hard on yourself; your Wifely Unit is still a prize.

    A thousand rounds of 5.56 is something that's always good to have around and you know you're going to use it some day. If one of the really quick-hitting SHTF scenarios happen there won't be time to order any or it will be impossible to order it. Even if it's "just" wide scale rioting, (like I assume this weekend) when you've got to go Rooftop Korean, you need some of that.

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  3. Where's their "George Bush shows us an amazing lesson--when you eat broccoli, remember to chew thoroughly" campaign?

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  4. The gaslighting the left engages in nonstop has made it impossible to discern reality from fiction anymore. And that's not accidental.

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  5. Does anyone happen to know what exactly is the difference between M855 and M855A1?

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    1. It's in the linked article, which has a link to Military.com
      https://www.military.com/equipment/m855a1-enhanced-performance-round

      "The M855A1 has a copper-jacketed steel core, differing from the previous M855 round which has a lead core. The so-called “green ammo” not only has increased penetration of armor and hard targets, but allows the Army to be more environmentally friendly on its ranges and training environments.

      The M855A1 is optimized for the shorter-barrel M4 where the standard M855 was optimized for the M16. The powder burns faster and creates more pressure, and has the effect of reducing flash. The round yaws like the M855, but its yaw is more consistent and predictable, meaning its terminal effects are not yaw dependant."

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  6. It was the quest to eliminate lead from US military ammunition that drove the program that resulted in the M855A1. While terminal effects are improved over the M193 and M855/SS109 I have no doubt the incorporation of costly single use copper projectiles has driven up the cost of all consumer copper wire and other products like copper pipe and tubing. In essance the US military is leaving behind at least 25 cents of copper for every round expended at the enemy. Lets put the lead back into the enemy and keep the copper for ourselves.

    See here:

    https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/the-m855a1-cartridge-a-long-time-coming/



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