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
So reads the headline on the back page of the San Jose Mercury News Business section of. Ferbruary 8, 2022. So, who is Peter Thiel and why does he have the distinction of making it into my self-esteemed blog?
You can read more about Thiel in the link attached to his name in the first paragraph, but briefly, Thiel is a German American Billionaire who was the founder of a little company that you might know, Paypal.
I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around all of the craziness going on in the world in general and in the United States in particular over the last two decades.
Disinformation, Voter suppression, COVID deaths in the U.S. that are unexplainable in a country of our status in the area of medical science, the election of a red headed puppet, allowing climate change to go on unabated despite even the most skeptical of climate scientists agreeing that it is real, conspiracy theories that boggle the mind, a Supreme Court that has forgotten that it’s job is to rule on laws based on the Constitution and not on partisan politics.
You can go from section to section in the newspaper or from tweet to tweet, text to text, blog to blog, podcast to podcast and Facebook post to Facebook post in search of an answer that will help make sense of this craziness.
Well, this news that the 54 year old Billionaire Thiel is leaving his seat on the Board of Mark Zuckerburg’s Meta/Facebook adds a little more credence to my (it’s probably not just my) theory that all of this mess that we are in right now is the result of people like Trump and Thiel who stand to lose a great deal in the new world of multiculturalism and Democracy where the wealthy will have to, don’t cry please, pay their share of the bill in making the United States of America the place where there is “liberty and justice for all.”
This article came from the New York Times article by Ryan Mac and Mike Isaac. A statement in the article attributed to a person “with knowledge of Thiel’s thinking” who declined to be identified, said that “Thiel sees the midterms as crucial to changing the direction of the country,” this person said, and he is backing candidates who support the agenda of former president Donald Trump. Candidates like Senate candidates Blake Masters in Arizona and J.D. Vance in Ohio who each received $10 Million donations to their campaigns last year.
Could it be that Thiel does not like that his adopted country is moving in the direction of multiculturalism, justice and equality? Could it be that he doesn’t want to part with a bit more of his fortune to help bring about that equality? Could it be that having more people of color voting for future American leaders that stand for a more diverse American representation in the institutions of government just doesn’t fit Thiel’s world view? Could it be that Thiel is throwing good money in the wrong direction? The answers to all of those questions in “Yes.”
I think Thiel’s story is a microcosm of the story of America’s wealthy white elites and their role in this unnatural mess. Make no mistake that it is their money that is supporting the demons of disinformation, the darlings of doubt and. the harbingers of hatred coming from the far Right of the. Republican Party . The disinformation, doubt and hatred that is the mess created for the self serving purpose of maintaining wealth and power.
It will be hard to beat these people back and truly change the direction of the country away from Thiel’s vision and towards the vision that most of us have in our hearts and souls. A vision of a country where there truly is liberty and justice for all.
See through the Peter Thiels’ and the Donald Trumps’. They represent the direction that the rich and powerful have always led us. Now is the time to go in the other direction.
Sad, but probably true. How do we change course?