This is a (long) 'quick post' to discuss, by way of recent examples, a couple of sources I've come to rely on for information and analysis of current events. In a future post, I'll go into more depth and breadth on more of my favorite sources.
Headlines and high-level information about current events are available all over the place. What I'm talking about in this post is next-level analysis, context, breakdown, historical perspective, bottom-lining. This is something that large media outlets or 'mainstream media' don't do often enough or well enough or timely enough.
If you'd be so kind, consider following me on Twitter -- my new account for social issues, current events is @RootingA - short for my blog name Rooting for Americans. Twitter doesn't allow handles > 15 characters :( My primary personal Twitter account is @whiteshoeswhite. Not many tweets or likes or retweets about social issues, but the list of accounts I follow provides a good glimpse into the type of people from whom I seek and absorb information. Yes, I'm pretty proud of the list of follows I've developed in the past 2-3 years.
Most of the information I consume regarding current events is from Twitter - tweets, tweet threads, linked blog posts, linked articles, linked raw source documents for facts or other news that flies under the radar of mainstream American media. There are many reasons why I think Twitter can be a great source of information and analysis; that's a topic for a future post.
Teri also has compiled a ton of very useful summary-level information about impeachment at https://impeachment-trump.com - Ukraine timeline, who's who, documents related to the Russia investigation, how impeachment works, etc. These types of resources don't really show up in major media, who follow from one headline story to the next and don't help put things all together or summarize and build upon things as they develop over time. Teri does all of that here.
Teri has a decent but not huge 77k Twitter following @Teri_Kanefield. She started on Twitter by tweeting about her research for a book she ended up not publishing called How Trump Happened. Her tweet threads are also blog posts at https://terikanefield-blog.com
In mentioning the letter, Teri linked to a Sept 8 Twitter thread in which she explains the firehose of falsehood propaganda model. This is a term coined by the RAND Corporation to describe Russian disinformation and propaganda efforts - similar efforts to which have been deployed by the current POTUS and his administration. The thread includes a link to the original source article from the RAND Corporation, which offers hope by way of describing five suggestions for how to counter the firehose of falsehoods. Teri's Twitter presence puts these suggestions into action every single day.
[Do your own research about RAND Corporation, but I find them to be legit. RAND Corporation - Research ANd Development - was founded in 1948 as a non-profit global policy think tank, for the purpose of providing expertise via research to the US Armed Forces. It professes to be a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. Funded both by government and private industry. Created to promote the public welfare and security of the United States of America. Has evolved its focus more recently to information warfare, as well as various societal issues. (Wikipedia) (Article from offbeat news magazine Mental Floss) (About RAND Corp)]
Until recently reading about the concept of the firehose of falsehood, I found it difficult to understand why Trump and his administration lie so often, so blatantly, and so proudly. In many cases, these lies are obvious to me but in others, the statements sound very believable and it takes me a quick web search to confirm a statement as a clear lie, misrepresentation of reality or 'alternative facts.' I must admit, sometimes I just don't have the energy or desire to fact-check things. Other sources do a great job of this, but it can be exhausting to keep up with the rapid pace and steady stream of the lies.
[Daniel Dale, formerly of Toronto Star but hired by CNN a few months ago specifically to fact-check POTUS and other politicians. He does a commendable job of it, providing context along the way. His Twitter account, ddale8, is a great follow.]
And that's exactly the point. It takes so much more effort to address one lie at a time by speaking truth and explaining why something is false. It takes no effort at all to spew lie after lie - sometimes, even, lies that contradict one another - without any sourcing or research which typically doesn't exist, because hey, they're lies. Eventually, people don't know what to believe. They don't know what is the truth and what is a lie. They question and become skeptical of everything being said by everyone. They have no idea what reality is. They give up trying to figure it out. Folks, when this happens in a society, it is bad. Very bad.
The aforementioned firehose of falsehoods Twitter thread includes a very insightful 2018 quote from former presidential adviser Steve Bannon:
"The Democrats don't matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit." (mentioned in The Intercept; original artice behind paywall @ Bloomberg)
In an Oct 17 press conference, Acting White House Chief of Staff (and still Director of Management and Budget) Mick Mulvaney stated this in response to a reporter's question: “What you’re describing is a quid pro quo. We do that all the time. Did [Trump?] also mention to me the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely. No question about it. But that’s it. That’s why we held up the money … I have news for everybody: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.” (New York Magazine)
Get over it is not acceptable when it comes to something this important to our country. It simply isn't.
Yale history professor Dr. Timothy Snyder (great follow @TimothyDSnyder) explained it this way [emphasis mine]:
"'Get over it’ is a very economical way of saying ‘get over’ the facts, ‘get over’ the particular laws that make this illegal and ‘get over’ the rule of law. ...we’re being asked to ‘get over’ our entire history of being a country that respects the rule of law...in other words, of being a country that has a constitution, in which the president is meant to execute the laws, as opposed to being a tyrant, to use the framers' word, who considers himself to be above the law. That's what 'get over it' means.” (Oct 19 2019 interview with Ana Cabrera, CNN https://twitter.com/i/status/1185720082502213632)
As a society, we should not be told to do that. We should not actually do that. We should not be tempted to do that or even want to do that.
It's flat-out wrong. Why?
Dr. Snyder sums it up thusly in an Oct 8 interview with British TV station Channel 4 News: "If we don’t understand that democracy, or more fundamentally the rule of law, is something that requires constant human effort - among other things, a human effort at reasonability, if we don't realize that democracy and the rule of law are not the natural result of history, but buck up against history all the time and require our input, that's when we really have trouble. I'm a little surprised at the idea that people take offense at the notion that democracy and the rule of law are things that we actually have to build up ourselves."
Let that sink in. It may take a minute. That's ok; it didn't sink in with me until my mid 40s.
Democracy and the rule of law require constant human effort. They aren't automatic. There's no guarantee that simply because we live in America that our society will remain stable, civil, and just. It could all go out the window -- and we have been seeing it happen slowly but steadily for the past three years.
Some forces are actively working to destroy democracy. Other forces are acting to preserve democracy by fighting against those negative forces.
If more Americans don't figure out soon how to determine what is shit and what isn't - who is trying to destroy our democracy and who isn't - then things will get much worse before they get better. And they will take a very long time to get better.
So who is trying to destroy our democracy and who isn't? Here's a clue: the vast majority of journalists and media are NOT in the former group.
Please heed the warnings of people who have studied how these things work, who are experts in the field.
The future of our nation depends on it.
Headlines and high-level information about current events are available all over the place. What I'm talking about in this post is next-level analysis, context, breakdown, historical perspective, bottom-lining. This is something that large media outlets or 'mainstream media' don't do often enough or well enough or timely enough.
If you'd be so kind, consider following me on Twitter -- my new account for social issues, current events is @RootingA - short for my blog name Rooting for Americans. Twitter doesn't allow handles > 15 characters :( My primary personal Twitter account is @whiteshoeswhite. Not many tweets or likes or retweets about social issues, but the list of accounts I follow provides a good glimpse into the type of people from whom I seek and absorb information. Yes, I'm pretty proud of the list of follows I've developed in the past 2-3 years.
Most of the information I consume regarding current events is from Twitter - tweets, tweet threads, linked blog posts, linked articles, linked raw source documents for facts or other news that flies under the radar of mainstream American media. There are many reasons why I think Twitter can be a great source of information and analysis; that's a topic for a future post.
One of My Faves
Teri Kanefield. Lawyer and fiction writer - a seemingly uncommon combination. Currently an author and occasional NBC News opinion contributor who was a lawyer for underserved clients for many years. JD from Cal Berkeley. Masters in English from Cal Davis. Teri has a great ability to explain complicated legal issues into in a simple way that non-legal folks can easily understand. From a current topic or new story or development, she explains what happened and tells people what it means and why it is important. She also does this extremely timely, which can be critical to helping people understand not only what happened and why, but what's coming next and what people should know before it happens.Teri also has compiled a ton of very useful summary-level information about impeachment at https://impeachment-trump.com - Ukraine timeline, who's who, documents related to the Russia investigation, how impeachment works, etc. These types of resources don't really show up in major media, who follow from one headline story to the next and don't help put things all together or summarize and build upon things as they develop over time. Teri does all of that here.
Teri has a decent but not huge 77k Twitter following @Teri_Kanefield. She started on Twitter by tweeting about her research for a book she ended up not publishing called How Trump Happened. Her tweet threads are also blog posts at https://terikanefield-blog.com
An Example of Why
On Sun Dec 1, Teri tweeted a short thread regarding the White House counsel's same-day letter informing the House Judiciary Committee that the White House would not be participating in the Dec 4 committee hearing. Teri noted the letter from White House counsel is littered with lies; hopefully she'll break that down soon. The letter certainly reads to me as more spin and propaganda than sound legal reasoning.In mentioning the letter, Teri linked to a Sept 8 Twitter thread in which she explains the firehose of falsehood propaganda model. This is a term coined by the RAND Corporation to describe Russian disinformation and propaganda efforts - similar efforts to which have been deployed by the current POTUS and his administration. The thread includes a link to the original source article from the RAND Corporation, which offers hope by way of describing five suggestions for how to counter the firehose of falsehoods. Teri's Twitter presence puts these suggestions into action every single day.
[Do your own research about RAND Corporation, but I find them to be legit. RAND Corporation - Research ANd Development - was founded in 1948 as a non-profit global policy think tank, for the purpose of providing expertise via research to the US Armed Forces. It professes to be a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. Funded both by government and private industry. Created to promote the public welfare and security of the United States of America. Has evolved its focus more recently to information warfare, as well as various societal issues. (Wikipedia) (Article from offbeat news magazine Mental Floss) (About RAND Corp)]
Until recently reading about the concept of the firehose of falsehood, I found it difficult to understand why Trump and his administration lie so often, so blatantly, and so proudly. In many cases, these lies are obvious to me but in others, the statements sound very believable and it takes me a quick web search to confirm a statement as a clear lie, misrepresentation of reality or 'alternative facts.' I must admit, sometimes I just don't have the energy or desire to fact-check things. Other sources do a great job of this, but it can be exhausting to keep up with the rapid pace and steady stream of the lies.
[Daniel Dale, formerly of Toronto Star but hired by CNN a few months ago specifically to fact-check POTUS and other politicians. He does a commendable job of it, providing context along the way. His Twitter account, ddale8, is a great follow.]
And that's exactly the point. It takes so much more effort to address one lie at a time by speaking truth and explaining why something is false. It takes no effort at all to spew lie after lie - sometimes, even, lies that contradict one another - without any sourcing or research which typically doesn't exist, because hey, they're lies. Eventually, people don't know what to believe. They don't know what is the truth and what is a lie. They question and become skeptical of everything being said by everyone. They have no idea what reality is. They give up trying to figure it out. Folks, when this happens in a society, it is bad. Very bad.
The aforementioned firehose of falsehoods Twitter thread includes a very insightful 2018 quote from former presidential adviser Steve Bannon:
"The Democrats don't matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit." (mentioned in The Intercept; original artice behind paywall @ Bloomberg)
"Get Over It"
In an Oct 17 press conference, Acting White House Chief of Staff (and still Director of Management and Budget) Mick Mulvaney stated this in response to a reporter's question: “What you’re describing is a quid pro quo. We do that all the time. Did [Trump?] also mention to me the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely. No question about it. But that’s it. That’s why we held up the money … I have news for everybody: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.” (New York Magazine)
Get over it is not acceptable when it comes to something this important to our country. It simply isn't.
Yale history professor Dr. Timothy Snyder (great follow @TimothyDSnyder) explained it this way [emphasis mine]:
"'Get over it’ is a very economical way of saying ‘get over’ the facts, ‘get over’ the particular laws that make this illegal and ‘get over’ the rule of law. ...we’re being asked to ‘get over’ our entire history of being a country that respects the rule of law...in other words, of being a country that has a constitution, in which the president is meant to execute the laws, as opposed to being a tyrant, to use the framers' word, who considers himself to be above the law. That's what 'get over it' means.” (Oct 19 2019 interview with Ana Cabrera, CNN https://twitter.com/i/status/1185720082502213632)
It's flat-out wrong. Why?
Dr. Snyder sums it up thusly in an Oct 8 interview with British TV station Channel 4 News: "If we don’t understand that democracy, or more fundamentally the rule of law, is something that requires constant human effort - among other things, a human effort at reasonability, if we don't realize that democracy and the rule of law are not the natural result of history, but buck up against history all the time and require our input, that's when we really have trouble. I'm a little surprised at the idea that people take offense at the notion that democracy and the rule of law are things that we actually have to build up ourselves."
Democracy and the rule of law require constant human effort. They aren't automatic. There's no guarantee that simply because we live in America that our society will remain stable, civil, and just. It could all go out the window -- and we have been seeing it happen slowly but steadily for the past three years.
Some forces are actively working to destroy democracy. Other forces are acting to preserve democracy by fighting against those negative forces.
If more Americans don't figure out soon how to determine what is shit and what isn't - who is trying to destroy our democracy and who isn't - then things will get much worse before they get better. And they will take a very long time to get better.
So who is trying to destroy our democracy and who isn't? Here's a clue: the vast majority of journalists and media are NOT in the former group.
Please heed the warnings of people who have studied how these things work, who are experts in the field.
The future of our nation depends on it.
"Eventually, people don't know what to believe. They don't know what is the truth and what is a lie. They question and become skeptical of everything being said by everyone. They have no idea what reality is. They give up trying to figure it out."
ReplyDeleteThis resonates with me. I'm beginning to see the importance of not giving up, but it isn't an easy task with all of the other demands on my time. Everyone is crazy busy in our society and I can't imagine that most people would prioritize truth-seeking over time with family, friends, career, exercise, nutrition, chores, etc. What you are left with is a majority of people who have given up.