How Do You Like Your Vanilla?

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.

Stoicism is the art of applied rationality. It is based on four time honored virtues. Justice, moderation, wisdom and courage. Those virtues are put into practice by applying what Stoics call “The Control Test.” Briefly, that the things that you should concern yourself with are the things that you have control over. Those three things are:

1.  Your Character
2.  How you act and react
3.  How you treat others

I bring Stoicism up again today, because I failed the control test today while listening to House Speaker Mike Johnson talking to Meet the Press Moderator Kristin Welker trying to defend Number 47’s big, ugly budget bill that his House narrowly approved..

Do I have control over what came out of the mouth of a man several hours ago being broadcast on a recorded television show? The answer to that one is pretty easy. I was unable to resist verbally reacting to the words coming out of his mouth. He couldn’t hear me and what if he could? Would it change anything?

Of course not.

I need to learn from my failure and move on. But the one thing that I learned from listening to the bold faced inaccuracies about trickle down economics and lazy poor people is that I have significant work to do in the area of becoming a good Stoic.

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There are probably a few of you that don’t have the relationship with ice cream that many of us have. But for those of you that do, consider this…

When you walk into the grocery store or the ice cream parlor, what flavor of ice cream do you look for? Mint Chocolate Chip. Rocky Road, Bubble Gum, Strawberry? Or one of the several other flavors available.

Do any of you go in looking for Vanilla? I’m going to guess that the answer would be No (with deepest apologies to you Vanilla fans).

Our beautiful, diverse world is not Vanilla. It is not one flavor of ice cream or one color of skin, one specific religion, one view of sexuality and the list goes on and on and on and. If you walked into that grocery store or ice cream shop and they only offered Vanilla, you’d turn around and walk out. At least I would.

The consumer drives the engine of commerce and the voter drives the engine of politics. Radical authoritarian wannabees occupy the seat of government power, but they do not hold the real power. We do.

The next time you go ice cream shopping take note if they only offer Vanilla. There is a 100% chance that they don’t just offer Vanilla as your only choice. You get to choose the flavor that you want

Keep doing what you do and show Washington that Vanilla alone isn’t good enough.

From the PBS NewsHour

Happiness is a combination of Enjoyment, Satisfaction and Meaning.

Dr. Arthur C. Brooks, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy

Some words for your Fascist fighting vocabulary:

1.  Neoreactionary
2.  Accelerationist
3.  Tech Libertarian