Hate Sells category archive
Debunking De Bunk 0
In a long, detailed article, the AP’s David Klepper tears apart what his story identifies as “the five top falsehoods” about the January 6 insurrection, which are spreading in right-wing and “social” media. Here’s a bit of debunking; follow the link for the rest of de bunk.
CLAIM: THE RIOTERS WEREN’T VIOLENT
Dozens of police officers were severely injured. One Capitol Police officer who was attacked and assaulted with bear spray suffered a stroke and died a day later of natural causes.
Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who rushed to the scene, said he was “grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country.” The assault stopped only when he said he had children. He later learned he had suffered a heart attack. Fanone resigned from the department in December 2021.
Rioters broke into the Senate chamber minutes after senators had fled under armed protection. They rifled through desks and looked for lawmakers, yelling, “Where are they?” In House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, staffers hid under desks while rioters called out the name of the California Democrat.
That’s not how some Republican politicians have described the insurrection.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
Apparently, law professor Amy Wax wants to bring back the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Afterthought:
The United States’s immigration restrictions are a history of racism writ in law.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Christopher Dale is less than optimistic, and I fear he has reason.
Words Matter 0
One more time, “social” media isn’t.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
In a fascinating example of history’s repeating itself, Karen Dunn and Roberta A. Kaplan explain how the increased racist militancy and violence of the New Secesh has breathed new life into the Ku Klux Klan act of 1871.
The False Idol 0
Michael in Norfolk muses upon those who believe in a craven image.
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.