The school shooting in Madison was the 83rd such incident in 2024, bringing the total killed to 38 and the total wounded to 115.
Flood the Zone
Since the election, I have greatly reduced the time I spend on the media. I rationalize my indifference to political news in various ways, but the effect is to disengage. Advertising-funded media are cowering at the threat of losing subscribers or ratings. They pull their punches or give too much airtime to political theater. I have retreated to reading a few blogs that I have found to be credible: Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, and Talking Points Memo (TPM).
But I know that I am succumbing to Steve Bannon’s “Flood the Zone With Shit” strategy. If you don’t know what that is and how it affects you, read on. What follows is a ChatGPT generated briefing. Feel free to share it widely.
Angry? You’re more likely to spread misinfo
The News Literacy Project Reports:
Making people feel outraged is an effective way to spread misinformation — and foreign purveyors of disinformation use this tactic regularly, according to a Washington Post analysis of two new studies. The first study, in the journal Science, found that social media users who share content that angers them are less likely to read or verify it before sharing, and content from low-quality sources — including hyperpartisan sites — is more likely to provoke outrage.
A separate report from the nonprofit Issue One found that foreign disinformation in the 2024 election aimed to tap into similar strong emotions, such as anger, fear and mistrust. The report identified 160 false narratives spread by Russia, Iran, and China, and concluded these foreign influence operations used “pink slime” websites that misleadingly imitate genuine news sites, networks of trolls, and generative artificial intelligence technology to spread falsehoods.
The newsletter is aimed at educators and those who work with young people. It suggests ways to engage them by asking questions. Maybe this would be a good way to engage our friends and neighbors — ask questions and listen actively to their answers.
Talk with the young people in your life about content that makes them angry online. What steps could they take to counter misinformation? Why does outrage drive misinformation online? Why would social algorithms prioritize content that provokes strong emotions?
Misinformation Evokes More Outrage
Inured or Obeying in Advance?
Judd Legum documents the remarkable lack of media interest in the President Elect benefiting handsomely from foreign capital. It doesn’t pass the sniff test and is certainly vastly more corrupt that the support Hillary received for her charitable foundation. We all have become inured to scandalous behavior by GOP luminaries; scarcely a week goes by without something new. Indeed, #45 appears to be intentionally provoking outrage — it devours the media cycle and ultimately has no consequences for him. He benefits because items like this don’t make the headlines. He also benefits because the outrage keeps the nation divided. True MAGA believers don’t care. The rest of us are repulsed. It’s a tactic.
One wonders if our mainstream media, fearing loss of GOP advertisers and subscribers, are now pulling their punches.
Trump v. Clinton: The media double standard on the influence of foreign cash
On Monday, Popular Information reported that Justin Sun, a Chinese national currently being prosecuted for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, sent President-elect Donald Trump $18 million in cash.
If you don’t already subscribe to “Popular Information,” Legum’s excellent newsletter, you should.
Lest We Forget
America has produced some great leaders, people who called forth the greatness of our aspirations even when circumstances were grim. So it was in 1863.
Who will rise to speak great words of resolve and hope today?
The Musk Subsidy Revealed
Robert Reich lets some of the hot air out of the popular image of Elon Musk as a real-world version of John Galt. Ayn Rand’s fictional character was an individualist who fought bureaucracy and institutions. Many see Elon Musk’s success in becoming the world’s richest man as evidence that he made it independent of government, perhaps despite it, through genius and entrepreneurial risk-taking alone.
In truth, Musk has prospered in a business environment designed to make it easier for him to succeed because our government wanted to encourage and financially support businesses like his. We, as taxpayers, both subsidized Tesla sales and were his Space-x patrons. Reich analyzes the numbers.
Resistance Advice
In February 2017, Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, shared a list of strategic guidelines circulating at the time, aimed at effectively opposing the policies of then-President Donald Trump. While she did not claim authorship, she endorsed the advice by posting it on her Facebook page.
The ten-point strategy includes:
- Avoid using his name; refer to him as “45” instead.
- Recognize that this is a regime, and he is not acting alone.
- Refrain from arguing with his supporters; it is unproductive.
- Concentrate on his policies, not his appearance or mental state.
- Maintain a positive message; they want the country to be angry and fearful because this is the soil from which their darkest policies will grow.
- Eliminate helpless or hopeless rhetoric.
- Support artists and the arts.
- Be vigilant against spreading fake news; verify information.
- Prioritize self-care.
- Resist.
Additionally, the advice suggests attributing his actions to “The Republican Administration” or “The Republicans” to compel party members to take responsibility for their association with him or to distance themselves from his actions.
This approach aligns with progressive political strategies that emphasize focusing on policy critiques over personal attacks, fostering unity and resilience, and holding political parties accountable for their leaders’ actions. By concentrating on substantive issues and promoting constructive discourse, activists aim to build a more informed and engaged citizenry capable of enacting meaningful change.
[This is a rewrite of the viral message by ChatGPT4o with source identification.]
Divisive Acts Shield Trump
Matt Gaetz as Attorney General? Bypass congressional checks and balances with recess appointments?
Even the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal is shocked, but Trump’s base sees their leader as striking out with bold actions against the establishment elites they despise. It’s the showmanship of his professional wrestling interest. Please the crowd, keep them inside the bubble of illusion, appeal to base instincts, and distract them from thinking critically.
This tactic may be intuitive for Trump, but it achieves some important strategic objectives for him:
- Keeps the base impressed because it enrages the establishment leadership.
- Keeps the country polarized. (Trump loses if America unifies around shared values. That can’t happen if we are too angry to listen to each other.)
- Distracts attention from reality, and from his mendacity and incompetence.
- It gobbles up time in the news cycle, providing cover for less sensational adverse acts and obscuring rational analysis.
Dominating the news, triggering primal fears and other lizard-brain-level emotions, is a manipulative tactic that his adversaries are loath to use. Encumbered by scruples and unwilling to sacrifice integrity, the resistance fights an asymmetric war.
But Trump’s base is bonded by a web of lies and misinformation. Reality eventually crushes misperception. Therein lies a major vulnerability.
Freedom!
We love our democracy because we believe it is the best way to govern and secure for ourselves and our kids the blessings of freedom, the common good, and security.
Timothy Snyder is a scholar who has devoted much of his life to understanding both tyranny and freedom. He has lived in eastern European countries long enough to learn the languages and know the people. He has drawn on the experiences of people who were long denied freedom to better understand what exactly the word means. He also has come to recognize that most Americans don’t have a clear understanding of it. We take our freedom for granted. Like the air we breath, we don’t think about it until we are deprived of it. Here is an introduction to Snyder’s insights.
I’m reading On Freedom because I want to see what he sees. I think understanding freedom is central to defending against the tyranny threat of the Trump administration.
You probably know of Snyder’s book On Tyranny in which he identifies important lessons of 20th Century history. This little pocket-size book is a guide to how people who wish to be free should think and act. If you are wondering what you as an individual can do, take inspiration from Timothy Snyder.
Here are some links to interviews:
If you have not read On Tyranny watch this:
Twenty Lessons on Fighting Tyranny from the Twentieth Century
Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. From across the fearful twentieth century, here are twenty lessons about what it takes to oppose tyranny, adapted to the circumstances of today.
Veterans’ Day
Trump has expressed his intent to purge the military brass of those he deems disloyal. He’s also announced his intention to appoint Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. Although Hegseth is a veteran of the National Guard and was awarded a Bronze Star, he’s controversial, opinionated, and likely to be loyal to Trump first, and the US Constitution second if push comes to shove.
Military service is a matter of honoring a sacred oath, and being willing to die for it if necessary. Here’s my Opinion Piece for Veterans’ Day.
