It's not unreasonable to expect End Wokeness to be spreading more lies about Somalian immigrants, given his track record. But the truth here was obvious to anybody willing to simply look at the evidence.
As much as I hate to have to defend Jack Posobiec (aka EndWokeness), saving the "real" screenshot from this article and uploading it to OpenAI's verification tool[0] indicates that it, in fact, was AI-generated. I welcome any correction on this.
There's only two images in the article, the "real" (fake) image (which appears twice), and the screenshot of the tweet; the latter returns "No OpenAI signals detected" for me, unlike the other.
Then just try looking in the bottom left corner of the "real" image to see the leftovers of the upside-down flag. The SynthID watermark isn't even necessary here to spot the obviousness of the fake.
Of course it doesn't conclusively prove that the flag was definitely right side up, but you'd really have to bend over backwards to explain why Oregon Journalism Project's "debunking" is watermarked but the counter-debunkings aren't.
I don't understand why the people manipulated with lies aren't offended at the liars. They are primed to believe the lies, but aren't they mad that someone sought to manipulate them?
This keeps happening because it works. But why does it work? Why isn't there blowback?
It's embarrassing. Instead, they tell themselves, "well, it could have just as easily been real."
This has always been the case.
However, the more interesting thing going on is that we have never had to reckon with this problem anywhere near as much as we do now, since the barrier to creating fakes has been reduced from "skilled software user" to "all five billion humans who can write".
The ironic part is that the veracity of the debunking is being questioned, so depending on how this turns out, this could either be referring to "haha dumb right wingers falling for AI generated meme" or "haha dumb left wingers falling for AI generated debunking". Truly a rorschach test of a comment.
edit: the story was retracted so the "people manipulated with lies" are the people who believed oregon journalism project?
Candidate shouldn't have lied here (which seems likely based on the available evidence) and should have just owned it. Flying an upside-down flag is a perfectly patriotic thing to do in 2026, IMO, speaking as a white male, many-generational American. America is very much in distress.
But it is also ridiculous that the people predisposed to the other side (and who only made a big deal out of the original clip in the first place because they are racist misogynists) will hold up this relatively insignificant lie as some sort of an outrage while pulling the lever for the likes of Trump who lies as easily as he breathes.
> Flying an upside-down flag is a perfectly patriotic thing to do
It is a really dumb virtue-signaling protest thing. In fact, it has nothing to do with the actual "distress signal" that it is meant to be.
> America is very much in distress
But you don't invert the flag when your nation is in distress. You invert the flag when your vessel is in distress. Inverted flag is a 9-1-1 call to all who can see it. It indicates immediate and extreme danger to life, limb, or property.
Furthermore, it is not up to us dumb citizens to determine when our entire nation is in distress. Honestly, our nation is bigger than you or me, and she can fend for herself on her own merits, without us telling her how she should feel. If "all America is in distress" then who will come and save her, huh? We are sovereign and that means we take care of our own messes, and solve our own problems!
Let's leave the inverted flag for its true meaning, which is individual or vessel-wide distress. Anything else is just posturing and performative slacktivism.
That’s not the question. The question is “were they even there” before the “screenshot”.
As an example, I can screenshot your comment and have AI edit it to have you say “I really enjoy misleading people on the internet for money”, post it, and then say “I took this screenshot before they deleted it.”
But also just look at the bottom-left of the image as is mentioned elsewhere in this comment thread: they didn't even bother to photoshop the entire image in their "debunk".
OJP has published a retraction. https://www.oregonjournalismproject.org/editors-note-october...
In that case, lmao at all the people who were downvoted to grey (or rather, the people who downvoted them into grey), despite being in the right.
screenshot for posterity: https://i.postimg.cc/vTCTyYZ1/Screenshot.png
It's not unreasonable to expect End Wokeness to be spreading more lies about Somalian immigrants, given his track record. But the truth here was obvious to anybody willing to simply look at the evidence.
>A Fai campaign supporter then provided a different video of the event to OJP that showed the flag right side up.
It would be interesting to know where the "corrected" deepfake originated.
That also contradicts the original article, which claims the right side up photo was "Provided by Nafisa Fai".
I'm confused. So was the flag really upsidedown or rightside up?
upside down. The retracted article was "debunking" the upside down picture, claiming it was fake.
https://archive.is/kRbug
So the debunkers using AI to make the upsidedown flag look like it was rightside up, were the actual deepfakers?
As much as I hate to have to defend Jack Posobiec (aka EndWokeness), saving the "real" screenshot from this article and uploading it to OpenAI's verification tool[0] indicates that it, in fact, was AI-generated. I welcome any correction on this.
[0] https://openai.com/research/verify/
e: Okay, now I feel stupid for even bothering to do that. Look below her name and you'll see the leftovers of the old flag.
edit 2: Retracted. https://www.oregonjournalismproject.org/editors-note-october...
Unless I’m missing something all of the pictures in the article and on X that it links to return as being AI generated?
There's only two images in the article, the "real" (fake) image (which appears twice), and the screenshot of the tweet; the latter returns "No OpenAI signals detected" for me, unlike the other.
I’m including all of the images linked in both.
And now that you’ve said that I’ve retried the same image 5 times and gotten AI 3 times and Not AI twice.
Something tells me that tools is about as reliable as Pangram.
Then just try looking in the bottom left corner of the "real" image to see the leftovers of the upside-down flag. The SynthID watermark isn't even necessary here to spot the obviousness of the fake.
Even more damning seems to be the video of the event and cached images from google, which does not have an openai watermark (yes, verified myself).
https://x.com/kgallella/status/2112332869461045733
https://x.com/Honest_Bender/status/2112301833708519659
Of course it doesn't conclusively prove that the flag was definitely right side up, but you'd really have to bend over backwards to explain why Oregon Journalism Project's "debunking" is watermarked but the counter-debunkings aren't.
lol I didn't see that at all, wow they soooo poorly photoshopped this and then had their all friends in the media like Axios push their lies
I don't understand why the people manipulated with lies aren't offended at the liars. They are primed to believe the lies, but aren't they mad that someone sought to manipulate them?
This keeps happening because it works. But why does it work? Why isn't there blowback?
Truth isn't important anymore.
Because they want it to be true.
It's embarrassing. Instead, they tell themselves, "well, it could have just as easily been real."
This has always been the case.
However, the more interesting thing going on is that we have never had to reckon with this problem anywhere near as much as we do now, since the barrier to creating fakes has been reduced from "skilled software user" to "all five billion humans who can write".
The ironic part is that the veracity of the debunking is being questioned, so depending on how this turns out, this could either be referring to "haha dumb right wingers falling for AI generated meme" or "haha dumb left wingers falling for AI generated debunking". Truly a rorschach test of a comment.
edit: the story was retracted so the "people manipulated with lies" are the people who believed oregon journalism project?
Are you going to update your comment now that a retraction was issued? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50173029
I feel the same way. Anyone who lies to you is fundamentally insulting you.
Now that the story has been retracted, and the "real" image proven to be an obvious fake, are you mad that someone sought to manipulate you?
Candidate shouldn't have lied here (which seems likely based on the available evidence) and should have just owned it. Flying an upside-down flag is a perfectly patriotic thing to do in 2026, IMO, speaking as a white male, many-generational American. America is very much in distress.
But it is also ridiculous that the people predisposed to the other side (and who only made a big deal out of the original clip in the first place because they are racist misogynists) will hold up this relatively insignificant lie as some sort of an outrage while pulling the lever for the likes of Trump who lies as easily as he breathes.
> Flying an upside-down flag is a perfectly patriotic thing to do
It is a really dumb virtue-signaling protest thing. In fact, it has nothing to do with the actual "distress signal" that it is meant to be.
> America is very much in distress
But you don't invert the flag when your nation is in distress. You invert the flag when your vessel is in distress. Inverted flag is a 9-1-1 call to all who can see it. It indicates immediate and extreme danger to life, limb, or property.
Furthermore, it is not up to us dumb citizens to determine when our entire nation is in distress. Honestly, our nation is bigger than you or me, and she can fend for herself on her own merits, without us telling her how she should feel. If "all America is in distress" then who will come and save her, huh? We are sovereign and that means we take care of our own messes, and solve our own problems!
Let's leave the inverted flag for its true meaning, which is individual or vessel-wide distress. Anything else is just posturing and performative slacktivism.
This story is fake; the flag was in fact upside down: https://x.com/alx/status/2112383598934573506
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://lookaside.fbsbx...
And you trust this source because?
As opposed to trusting "Oregon Journalism Project"?
It's from their own Facebook page, it's the Google Image Search results from their own page.
“Before they deleted them” aka no way to check if this is BS.
Nonsense, the google image search result clearly still has the linkage established. There's nothing fake about it.
And why wouldn't you question why they deleted the original lol
That’s not the question. The question is “were they even there” before the “screenshot”.
As an example, I can screenshot your comment and have AI edit it to have you say “I really enjoy misleading people on the internet for money”, post it, and then say “I took this screenshot before they deleted it.”
Please just look at the bottom left corner of the "real" image.
You don't understand: https://x.com/alx/status/2112585386929397799
But also just look at the bottom-left of the image as is mentioned elsewhere in this comment thread: they didn't even bother to photoshop the entire image in their "debunk".