Political Theatre category archive

Snowflakes.

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Shaun Mullen parses Julian Assange’s very strange embrace of Vladimir Putin.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Sander van der Linden offers five tips for spotting fake news (also known as “lies”). Here they are. Follow the link for a discussion of each one.:

1) If it sounds too ridiculous to be true, it probably is!

2) Be aware of politically framed content.

3) Facts go viral less often than falsehoods.

4) Verify the source and context.

5) Don’t get most of your news from social media websites.

Frankly, I think the last is the most important. “Social” media has become the primary vector for facilitating fakery.*

Legitimate media sometime makes mistakes, but, regardless of its political leaning, does try to keep editorials on the editorial pages and out of the news stories. That’s something that the Boston Globe and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, just to pick two from opposite ends of the newspaper spectrum, have in common.

Those who post to “social” media make no such effort, and the “social” media platforms have no interest in and make no effort to ensure that their users are either accurate or truthful, while those users are often willfully and purposefully inaccurate and untruthful.

Oh, and by the way, that a factual news story may seem unfavorable to a cause or candidate you or I favor doesn’t mean its slanted. It means you or I just don’t like it.

This is not to imply that you should be uncritical. Critical is good. But base criticism on facts, not feelings.

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*It has long puzzled me that persons will believe stuff they read on a computer screen when they wouldn’t believe the same stuff if they read it in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

The bully’s pulpit.

Warning: Video may autoplay.

Der Spiegel looks back on a year of Trumpery. A nugget:

It’s been a year since the election that pushed the liberal West into crisis. The White House is now occupied by a man who is constantly triggering a new uproar, a man who is perennially angry, wayward, erratic, a besieged, unstable king, almost Shakespearian. Under Trump, the capital has turned into the set of a reality TV show. Old Lincoln, sitting on his throne, appears even more worried than usual.

Follow the link for the rest.

What Noz said.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin makes an argument that downward comparison is an element of Donald Trump’s appeal. Here’s one of his examples; visit the link for the complete essay.

A large part of Trump’s appeal seems to center on race. Election data bore this out. And it appears no less true one year out. He hasn’t brought back jobs, at least not in large numbers. He hasn’t drained the swamp. But he has reinforced the racial hierarchy. People feeling the threat of economic hardship, fraying social fabric, dim life prospects, have a resource at their disposal—well, some such people do. This may help to explain the robust racial disparities in support for Trump. Down-and-out whites can boost their self-esteem by comparing their lot with those at the bottom of the racial hierarchy in this country. They can feel better about the fact that the jobs aren’t coming back by recognizing that they aren’t black.

Dick Polman assesses Donald Trump’s performance in China and finds it shedding light on his character–nope, not the right word modus operandi.

Lest we forget, Trump has been in Asia this week while the Republicans back home have been busy sifting the ashes of the ’17 elections and gauging the weight of his political baggage. The best way to assess his overseas performance is to behold his Chinese flip-flop, because it illustrates anew that this guy believes in nothing beyond whatever he can muster for cheap thrills.

Follow the link for his reasons for saying that.

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