Well, howdy there internet people, let's bow again.

So today we are going to talk about rumors and how to identify them.

Key things that you can look for that exist in a lot of them when they circulate online.

And how you can often track it back to its source and find out that there are some exaggerations occurring

within the rumor.

So over the last, I don't know, 36 hours. I've had a number of people send me a variation of a rumor and that is that a four-star general in the Air Force

pulled their friend aside who in most of them is a pilot.

And that general told them that war with China is imminent

and that they have to be ready in six months.

And that maybe the Chinese would come ashore in California and that the balloon is not what they're telling you.

You have a couple of things in this rumor that exist in most rumors that originate within the military and then hit social media.

First is it's imminent, but there's a timeline far away.

Imminent in six months.

Those two things don't go together, especially in military language.

Imminent is now, right now, this moment, not six months from now. But imminent is scary in six months provides a period of

time for the rumor to prove to not be true, but for people to forget about where it came from.

The other part of this that is very common is a piece of information you're not allowed to know

that the balloon wasn't really what they're telling you type of thing.

And then the big one, the big flag that should always exist.

A four star told me, or a four star told my buddy. Generally speaking, four stars do not engage in a lot of rumors.

They don't, they don't, they don't do that.

Aside from that, this is used to give it credibility to people outside of the military.

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