Stop, Rest, Reflect, Energize and Engage

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.

Update:  McQuade, Barbara, "Attack From Within," 2024.  New York Times best seller.

Many of us will reflect on November 5, 2024 in the same way that Franklin Delano Roosevelt reflected on December 7, 1941 namely as “A Day That Will Live in Infamy.” Indeed, love did not win the week as I had hoped, but it will ultimately win. You can rest assured of that. We will all need to coax that love out. But, love WILL win.

This is the thirteenth day post election and I’ve gone through the stop, rest and reflect elements in my post Election plan. I’m still energizing and actively seeking out ways to get directly involved in politics at the local level.

My daily energy comes from my singing activities (Peninsula Harmony Chorus, my church choir (Alegria Singers) and the South Bay Threshold Choir), a daily exercise routine, daily puzzles, my church (First Unitarian of San Jose) and from reading news, science journals, The Atlantic Magazine, The Washington Post (yes, despite Jeff Bezos not offering an endorsement in the presidential race) and conversations with friends and acquaintances and hopping on my bike every now and then for a pedal around town and into the nearby hills.

This is where moving forward starts. Engage in the things that nourish you and make you feel vital and of service. Before you can do things outside of yourself, you must take care of yourself.

Two days after the election, my wife and I left the country for a week on a trip to Italy in support of a local theater company. We were provided with six days of exquisite treatment. Fine hotels, superb food, privileged access to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, dinner at a Palace with one of the largest private collections of art in Europe, a guided tour of the Santa Croce church in Florence as interpreted by the former curator of the church. Santa Croce houses the crypts and recogntions of some of Italy’s greatest gifts to the world including Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo and Rossini.

This was the rest part of the recovery formula. For the most part, I tuned out news of the election and the rest of the world in general. I took time to breathe in the antiquities of Rome and Florence and see the world through a 2000+ year old lens. That view is helping me face the daunting task of how to respond to a national right wing nationalist movement bent on creating a government that meets their needs and screws everybody else.

Walking around the ruins of the ancient Roman Empire, thinking about all the emperors and rulers that occupied this space somehow gave me a sense of peace and opened the doors to a belief that indeed “this too shall pass.” The timing of being in the heart of the ancient Roman Empire was ideal for this moment in time.

Isn’t it nice to be in a position of financial privilege to rest in this way? Answer: Yes. More people should be able to do it this way as well.

My Reflection began on election night as the early returns were not going well for my favored candidate and party. What had gone wrong? How could reasonable people choose an incoherent, pathological lying, rapist, cheater and misogynist over an intelligent, experienced and highly competent person where the choice was crystal f-ing clear. Sorry, I almost lost it there. Even though it is true. To say that this person was freely chosen by the American people is a total joke. Notice that the candidate had no criticism of the 2024 Election.

This election was won by the Political Right’s mastery of propaganda, misinformation and disinformation.

But, in my defense, it was the beginning of my reflection. As my reflection continued, I did not appreciate the pundit post mortem responses trying to explain the democratic debacle that had just occurred. Taking the working class for granted, blaming the economic woes of middle America on globalization, blaming the incumbent party for a poor economy that was far from poor…

A reasonable and well informed population would never, and I repeat NEVER, make the “choice” that The United States of America just made. Give the Republican strategists credit where credit is due. Susie Wiles (co-campaign manager) Chris LaCivita (co-campaign manager) Steven Cheung (communications director) Brian Jack (senior advisor) Eric Branstad (strategist) Jason Miller (senior advisor) Corey Lewandowski (senior advisor) did what they set out to do. It’s a pitty that they did their work for a traitor.

They won the (dis)information war. In this day and age it seems that the winner is the one who knows how to manipulate and program people the best. The Republicans know how to do it well. Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels is quoted as saying:

"If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it and you will even come to believe it yourself."

And that is exactly what Trump’s Campaign Team did.

Please tell me that Americans on the whole have not become so inhumane that they can no longer engage in civil discourse or treat people with respect and dignity. We just elected an ideology that reflects this narrative. I believe Americans are not who elected this hideous ideology of fear and hatred. They were filled with these idea by people whose agendas go way beyond anything that the average voter thought they were getting with their vote. I equate what happened to them with the example of the paper wasp.

That gets me beyond the reflection about what happened and opened the doors to getting energized once again to stare down this threat to our country and the world and how best can I contribute to the loyal opposition. I touched on this earlier in talking about how I energize myself on a daily basis.

In addition to energizing for everyday life, I will need more energy to use on the fight for, as historian John Meacham described in his book by the same title, “The Soul of America.”

The last part of the formula is to “Engage.” I’m not sure how I’m going to do that yet. I am sure that it is going to be shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded local people like myself who want to keep Democracy alive and make it well again.

Take good care of yourself and let’s get our heads up, shoulders back and take on the challenge