The Generalist

One's identity is far more than one's profession.

Recent Posts

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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

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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.

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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?

On Blood-Soaked Ground, a ‘Prayer for the Future’ of a Divided Land
Two weeks after the election, a gathering in Gettysburg commemorated Lincoln’s address, 272 words that have come to epitomize what it means to be presidential.

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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.

The Musk rat
Friends,

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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.

Truth or Fiction

The ten-point strategy includes:

  1. Avoid using his name; refer to him as “45” instead.
  2. Recognize that this is a regime, and he is not acting alone.
  3. Refrain from arguing with his supporters; it is unproductive.
  4. Concentrate on his policies, not his appearance or mental state.
  5. 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.
  6. Eliminate helpless or hopeless rhetoric.
  7. Support artists and the arts.
  8. Be vigilant against spreading fake news; verify information.
  9. Prioritize self-care.
  10. 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.

Ebony

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.]

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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:

  1. Keeps the base impressed because it enrages the establishment leadership.
  2. 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.)
  3. Distracts attention from reality, and from his mendacity and incompetence.
  4. 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.

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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.

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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.

Veterans Day 2024Download

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Remain Yourself

In the face of an emerging authoritarian government, Timothy Snyder outlines how each of us should meet the challenges. His main message is don’t anticipate and comply. Retain and live your values. He also suggests that we strengthen and support regional institutions that will nurture and defend our values. Excellent positive advice for us to be resilient and generative, not just resistant. Watch the video.

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What We Are For

The Friends Committee on National Legislation reminds Quakers and everyone to recognize the threats of our nation’s new leadership while honoring our core values: justice, mercy, truth, simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship. Below, I quote one of the public statements from FCNL :

“We are not for names nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for this party nor against the other… but we are for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom that these may be exalted in our nation… that these things may abound.”Quaker Minister, Edward Burrough, 1659.

This week, we were grateful that millions of people participated in our democracy and that the elections were conducted in a broadly fair, free, and peaceful manner.

With Burrough’s words in mind, we are called to raise a grave warning of the threats we see in the re-election of Donald Trump. Threats to the dignity and lives of millions of our neighbors, including many with whom we work. Threats to the values we hold dear. Threats to a wide range of issues crucial to building the world we seek. To our democracy itself.

These threats only magnify the challenges before us. The weeks, months, and years ahead will not be easy. Like so many across our communities, we are heartbroken by the election result and anxious for what lies ahead.

Yet as people of hope, we will persist in our belief that our democracy is strongest when we are all engaged with it, and with one another.

We will continue to stand in solidarity with people most impacted by government policies. We will continue to fiercely advocate and lovingly defend human dignity and the rights of all people. We will continue to seek opportunities for cooperation across political divides and peacebuilding amid conflict. We will continue to work relentlessly to advance policies that will bring about the more just, peaceful, and sustainable world we seek.

In times of fear and danger, we are called into deeper community with one another – and with those with whom we disagree. Difficult as it may be, we continue to be called to love our neighbors, no exception.