What Is Truth? One More Time 1
Ira Hyman contemplates the assault on truth and suggests that the medium does indeed have some responsibility for the message. Here’s an excerpt (emphasis added):
When social media platforms become the source of news for many people, they may have the same ethical obligations as newspapers and journalists. Social media platforms can’t hide behind claims of being neutral. Being neutral with respect to true information and misinformation isn’t neutrality. Instead, this promotes the misinformation by treating it the same as the truth. Similarly when news and opinion shows present people peddling snake oil, misinformation, and conspiracy theories, they have ethical obligations. Giving air time to people who deny climate change, for example, promotes that misinformation – even when the peddlers of false information are asked hard questions.
Methinks he has a point.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Practice random acts of politeness.
The boy told police he was so scared he was going to be killed or kidnapped that he jumped into a ditch when it appeared that the SUV was turning around back toward him.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Thom and Greg Palast discuss Palast’s suing Kris Kobach over the Republican gut-out-the-vote effort, as well as Donald Trump’s NAFTA nonsense.
“Our First President Non Grata” 0
Mike Littvin dissects Donald Trump and his half-staff antics. Here’s how he starts:
Donald Trump blinked. It’s not the first time, nor will it be the last.
He blinked because he’s a bully, and bullies, we were told as kids, are actually cowards – a theory, by the way, that in my experience hasn’t always held true. But in this case, it works perfectly.
And he blinked because — and this may be a bit of a revelation — he apparently actually understands the concept of human decency even if he routinely rejects the concept of practicing it.
Follow the link for the rest. You’ll be glad you did.
And Now for a Change of Pace 0
Wrapping up the day with jaunty little period piece with creepy undercurrents of sexual exploitation and racism . . . .
Deep Thoughts 0
Kyle Whitmire finds value in the so-called and grossly misnomered “deep state.” A nugget:
That’s when the intractable bureaucrats dig in.
But there’s an upside to this collective recalcitrance, too.
When the lunatics show up, with their department heads, cabinet leaders and other assorted sycophants — that’s when bureaucracy saves us from ourselves. When our political parties turn into religious cults, the bureaucracy doesn’t care. It just keeps doing what it’s always done.
Facebook Frolics 0
Of course, part of the problem is that far too many persons suspend their brains when they should be suspending their computers.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
In a titanic struggle between rationality and rationalization, Thom tangles with a Confederate monument apologist.
“A Nation of Immigrants” 0
Martin W.G. King writes of the conditions inside Donald Trump’s concentration camps for immigrants and asylum seekers. Here’s a bit:
(snip)
Trump has created a climate that has encouraged the mistreatment of migrants for his own political gain, and he’s done it, mostly, with impunity.
This is institutionalized cruelty.
Words fail me.
