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
I watched a show called “Storm Stories” on The Weather Channel last night. It featured the efforts of a number of people to help their neighbors in need. One of the people was a Marine veteran that had been trained in water rescue. He used his boat to rescue a friend from a heavily flooded Houston neighborhood and then went on to rescue many more people trapped by the flood waters caused by Hurricane Harvey.
Greatness. What is it?
Goodness, kindness, justice, equality, fairness, humanity, disagreeing without being disagreeable, self sacrifice, giving, compassion, hope, faith, looking out for our neighbors, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, Democracy. Those words begin to get at what greatness is.
This word “greatness” that has made its way into prominence with one of our political parties has been turned into a code word for the return to the “good old days” when niggers* and women knew their places in society and everybody who was anybody was a Christian. Sound blunt? I think it’s that simple.
“Greatness,” like the flag and patriotism has been coopted for political reasons to mean something that it is not. It has been used to demarcate what works for the rich, the white and the men in the United States of America and what works for the majority of the rest of the United States of America. To get back to this “greatness,” the rich, the white, and the men have turned to creating an atmosphere of fear, loathing and hate to mobilize their followers in the effort to attain this “greatness.”
The Nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels would be proud of how current Authoritarians and wannabe tyrants have used the word greatness (and flag and patriotism) to falsely identify a point of view designed to protect an indefensible anti-great, anti-flag, anti-patriotic movement that promotes disinformation, the destruction and undermining of the institutions of government such as the free press (which they call fake news), the Congress (by forcing it to not work and working to eliminate the right of people to vote), disempowering and stripping agencies of carrying out their missions and turning the proud and sacred top court in the land, The United States Supreme Court, into a partisan sham in yet another way of trying to show their followers that Democracy doesn’t work.
Indeed, Goebbels would be proud.
Let’s be clear. America has never been great. It has had great people, it has done a few great things and it has had what has been called “The Greatest Generation” of which my father was a part. But the United States of America has fallen considerably short of greatness.
What will make America truly great someday is what each and every American knows in their hearts. That goodness, kindness, justice, equality, fairness, humanity, disagreeing without being disagreeable, self sacrifice, giving, compassion, hope, faith, looking out for our neighbors, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, Democracy and tolerance all matter.
I like watching Storm Stories because I’m a weather/climate geek and the stories have a way of including the greatest human qualities embedded in the hardships associated with the storms. I see many of the qualities that I associate with greatness in these stories.
The heroic actions of the ex- Marine Houston real estate agent exemplify all that is great about this country. The actions of the “Greatest Generation” in helping save the world from Nazi tyranny should be examples to us all. Do we have that greatness in us? I would argue that we do. We just need to dig down to find it and then act on it.
What is left for us to do is to take that same spirit of goodness that this courageous man exhibited in helping save people from the flood waters of Hurricane Harvey. Take that spirit and apply it to saving our Democracy. If we are capable of greatness at the community level, surely we are capable of it at the national level in preserving the principles inherent in American democracy.
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*not my word. It is used here to make a point.
Thanks, Bruce!! You’re always “right-on!”
Bruce, you always give me something to think about. I appreciate your posts.
Well said, Bruce!
I really enjoyed this Bruce.
I had to chuckle when I read how America really isn’t all that great because it’s true.
How to Debunk number 5 is spot on.
If only people were kinder, less selfish, less self centered and less judgemental America would be a little bit better of a place.
Worth reading! While some of these nationalists will be proud that Goebbels looks up from the depths of some hell in approval, others have not thought about the ingredients of the kool-aid they’re drinking. May their humanity prevail before it becomes too late to be numbered as kind and just.