Questions tagged [politics]
Use this tag for questions that regard statements made by politicians. Do not use [politician name] tags unless the claim is *about* that politician.
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Does torture work well as an interrogation technique?
Wikipedia's Effectiveness of torture for interrogation says,
Torture has been used throughout history for the purpose of obtaining information in interrogation. Some arguments say that it is an ...
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Does the President of the United States have the ability to deploy nuclear weapons at will?
I heard this claim back during the Bush years, and recently I've been hearing it again. For example:
Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All - The New Yorker
I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and ...
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Are people of Nordic Nations "happier, healthier" with "a higher standard of living overall than Americans"?
Ernest W. Adams wrote in the answer to the question "Why are people so negative about Nordic nations, especially Sweden?":
There are a lot of right wing Americans who have been preaching ...
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Do vote counts for Joe Biden in the 2020 election violate Benford's Law?
Benford's Law is a statistical rule that says that the distribution of digits in real-world numerical datasets tends to follow a specific pattern. It is often used to test whether an election is ...
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On 9/11, was Building 7 destroyed in a controlled explosion?
There have been a lot of claims made about the circumstances surrounding the events of 9/11 and Building 7 in particular.
The central claim regarding Building 7, that I have heard personally, is that ...
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Did Republicans take 10 of 13 Congressional seats in the 2018 North Carolina general election with roughly the same number of votes as Democrats?
This image has been shared on social media
Transcription:
Gerrymandering in North Carolina
1,747,742 votes for Democrats = 3 Congressional seats
1,638,684 votes for Republicans = 10 Congressional ...
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Was ISIS created by the USA?
I hear many folks talking about the founders of ISIS and they say that USA created it to make chaos in the Arabic countries.
Mark Danner in an episode of Talking Heads by Vice News
"In effect the ...
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Has one vote ever made a difference?
My friend told me that he doesn't bother voting any more in elections, because "it's not like one vote ever made a difference." I will vote when I can and I think it is important, and although I share ...
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Entire GOP voted against letting senators read the new tax bill?
Following the passing of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the U.S. Senate on December 2nd 2017, this photo has been making the rounds on social media (facebook in my case). The tweet by Jesse Lehrich claims
...
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Did close to 3,000 Puerto Ricans die in Hurricane Maria?
CNN reports:
Earlier this month, [Puerto Rico]'s governor formally raised the death toll from Hurricane Maria to an estimated 2,975 from 64 following a study conducted by researchers at The George ...
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Are crime rates up by 10% in Germany?
On June 18th and 19th, 2018, the President of the United States, Donald Trump tweeted that the crime rate in Germany has increased:
(1) Tweet from June 18th, 2018
(2) Tweet from June 19th, 2018 ...
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Did Valerie Jarrett say she wanted "America to be a more Islamic country"?
This picture, being shared on Twitter, alleges that Valerie Jarrett, former Senior Advisor to the President, during the Obama administration, claimed to be of Iranian descent and of Islamic faith in ...
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Was Morocco the first country to recognize USA?
Here in Morocco, when you talk about relations between Morocco and the USA, Moroccans tell you, proudly, that Morocco was the first country to recognize
the United States of America, and that the ...
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Did Donald Trump fire the entire pandemic response team in 2018?
This tweet claims Trump "fired the entire pandemic response team in 2018":
Text: Just a reminder: it’s okay to blame the president for how bad things get with COVID-19 because he fired the ...
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Was there violence on both sides in Charlottesville?
Was violence perpetrated by factions on both the left and the right side of the political spectrum during this rally?
A specific quote by US president Donald Trump is:
TRUMP: The driver of the car is ...
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Is the curtain behind Obama in this picture a "muslim prayer curtain"?
I've been shown this image a few times:
Naturally, it's a little ridiculous, because there are surely at least a thousand pictures of him near an American flag.
But it is making a claim that the ...
user11643
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Did Donald Trump make campaign contributions to Attorneys General who then decided not to prosecute him?
According to this Medium article and this Vox article Donald Trump made campaign contributions to two attorneys general who then suddenly decided to stop investigating his "Trump University" for fraud....
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As of February 2019, were US wages rising at the "fastest pace in decades"?
The President of the USA, Donald Trump, told during his "State of the Union address" speech on 5th February 2019, that
[...] wages in America are rising at the fastest pace in decades
Source: at ...
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Will the healthcare premiums of a 64 year old making $26,500 a year grow to $14,600 under the GOP Health Care Plan?
This picture was posted on the Facebook page, The Other 98%.
Is this really true? Will the premium be more than half of the income of a 64 year old under the proposed new system? And is the old ...
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Are most terrorists Muslim?
Those arguing for more profiling quite frequently claim that while not all Muslims are terrorists, most terrorists are muslim. Is there data to show that more than 50% of terrorists attacks can be ...
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Did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweet that businesses should stay closed until the November elections?
A friend of mine just forwarded me a screenshot of the following May 20, 2020 (now-deleted) tweet purportedly from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose nickname and Twitter handle is AOC.
It's vital that ...
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Does the Wall Street Journal change headlines based on location?
I found saw a recent image going around on Facebook:
https://m.facebook.com/thebenfergusonshow/photos/a.10150670938916638.382006.95356211637/10154308573296638/?type=3&source=48
The picture shows ...
user11643
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Is any male over 15 years of age considered a combatant if killed by a drone strike?
In the essay "We have always fought" by Kameron Hurley, she makes the following claim:
We don’t kill “fifteen year old boys” but “enemy combatants” (yes, every boy 15 and over killed in drone ...
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Did Obama defy precedent by not visiting the D-Day monument?
This seems like a very dubious picture, from a very clearly politically motivated website, but I was wondering if there was any truth to this picture?
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Are thousands of Islamic terrorists entering the United States?
In an interview with an Ohio television station, the 2016 Republican nominee for President said:
when you have radical Islamic terrorists probably all over the place, we’re allowing them to come in ...
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In Massachusetts, can someone be "arrested and fined up to fifty-thousand dollars" for reporting suspicious behavior in a women's bathroom?
A Massachusetts political advertisement No On 3, Keep MA Safe says:
What does Massachusetts Question 3 mean to you? It means any man who says he is a woman can enter a women's locker room, dressing ...
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Did the National Rifle Association (NRA) block research into statistics related to gun control?
About 30,000 Americans die every year from gun-related deaths (a number likely to exceed those dying from automobile-related accidents very soon if trends continue). About 1 in 3 of those are ...
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Did Trump order tear gas to be used on protesters to clear a pathway to a church for a photoshot?
There are dozens of articles out there like this one which states that Trump ordered the use of tear gas to disperse peaceful protesters so he could do a photoshoot. However I recently read that ...
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Is this photo of Jeremy Corbyn and caption accurate?
At a Time when Margaret Thatcher was calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist, and a young David Cameron was living it up on all expenses paid tours around apartheid South Africa, Jeremy Corbyn was being ...
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Did Muslims celebrate the attack on 9/11 in New Jersey in 2001?
Donald Trump claimed this in November 2015:
"I
watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of
people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of
people ...
tim♦
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Did Bernie Sanders say that a woman cannot be president?
During the January 2020 Democratic debate at 43:27 the moderator asked Bernie why he said that a woman cannot win an election https://youtu.be/Ppm_mqo9Tyc?t=2607 . Bernie responds by denying that he ...
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Did millions of illegal immigrants vote in the 2016 USA election? [duplicate]
According to president elect Donald Trump, millions of people voted illegally:
In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of ...
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Is low emotional intelligence associated with right-wing and prejudiced attitudes?
Accordiing to Diply,
Researchers in Belgium have linked a lack of emotional intelligence with right-wing political views, reports PsyPost. The study, published in Emotion, found that those who ...
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Did Ohio pass a law granting students the right to give scientifically wrong answers consistent with their religious beliefs?
The Patheos blog and WKRC local12 report:
The Ohio House on Wednesday passed the "Student Religious Liberties Act." Under the law, students can't be penalized if their work is scientifically wrong ...
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Has BLM raised over 1 billion dollars but not yet performed any neighborhood cleanup, school funding, food aid or housing services?
This Twitter post by James Woods claims that the Black Lives Matter movement has raised over 1 billion dollars but has not yet performed any neighborhood cleanup, college funding, student economic ...
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Are Democrats more likely to believe Astrology is a science?
In an answer on politics.SE, a Northwestern University study was highlighted, whose main findings included:
more Democrats than Republicans think astrology is scientific
Using Fisher’s Exact Test, ...
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Did Fox News win a court case for the right to lie?
Project Censored have an 2010 article titled The Media Can Legally Lie:
In February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an assertion by FOX News that there is no rule against ...
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Did Donald Trump say republicans are the dumbest voters in the country?
I saw this image going around Twitter lately:
If I were to run, I'd run as a republican. They're the dumbest group of voters in the country. They love anything on FOX News. I could lie and ...
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How accurate are these nine charts of the economy under the Obama Administration?
I've seen the image below around and would like to know the accuracy of the charts. The original image I was sent was fairly low quality and a reverse image search lead to a bunch of right-leaning ...
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Did Donald Trump "[imitate] a disabled reporter"?
During her speech at the Golden Globes, Meryl Streep said the following:
But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It, it sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. It was -...
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Did Susan B. Anthony make these statements regarding suffrage for women and former slaves?
Telesur posted an article on 8 November 2016 which claims Susan B. Anthony made a number of statements under the headline "White Women Pay Tribute to Susan B. Anthony, Notorious Racist":
...
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Did Bernie Sanders say immigrants steal our jobs?
In an interview with the former Maryland governor, Martin O’Malley, that appeared in The Guardian there are some notable claims that I haven't heard of till now. For example, this part refers to ...
user36020
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Was there 100% turnout and 100% Obama support in Cuyahoga County in 2012 Presidential Election?
The Tea Party Facebook page posted this Monday night.
Is it accurate that:
There are exactly 900135 registered voters in Cuyahoga County Ohio for the 2012 predidental election
There were 900135 ...
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Did Donald Trump call Alicia Machado "Miss Piggy" and "Miss Housekeeping"?
During the first Trump-Clinton presidential debate, Clinton said:
He called this woman "Miss Piggy." Then he called her "Miss
Housekeeping," because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name. Her ...
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Are 41% of Donald Trump supporters in favor of bombing Agrabah (the country from Aladdin)?
Is there a source for this claim?
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Did Martin Schulz say that it is not the EU philosophy that the crowd can decide its fate?
In the last few days, some people are attributing to European Parliament President Martin Schulz the following statement:
The British have violated the rules. It is not the EU philosophy that the ...
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Has Barack Obama achieved these goals in the last six years?
A claim, attributed to Occupy Democrats (which may or may not be true), that is doing rounds in social networks shows a photo of the current US President Barack Obama raising a toast with these words: ...
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Did George W. Bush spend 32% of his presidency vacationing, versus Barack Obama's 5.2%?
This picture is making the rounds on Facebook:
[Picture of George W. Bush] 32% [Picture of Barack Obama] 5.2%
Percentage of presidency spent on vacation.
Guess which one conservatives call "The ...
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Did Barack Obama keep 33 million pages of documents, including nuclear weapons documents?
A public statement from former U.S. president Donald Trump claims that former president Barack Obama kept 33 million documents from his presidency, most of them classified and many of which contained ...
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Did Emmanuel Macron call a teenager an "idiot?"
This article from The Telegraph (June 22, 2018) mentions that Emmanuel Macron called the teenager who was not respectful an "idiot"; emphasis is mine:
President Emmanuel Macron is facing ...
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