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.
President’s Day or Washington’s Birthday, Americans observe this day on the third Monday of each February. President’s Day is not a federal holiday, but Washington’s Birthday is indeed a holiday and provides federal workers with another three day weekend. February 12 Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, but in and of itself it is not a national holiday. Presidents’ Washington and Lincoln together can be credited for that time honored tradition known in some circles as Ski Week.
We should celebrate or at least acknowledge our best, brightest and most effective presidents since George Washington became the first one on April 30, 1789.
There have been 47 presidencies with 45 different men (that needs to change) over the past 237 years. Presidents of many and varying levels of intelligence, political saavy and compassion.
The first president that I paid attention to was our 39th president, Jimmy Carter. What Carter lacked in political acumen, he made up for in compassion and humanitarianism. He demonstrated those same qualities long after his presidency ended in 1980. He was the longest lived president, born in 1924 and passing in 2024. Whatever his shortcomings might have been as president, his intentions were always noble and he was true to the oath he took to uphold the Constitution.
Our 20th President, James A. Garfield, never really had a chance to be presidential. Garfield was narrowly elected in 1881. His mission was to reform a system that awarded government jobs based on patronage to one that found the most qualified people through a system of Civil Service and hired them based on merit and not on political loyalty. His little known story is now accessible by watching the Netflix series “Death by Lightning.” He died three months into his presidency of an infection caused by the unsterile removal of an assassin’s bullet. Garfield may well have been revered for his work to strengthen civil service. Instead, he became but a footnote in presidential history.
Jimmy Carter and James Garfield were good people with noble intentions. The last president that I’ll feature is the current one, President #45 and President #47. He will not be mentioned among the good and noble presidents of our republic. Not even close. He and his cabal of kleptocrats will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
The 45/47 regime will be remembered for seditious conspiracy, kleptocracy, fear mongering, divisive politics and disinformation. It will be remembered as the government that weaponized itself against it’s own people. I don’t think I have to go any farther on the current president except to say that he deserves mention here only because of the acronym that is the title of this piece.
President in Name Only (Trump)
On the Bright Side
Book Review: A Higher Call by Adam Makos with Larry Alexander. Berkley Caliber/New York. Penguin Group, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-425-25286-4.
In a time where forgiveness, faith and integrity are under constant attack, this book about two young pilots on opposite sides of Word War ll should rekindle your positive feelings on each of these things.
The story is based on an encounter between a severly crippled American B-17 bomber and a German fighter pilot in the skies over Germany in December 1943.
German fighter ace Franz Stigler was one victory away from a prestigious German military medal when he spotted a badly damaged bomber attempting to return to it’s base in England. This would be an easy kill. Another enemy bomber and crew eliminated.
American pilot Charles Brown was on his first combat mission. What transpired on that day wouldn’t become a story to anyone but these two men for another forty six years when the two would miraculously reunite for the first time since their combat encounter in the skies above Germany and the English Channel.
The book seeks to make the point that not every thing or everyone can be judged on the binary of black and white. There is black and white in each of us.
If you want a true-to-life page turner with an unexpected ending, give this book a try.
Thanks, as always, Bruce, for your keen insights into all things RIGHT!
Bless you!
Hal.
I was first aware of the Presidency with the 1960 election between Nixon and Kennedy having watched the debate with my folks. Honestly, I knew little of what I was watching but it was explained to me and I quietly became a closet Republican because who wouldn’t support Eisenhower’s Vice President. Thus began a lifetime of dinner table discussions with Shiena and Culley often carried on remotely when I was deployed overseas. Always respectful and never personal I know these discussions irked them that their son had a Goldwater bumper sticker next to the poster of the Beatles in my room. I met Reagan at a fundraiser in Monterey in 74 when he was trying to unseat Ford from the nomination. That summer while on a month long bus trip across the country on Greyhound I met William F. Buckley ( Firing Line ) at the Young Americans for Freedom Convention in Chicago. I have since mellowed considerably. I am an active donor of No Labels and other alternative moderate political organizations while I prepare to support a constitutional conservative for the nomination as President in 2028.
John,
Your responses are always thoughtful and honest. I didn’t engage in politics until I was a little older. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the Goldwater bumper sticker and the Beatles poster in the same room. Did you have those in Visalia? Not that I’d remember seeing them mind you.
It’s cool that you met Buckley. I never agreed with his politics , but debate style and knowledge of his subject were very admirable. Young Americans for Freedom would not be a suitable name for a Conservative organization these days.
I like the term Constitutional Conservative. are thinking Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger or someone along those lines for 2028?
What do you think is going to happen with the 2026 Elections? The deployment of ICE seems to be a thinly veiled cover for election interference efforts by the Republican Party and the money behind them.
We were planning a trip up to Southern Oregon this past weekend, but the weather turned nasty so we didn’t make the drive. I’ll let you know when we’ll be in your neck of the woods. For sure, we will be up for our granddaughter’s high school graduation from Grant’s Pass H.S. on June 4.
How are things? How’s the weight loss program going?
Be well and fantasy baseball is coming soon. The league is activated for this season.
Bruce