Hate Sells category archive
Twits on Twitter 0
A twit who is still rising again after all these years.
School Daze 0
At the Washington Monthly, Jonathan Zimmerman looks at the conflicts regarding, critical race theory (which, again, is not taught in primary and secondary schools); library books and reading lists; and curricula that is currently bubbling at many local school boards and puts them under a macro-Scopes.
A Taxonomy of Tale-Telling 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Susan A. Nolan and Michael Kimball discuss the differences among misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (yeah, that last one is a new one on me, also; they define it at the link and methinks it a useful coinage). It’s a worthwhile read in these days of viruses, viral memes, and “social” media.
Stray Thought, All the News that Fits Dept. 0
It is an irony that predictions sometimes come true not in the ways envisioned by their predictors.
George Orwell envisioned Big Brother as a remote dictatorial figure enforcing uniformity and compliance through lies (“through lies” is important here), and he predicted a surveillance state in service to Big Brother.
We have a Big Brother, but, rather than promoting unity and conformity in service to the government, it sows chaos and division to undermine government (and governance) through lies (again, the “through lies” is important).
It’s called Fox News (and its many clones and imitators).
We have a surveillance state designed to track our every movement, one to which many persons offer up their deepest secrets willingly, even eagerly; a surveillance state conceived not to enforce uniformity, but to sell advertising, yet which also serves to spread said Big Brother’s lies.
It’s called “social” media.
As Professor Shade was fond of saying, “History is irony.” The irony here is that both of the above resist attempts by government to spread truth.
For example. And another. And another.
Freedom of Screech 0
the writer of a letter to the editor of the Portland Press-Herald draws a distinction. Here’s a bit of the missive:
I don’t know whether he as an ironclad legal case–the case law is ambiguous–but methinks he has an ironclad moral case.
All the News that Fits 0
Fox News’s Jesse Watters wants to shoot the messenger.
Vaccine Nation 0
In the midst of a larger article about addressing parents’ concerns about getting their children vaccinated against COVID-19, Jaime Sidani, Beth Hoffman, and Maya Ragavan spotlight the role of “social” media in perpetuating ignorance and lies. A snippet (emphasis added):
One more time, “social” media isn’t.
Going Off Script 0
Will Bunch offers a theory as to how Donald Trump’s attempted coup d’etat failed. It’s a rather long and nuanced read, so I recommend that you go directly to the source.
Aside:
We may never know how close the plan came to succeeding–too close–but the very existence of such a plan warns us that the polity was, and still is, under grave threat from persons who have convinced themselves (have been convinced?) that sedition is somehow patriotism.
Will Lack of Preparation Prove Pestilential? 0
John J. Petillo, president of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., is concerned that the neglect of education in civics bodes ill. He writes in the Hartford Courant:
Follow the link for more.
Regulating the Marketplace of Ideas 0
A retired English teacher has a suggestion for parents who fear that their children might learn something of which said parents disapprove (like, for example, American history or human diversity).
Follow the link for his rationale.
Vaccine Nation 0
At the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kevin McDermott marvels at the stupid. A snippet:
“Steal MAGAnolias” 0
As Farhad Manjoo points out, we live in parlous times. Here’s a bit of his article:
School Daze 0
The American dream is rapidly becoming the American nightmare.
Aside:
My mother was a teacher. I refuse to visualize her debasing herself in such a manner.
“Manufacturing Enemies” 0
Michael in Norfolk takes a look at Fox News’s faux war on Christmas and its maleficent implications.
