Youtube has announced they'll ban deep-fake videos that have political slants. That might work in the near term, though across a longer span, might I suggest a chapter from The Transparent Society called "The End of Photography As Proof of Anything At All"?
Along similar lines, Have any of you seen Facebook’s announcement of a tepid/tiny and long overdue measure to “deal with” the tsunami of fakery and KGB-scams we’ll see during the U.S. election year? In early 2017, Facebook had me come by and talk about steps for fixing the glaring problem. I offered half a dozen concepts, several of which would have been simple, elegant and relatively unobtrusive. Alas they used none of them, till now.
Shown below is a feeble-but-welcome version of one of the ideas I offered three years ago.
Along similar lines, Have any of you seen Facebook’s announcement of a tepid/tiny and long overdue measure to “deal with” the tsunami of fakery and KGB-scams we’ll see during the U.S. election year? In early 2017, Facebook had me come by and talk about steps for fixing the glaring problem. I offered half a dozen concepts, several of which would have been simple, elegant and relatively unobtrusive. Alas they used none of them, till now.
Shown below is a feeble-but-welcome version of one of the ideas I offered three years ago.
Let's be clear -- this is the only matter of any importance! Because all other issues before us would go a long way toward being solved, if we first save the reputation and effectiveness of facts.
I mean it. From racism to climate collapse to health care to international relations, it might be possible for all sides to adapt, to alter positions and and even to (gasp!) negotiate, if only we restored our ability to parse what’s actually true.
I mean it. From racism to climate collapse to health care to international relations, it might be possible for all sides to adapt, to alter positions and and even to (gasp!) negotiate, if only we restored our ability to parse what’s actually true.
Dig it, the enemies of America and the Western Enlightenment have been empowered by undermining the very notion of verifiable objective reality. You cannot name more than one fact-profession not attacked by Fox & pals. From science, teachers and journalists to a million dedicated civil servants in the FBI, law, intel, foreign and military services who saved us from Hitler, Stalin and bin Laden, but who they now dismiss as “deep state” traitors, without one scintilla of real evidence. Nor have those screaming "fake news" ever offered to help set up a real, nonpartisan fact-checking service. And hence, all they will do is shrug off this version of Facebook’s pallid “fact check.”
To see how we truly could win this central fight – and hence so many others – see my chapter about the War on Fact in my book Polemical Judo.
== Consider this ==
Consider: Nearly a third of the days he’s been president, Trump has visited a Trump-branded property.
Justice Department winds down a Clinton-related inquiry championed by Trump after finding nothing of consequence. Jennifer Rubin follows this up with observations: “The most exonerated politician ever.” Oh and the author of this piece was a lifelong Republican pundit, till she finally got fed up.
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| Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal |
Those of you who have supported your civilization by buying and reading Polemical Judo might have a clue why I am stealing and posting this terrific cartoon from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, one of the greatest of all web comix. Seriously, I have made exactly this point regarding what democrats do with deficits.
In September, Russian police targeted the home of Sergey Boyko, a known critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as part of a widespread raid. But Boyko was determined to prevent the officers from confiscating his electronics — so he used a drone to fly them out of his high-rise apartment via an open window.
Trump remains slightly less unpopular in the military community than among the American public as a whole, but it is a relief to see that the difference isn't large, given that many noncoms come from confederacy states and that Fox News blares in many of the noncom lounges. Of course the Officer Corps is little short of enraged at what Republicans have done to American conservatism, turning into a howling mob vs. every fact and fact using profession. Combine these, and you'll see why I hope officers are growing eyes in the backs of their heads. (Many retired officers are the reason America may take back the Senate and keep the House, via veterans like McGrath and Kelly. You splitters take note!)
The latest Gallup poll had the president’s disapproval rating among the public at 54 percent, and his approval at 43 percent. Among the military: some 50 percent of troops said they had an unfavorable view of him. And the leading candidate in contributions from military folks has been (I saw somewhere) Bernie Sanders.
Read Polemical Judo about how better to welcome and make best use of these patriots in crewcuts and hairbuns. Start by dropping any insulting stereotypes.
== Save the NGOs! ==
Republicans and the Trump Administration are seeking a hugely evil win-win — a $1 billion deal that would hand control over the .ORG domain registry to private equity. This would let them crow over a ‘privatization’ that reduced their screaming-huge Supply Side budget deficits by a smidge, while giving oligarchs a stranglehold over NGOs or Non Governmental Organizations who mostly use the .org domain range.
The NGO was among the greatest inventions of the 2nd half of the 20th Century, empowering citizens to pool memberships with enough clout and funding to hire lawyers and researchers on a par with corporations or even governments. Orgs such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club are top reasons we acted on countless environmental threats, in many cases before it was too late. The ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) fight for transparency and rights daily. (And if you aren’t members, shame on you.) The Soros-founded Open Society initiative is credited with pivotally helping liberate the Warsaw Pact nations that had been enslaved by the USSR.
(Let’s be clear. Soros is repeatedly credited with that feat - along with Obama and the Clintons - by no less than Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Vladimir Putin, himself, who has openly and repeatedly spewed hate at them and vowed to curb the power of international NGOs, starting by passing Russian laws to terrorize them. This .ORG plan is related to international efforts to curb NGOs, which Putin believes enable the West to wage “deniability wars” against him.)
Every December I urge folks to join as many activist orgs as they comfortably can, in effect hiring each one to save the world FOR you, on your behalf. You can tailor-pick your own dozen orgs, from the Planetary Society or an amateur science club, to Oxfam and Save the Children… heck even the NRA, because this is about YOU choosing to amplify YOUR beliefs by pooling with other members to become a force in the world.
It’s a lazy but karmically-acceptable form of minimally activism, if you do it earnestly. You - yes, YOU - can use this PROXY ACTIVISM method to help shift the needle away from feudal or eco calamity toward Star Trek. (And yes, that includes political donations, in 2020.)
Meanwhile, spread word about this effort to cripple the NGOs that make our civilization about something much more than just hierarchies of government. It’s part of what makes us better… simply better, despite all our flaws.… than all those adversaries.
