“Nattering Nabobs of Negativity”

This link goes to a site that is a collaboration between the American Reparatory Theater at Harvard University and the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It offers a way forward as we transition from Pandemic full shutdown to re-opening of public places.

Distinguishing between misinformation, disinformation and propaganda

https://newslit.org/

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 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

Many of you will remember Spiro T. Agnew as Richard Nixon’s Vice-President from 1969-1973. Along with his talent for clever alliteration was the fact that he was running a criminal enterprise from inside the White House.

That alliterative cleverness has stuck in my mind for many years. Although I was politically and generally clueless during my middle and high school years, somewhere along the educational line I heard this phrase and it has remained near the forefront of my consciousness.

It comes to mind once again in the context of the current Republican/Conservative/Trump White nationalist movement trying to bulldoze its way (literally as in January 6, 2021) through Democracy.

It should come as no secret that the thin veneer of American-style Democracy has come unglued as the demographics of the United States has gradually been flipped on its ear since the end of WW2. The rich and powerful forces that had allowed us in the middle and lower classes to believe that we actually had a say in how our government was run, realized that “the times they were a changin.'”

Democracy was not working for them anymore because now they realized that all of those non-white minority groups were becoming the new majority group. If they voted they could actually get what they wanted and needed from government.

That didn’t sit well with the powers-that-be. Something had to be done to keep these newly minted beneficiaries of the demographic times in their places. All of these demographic “shiftees” would vote and that vote was going to cost the rich a lot of money in the coming decades. The word Socialism became a dirty word and the battle for the soul of America was on. Voter suppression was made easy because states control who votes and how they vote. Gerrymandering carved districts to favor the candidates of one of the parties over the other.

While Spiro Agnew was running a criminal operation out of the White House, his boss, President Richard M. Nixon faced impeachment for other crimes. Many Republicans blamed the “Left Wing” Media for what they claimed was a false portrayal of conservative politicians in America.

The birth of “Right Wing” Media didn’t start with Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. It has been around since the 1940’s. It really took hold when Rupert Murdoch started the Fox News Channel in October of 1996.

In recent years, other Conservocentric news organizations have sprung up. Newsmax and One America Network (OAN) to name a couple. They claim to offer “fair and balanced” reporting but most of the time they do neither of these things. They are neither fair nor balanced. If you have to use the words to describe yourselves, then you must not be practicing these concepts in your everyday reporting of the news.

Enter once again the “Nattering Nabobs of Negativity.” Remember this clever Agnew alliteration in which he accused “The Media” of focusing on the bad stuff in Republican politics? This is where political discourse started to go South. Media outlets left and right started slanting news in a direction that would reflect well on their political party of choice.

The Republican Party has taken “news” to a new low. Since they appear to have nothing new or positive to report, they have taken to the idea that when your side is not doing anything that the majority of people view as positive, then it is time to spin what the other side is doing as negative. Whether what the other side is helping your viewers or not is of little importance to Conservative media. If it is being done by a Democrat it can’t be good for you.

Maybe if disinformation and propaganda were deemed to be sedition things would change in this area. That is a topic unto itself to be addressed at a later date as it is fraught with debate points.

And, it isn’t just about negativity. It is about propagating and promoting fear. In the totalitarian/authoritarian model of governance, a person that is scared is more prone to accept what an authoritarian strongman has to say is more likely to turn away from the “evils” of Democracy. For example things like voting and free speech.

The “nattering nabobs of negativity” are at it in a big way.

It is expensive, but support journalism by subscribing to your local community newspaper either online or paper. That’s where the truth comes from. That’s not what the “nattering nabobs of negativity” want to hear.