Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22, 2021 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link). How to Debunk: 1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories. 2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information. 3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help. 4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers. 5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something. "Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news. "Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive." "Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda." Sander van der Linden Social Psychologist University of Cambridge Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021 Update: September 22, 2023: This is more important now than ever. Be vigilant and speak in your own way. Love Wins.
The shaded box above has led this blog for the past 14 1/2 months. It’s time, no, it’s way past time, that we and our public officials acknowledge, call out and address the pathetic hate speech being passed off as “news” on right wing media platforms.
If you click on the link underlined above, you will see that by far and away, Fox is still the go to place for right wing political disinformation. The candidates are many for spreading the divisive effluent coming out of the political right, but Fox still has the biggest leach field for its high flow stream of effluent speech.
The partial, minimal and non existent “truths” on these topics and more as identified by the United Nations that come from these media outlets need to be identified, translated and corrected immediately.
Verbal attacks on President Biden and his family, threats to court employees, dehumanizing language against anyone that stands up to his bully tactics. The former chief executive of the United States is taking full advantage of the same free speech that he will effectively muzzle if he is able to lie, cheat, steal or delay his way back into office.
The Atlantic Magazine has devoted its’ December issue to highlighting the impacts that a second attempt at destroying the United States would likely look like. The topics are: autocracy, on NATO, on the loyalists, on immigration, on the Justice Department, on misogyny, on climate, on journalism, on science, on corruption, on China, on the courts, on extremism, on abortion, on disinformation (a topic near and dear to my heart), and on history. The respective authors are: David Frum, Anne Applebaum, McKay Coppins, Caitlin Dickerson, Barton Gellman, Sophie Gilbert, Zoe Schlanger, George Packer, Sarah Zhang, Franklin Foer, Michael Schuman, Adam Serwer, Juliett Kayyam, Elaine Godfrey, Megan Garber and Clint Smith.
For me, It’s worth the $89 yearly subscription for digital and print versions just to see all of this information in one place. When I start to get overwhelmed by the shear magnitude, complexity and the interrelationships of all the moving parts of this coup attempt, I gain some comfort by seeing that there is a one stop Fascism shop and it’s called the December 2023 issue of The Atlantic.
Bluntly, life will be a relative hellhole with him in office for a second term. The second term won’t be the end of his stay. There won’t be any more real elections after this one. If anything is going to change, it needs to change before he becomes the official Republican nominee for President next Spring.
If he gets the nomination, all of the Republican Congressional and corporate ducklings will fall into a row behind him and here will be no dissent on the right. If he successfully dodges all of the civil and criminal prosecutions that he faces before he becomes the nominee, doing anything to stop this not so thinly vailed Fascist will be up to us voting, getting out the vote, and insisting that the Supreme Court honor the vote.
This unsustainable house of Coup cards is being propped up by White Nationalists and Radical right so called Christians, along with global petrochemical dollars from Russia, Saudi Arabia and Texas. Put a moronic figure-head at the top of this unholy alliance each bent on slicing off their own piece of the post-Democracy/Constitutional Republic Libertarian pie, and you can get a partly cloudy but mostly clear look at our future as a country and planet. Watch the “news” news and see if any this makes sense in the real world out there.
In the meantime, stay informed, stay hopeful, stay active. If we stick together, the global Oilagarchs (no typo), White Nationalists, right wing religious zealots and the right wing “Billionaires Buy a Justice” Club can be checked and countered. As the bumper sticker says “Rise, Resist and Unite” against these forces of anti-love. I want to keep this reading positive and affirming , but now is not the time to play nice with the forces of autocracy, oil, wealth and white supremacy. History has told us that the way to deal with this Bully Brigade is to stand up to them and speak truth to the rich and powerful. We are still in charge. Let’s keep it that way.
Peace and holiday blessings to you and yours,
Love Wins
I particularly like your use of the phrase, “leach field.”
If you are frustrated and looking for advice on how to take real action consider these folks: http://www.indivsible.org. They have a workable plan.
Bruce,
As a subscriber to the digital Washington Times and the Washington Post I would argue we need the opposing viewpoints of liberal and conservative media. Especially print media. Newspapers and magazines provide analysis in long form that require not just 15 seconds but maybe 15 minutes to complete. I would require the same model in our Presidential debates. Bring back the Lincoln-Douglas debate style. Watch the Nixon-Kennedy debate during the 1960 Presidential race. It required each man to speak in complete sentences. They weren’t speaking over or on top of each other like the current crop of Republicans in the verbal food fight they call a debate. I am disappointed that Trump and Biden appear to be headed to a rematch. I think they owe us the obligation to defend their records against creditable candidates within their own party on the debate stage. I’m looking at third party candidates, again.