False Equivalency Exposed

"First, the media criticized Harris for not submitting to more interviews. Now that she’s submitted to interview after interview over the last several weeks, the media is criticizing her for not answering questions clearly enough.

“'She keeps answering the question she wants, not the one that was asked,' writes Michael Bender for The New York Times — as if Bender has found in Harris a notably new trait among politicians, as if candidates for office usually answer questions they are asked rather than questions they want to answer.

"She’s 'lawyerly, argumentative and fundamentally defensive,' Bender continues. Hello? What about Donald Trump?

“'She often deflects or sidesteps.' Ditto.

"She 'often responds to unpleasant questions without answering them, questions the very premise of questions she finds unfair and can take it upon herself to reword a query she considers unhelpful.'

"Oh, please. That’s what a smart candidate does."

Click on the link below for the rest of the story:

Double Standard?

Documentaries: Some Are Fiction

"People understandably expect to be presented with facts when they watch a documentary. There are, however, some notable or high-profile things that documentaries got wrong. Although truth and authenticity are elements every nonfiction film should strive for, movies are made by people, and sometimes people make mistakes, or have a bias or agenda related to a controversial subject that leads to inaccuracies, omissions, or misleading conclusions. Historical documentaries are particularly susceptible to these flaws."

Click on the link below for insight into a product of media that can violate your sense of trust by lying to you:

Famous Documentaries That Bent The Truth

Be Aware Of This Media Conglomerate

Besides Fox News and Talk Radio, there is - - -

Sinclair Broadcast Group

"A 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that 'stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a direction relative to other stations operating in the same market'.[4][5] The company has been criticized by journalists and media analysts for requiring its stations to broadcast packaged video segments and its news anchors to read prepared scripts that contain pro-Trump editorial content, including warnings about purported 'fake news' in mainstream media, while Trump has tweeted support for watching Sinclair over CNN and NBC.[6][7][8][9][10] (Wikipedia)

The Dark Web

"The criminal side of the internet, the Dark Web, is unknown to most of us. This week’s guest, criminologist David Maimon, takes us behind the curtain into a world where criminals talk to one another anonymously and the personal identifying information of thousands of unsuspecting victims is up for sale. Learn how Maimon’s research warns of emerging trends and how consumers can protect themselves."

Click on the link below for a podcast presenting the details:

Inside the Dark Web

It's Not "MIS"information, it's "DIS"information From Conservatives

"Misinformation is spreading on social media as some fight to stop what they call censorship. The Supreme Court is now grappling with how the First Amendment applies to the online world."

Misinformation: wrong information by mistake.

Disinformation: wrong information by design.

Click on the link below for a 15-minute "60-Minutes" segment parsing out the difference and exposing the dishonesty of Republicans/conservatives/MAGAs:

The Right to be Wrong 

Puberty Blockers: Beware Of The Media

Right-wing media is awash with bogus "evidence" of the harm from puberty blockers. This link is a prime offender in promoting the bullsh!t, but don't let its name let you think it is valid. Here is the truth about this website (link)(link). 

Below you will find several links to VALID SUPPORT for puberty blockers:

What to know about puberty blockers

Puberty blockers for transgender and gender-diverse youth

Are Puberty Blockers Reversible?

Suicide And The Media: A Lesson In Failure

"After a long hiatus, Dr. Alan Smerbeck AKA Stormy Decisis is back to cover a topic we've been talking about discussing for a while. What does the research tell us is the responsible way to cover death by suicide? What kind of impact can the media have on the greater population if they get it wrong? And how many different ways did 13 Reasons Why completely screw up?"

Click on the link below for how not to present suicide to the public:

How "13 Reasons Why" Killed Kids

Deep Fakes & AI: Destroying Truth And The USA

"AI-generated deepfakes, entirely fabricated audio and video of recognizable people, are here. They have been on the horizon for years but they have finally arrived during the biggest global election year in history which may prove to be a make-or-break year for democracy itself as we struggle to separate fact from fiction and autocracy is on the rise around the world."

Click on the link below for a problem that society MUST address YESTERDAY!!

Deep-Fakery and Deep Consequences for Democracy

Disinformation: Destroying Truth And The USA

"Barb McQuade is the former US Attorney from Michigan, and current University of Michigan Law School professor, NBC legal analyst, and CAFE contributor. She joins Preet to discuss her new book, Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America, and how false information has become a serious threat to national security."

Click on the link below for a problem that society MUST address YESTERDAY!!

Trump & the Age of Disinformation

A Major Reason Why Conservatives Are So Powerful

Ever wonder why Talk Radio is essentially void of progressive push-back against the lies of conservatives? Or, why Faux News is so powerful? Click on the link below for why the truth of the progressive point of view is largely absent to the typical middle/lower-class voter who generally lacks critical thinking skills:

America’s Political System is Being Manipulated - but by who?

Why Taking Sides In The Israel-Palestine Conflict Is Not Wise

"Violence and oppression are destructive and corrosive to both the victim and perpetrator and this goes a long way toward explaining many of the dynamics at play in the holy land between Israelis and Palestinians."

I have posted several times on the Israel-Palestine Conflict (link). Click on the links below for examples summarizing the point made in the title of this blog post:

Israel and Palestine are less complicated than you think: Standing for international law while condemning crimes against humanity, war crimes, antisemitism, and apartheid.

John Oliver's summation is similar

A human rights lawyer, a Jewish resident of Israel, gets it

Broken News: Understanding traditional media and social media reporting on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza

The Media And Gaza

"Media literacy is a basic requirement for understanding the war in Gaza, as propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation are being distributed for both ideological and financial reasons."

Click on the links below for a prime example of why one needs to tune up one's science-based thinking when analyzing media reports on serious events:

Broken News: Understanding traditional media and social media reporting on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza

(https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/10/25/western-media-failures-say-more-about-the-west-than-gaza)

Sports Betting: We Didn't Learn From Its History

"Sports gambling through smartphones has become widely available and wildly addictive but the effects are being felt beyond the individual gambler's bank account and anxiety levels. Partnerships between gambling companies and colleges, influencers, and even journalistic institutions like ESPN are changing the fundamentals of the sports themselves and how they're understood by fans - all for the worse."

Click on the link below for a blight on society from which the USA did not learn from history 100 years ago.

Bet Your Life: Sports betting is opening new and expensive ways to waste your time and destroy your mental health.

The Dark History Of The Information Age

 "You’ve probably encountered phishing emails or computer viruses. Or maybe one or more of your accounts has been hacked or compromised. How and why do hackers hack and what are they generally seeking? Our guest this week points out that understanding the answers to those questions is essential for making sense of the psychological, economic, political, and social motivations for and effects of cybercrime. Scott Shapiro is a Southmayd Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at Yale Law School. He is the author of a new book called, “Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks.” The book dives into five historical examples, one of which involves its namesake, Fancy Bear, a Russian cyberintelligence unit responsible for hacking the Democratic National Convention. Shapiro joins WITHpod to discuss some of the biggest inflection points in the history of hacking, why the internet is so vulnerable, the role that generative AI may place in future cybercrime and his thoughts on if we should really be concerned about cyberwar."

Click on the link below for the podcast and transcript:

Decoding the Information Age

History, Authority, Expert, And Growing Up

History: the study of past events.

Authority: the power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior.

Expert: a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area.

- - - - - - -

Human history began in ignorance, violence, and within small nomadic groups. As time progressed, humans became more organized and settled but ignorance and authoritarian control persisted. Democratic ideas evolved out of Greece but humanity at large was still ignorant of reality and under authoritarian control. Organized religion sprouted from persistent human ignorance of reality in attempts to explain the unexplainable, as well as to reinforce authoritarian control and to provide some comfort. Eventually, only a few hundred years ago, modern science and the Industrial Revolution sprouted. These phenomena exponentially expanded human knowledge, progress, and well-being. Democracy became a reality and knowledge expanded to the point where it caused the founding of institutions dedicated to creating expertise in specialized areas. 

The above growth in freedom, knowledge, and understanding of reality can be viewed as being analogous to a child growing up. However, there is a major immaturity from our ignorant and superstitious past holding humanity back and it is religion. Ironically, the most prominent religion has the following teaching but can't accept it as a reality:

• "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." ~ I Corinthians

ISN'T IT MORE THAN TIME FOR HUMANITY TO GROW UP?

 

The History Of Trumpism

"Chris Hayes: 'There is no referee. Fox News and the conservative movement destroyed the conditions for that. So now, it is just a head-to-head battle of who you like more, who you believe, and who you trust more. They trust Donald Trump.'"

Click on the link below for a 10-min video of how conservatives have destroyed our society:

How The American Right Built Its Own Echo Chamber

The Internet And Artificial Intelligence (AI)

"Today, we take a look at some of the emerging elements of technology and regulation that will likely shape the next era of the internet and our relationship to it. For today, these will include synthetic relationships with artificial intelligence, fake audio, and video virtually indistinguishable from reality that will facilitate disinformation, reinterpreting Section 230 for a new era of internet content and the ongoing struggle to regulate social media platforms."

Click on the link below for a podcast analysis of the dangers ahead regarding AI's effect on our media, particularly the internet:

Shaping the Future of the Internet

TV And The Lowest Common Denominator

In mathematics, the lowest common denominator is the smallest number of all the common multiples of the denominators when 2 or more fractions are given. In the media, it refers to the appeal to as many people as it possibly can so that advertisements are worth more and the revenue stream will steadily increase. 

Since the most prominent media in our culture is network television, one can expect that the level of education of the target audience would be the lowest in this media. Thus, the proliferation of mind-numbing shows like "The Housewives of (fill-in-the-blank)", fake wrestling, "not-very-funny" comedy, and network news that promote "fair and balanced" reporting and opinions without consideration of facts and the findings of science. For example, it is rare for them to truly present the harmful effects of religious activities, as well as alternatives to medicine, conspiracy theories, and other pseudoscience. 

In light of the above, there has never been a greater need for mandatory age-appropriate education in critical thinking and rigorous, timely fact-checking of all media. A gullible society can be easily molded by unscrupulous actors, including but not limited to corporations, politicians, and organized religions.

Society has figured out how to handle physical trash (sort of, at least). It's more than time for brain trash to be appropriately handled.

A Look Under The Hood Of Fox News

The two most dangerous media outlets presently are Fox News and Talk Radio. Both have dominated mainstream news in terms of number of viewers/listeners for many years. Legitimate news outlets have been trying to understand how this could happen. Click on the link below for a 7-minute video from Beau of the Fifth Column giving insightful commentary on the problem, focusing on Fox News.

Let's talk about "just asking questions" 

This Would Not Happen If All Were Science-Based Thinkers

"Since the mid-2010s, the rise of the populist left and the populist right has shaken up the American political spectrum. Both movements have maneuvered to pressure and persuade the political establishment to adopt their objectives. But in recent years something unusual has been happening. We’re seeing the formation of a pipeline that circumvents the center altogether — and directly connects left-wing to right-wing populism.

"A group of journalists and media personalities who once were at home on the far left has formed a niche but influential political subculture that encourages leftists to abandon leftism for the populist right. Its most recognizable faces are former icons of leftist discourse who have millions of diehard fans: Glenn Greenwald, a co-founder of The Intercept, known as one of the most powerful critics of the “war on terror” in the Bush era. Matt Taibbi, a former Rolling Stone writer, who was famous for excoriating defenders of neoliberalism and likening Goldman Sachs to a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.” Tulsi Gabbard, formerly a Democratic House member and 2020 presidential candidate, was aligned with the Bernie Sanders wing of the party.


"But in recent years their focus has changed. These commentators had never hesitated to criticize Democrats alongside Republicans. But now they've pivoted to targeting liberals nearly exclusively, while forming ties with the authoritarian right."

Click on the link below for the full story. This would not be happening on the liberal side if all where science-based thinkers:

How the populist left has become vulnerable to the populist right