I love my cat, I love my country, fake news is the devil, and I write Odyssey articles. What more can I say?
First of all, I would like to explain that typically, Odyssey articles are not news. We usually do not report news, but rather write our opinions on the news. We try to make our articles relatable, like "8 Signs You Talk To Your Mom Everyday", or "13 Things You Know To Be True If You're A College Commuter" . We also try to make our articles entertaining, like "13 TV Shows Every 90's Baby Was Obsessed With" or "11 Reasons 'Moana' Is The GOAT Disney Movie". And don't lie and say you haven't clicked on a meaningful article like "From The Little That Owes Everything To Her Big" or "Dear Little Brother, Now That You're Older." We're not a news website, and that's why it's okay for me to write about my cat.
Second of all, fake news is totally real, and if you don't think it is, you need to get your life together. Have you seen the images plastered all over the internet in reference to Mexico's southern boarder? It looks like this:
After seeing it online, I fact checked it, because, you can't trust everything on the internet, and guess what? This isn't the boarder of Mexico and Guatemala. According to Snopes.com, "it’s actually a picture of a fence that Israel built in 2013 along their border with Egypt in order to keep terrorists and illegal African immigrants from crossing into Israel." Snopes also states that there is no fence between Mexico and Guatemala, because most of the boarder is rain forests, mountains, lakes, or other natural barriers, and where there isn't a natural barrier, there isn't a wall.
This image is completely made up, but because my fellow American's don't fact check information before blasting it online, it was reblogged, reposted, retweeted, and saved. People really thought this was a thing, and because we don't fact check, the line between correct and incorrect is fuzzy. This is just one example, and there are so many out there that I could spend the rest of my Odyssey Career busting fake news articles with the help of Snopes if I really wanted to.
Third of all, My cat is beautiful. His name is R2, and I have a right to brag about him. He likes to play with Q-Tips he steals from the bathroom, gives lots of kisses, sleeps with me every night. He also does tricks for treats. He even has an instagram. But why does the fact that I write funny, meaningful, and impactful articles for enjoyment make my information on a news topic invalid? I'm not blasting my political stance on Facebook, I'm not beating people down because they believe the opposite of me, and I'm especially not writing articles to hurt other people. If J.K. Rowling, a fictional writer, wrote a factual article, would that make her invalid? They're facts, you can do the same research I did.
So yes, fake news is ruining America, and just because I write Odyssey articles about my cat doesn't ruin my creditability. At least I fact check and have a space to voice my opinion on the matter. What are your credentials?
@odysseyrejects is a troll twitter account that posts "rejected" Odyssey articles on their account. Some of us Odyssey Creators see them as haters, and some of us like to see them as a fan club. But I'm not going to lie, it's pretty hilarious, so I rounded up a few of my fellow writers across the nation and we decided to make these "rejected" topics no longer rejected. So thank you Odyssey Rejects for the killer topic idea.
