@MLClark
Good Morning 🌞

@pendrag

Morning, Pendrag! 🤗

@MLClark We do, indeed. The sad thing, IMHO, is that we won't get time to address it because the replacements are coming at such a frenetic pace.

In 25 years the US has gone from concern to outrage to concern to numbness over school shootings. We have to absorb the insanity to be ready for the next absurdity.

Sigh

@Graci

The part that makes me laugh-cry is the refrain, "I don't trust the news", usually uttered by people who haven't actually sharpened their media literacy--who aren't analysing the data they're receiving in any more systematic way, but are simply credulously believing whatever an alt-source says instead. And yet they'll be the first to roll their eyes at the Fox News crowd for being knee-jerk anti-consumers of media.

We're *all* susceptible to info silos.
And can't afford to forget that.

@MLClark Right! Humans love to have their ideas, beliefs, and biases reinforced. When the news, or the truth, challenge them, it's easy to dismiss it as bunk

@Graci

This is also why studies unfortunately show that the solution for mending a lot of fences starts with *not* consuming media for a while. We're just not mature enough to handle the current info deluge - and only more prepared to remember our shared humanity without it in our lives at all.

Unfortunately, not being informed at all also lets bad actors in politics get what they want. So we're screwed either way. :/

...

But good morning, Graci! 🤗
Happy new day in our 🦇 💩 world.

@MLClark @Graci Once people are truly in an "alt-reality", there is no recovery without disconnecting that alt-reality.

In the 2015 documentary "The Brainwashing of My Dad" all the steps of progression are noted.

Spoiler: At the end, her mother manages to hide the channels with a TV or cable box change. His festering anger starts to subside, effectively getting deprogrammed.

Usually, there isn't a mole like the mother to assist.

@MLClark @Graci Usually whole households are affected.

@S_r_stone @MLClark Definitely

@MLClark I've been learning a lot lately about the nature of impermanence and the "Eight Worldly Winds" Pleasure, Pain, Gain, Loss, Praise, Blame, Fame, Disrepute. They are opposite pairs. They form an eight spoke wheel, ever in motion.

The infowars, cling to parts of this cycle and cause pain, but that is where the impermanence comes in. For every night there is a dawn, and for every dawn there is a night. A brighter day of peace with our neighbors will come again...

@MLClark First we must endure the night, to see the light breaking on the horizon, but the night is not us, nor is the dawn or the day. We are all shaped by these things, and the choices we make. We are all connected. The pain we feel, can inspire us towards compassion. The frustration we feel, can drive us towards understanding.

With equanimity, we can find ways to compost the bad, and turn it into good soil, to grow beautiful flowers in the world, no matter our time.

You are not alone. ^_^

@MLClark also, good morning to you.

@MLClark Good Tuesday Morning🌻☕️ Thank you for fighting against illiteracy in its many forms.

@WordsmithFL

As of late, there's been pushback on a myth around Hearst that also reflects the problem today. In modern histories, Hearst is set up as a singular purveyor of misinfo, because having one big puppet master absolves us of personal responsibility.

Unfortunately, the truth is that many journalists of the era were *very eager* to embellish to further their careers.

That there was ever an era of "good" journalism is a bit of a myth. Most of the time, we've been sifting through lies.

@MLClark American newspapers got their start around the turn of the 19th Century, supporting the early political parties. The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by the Federalists to suppress criticism by the Democratic-Republicans.

You're right, the notion of an honest and accurate press is a fairly recent one. Murrow and Cronkite are venerated today, but even they made editorial choices.

We as a people need to do better about rational thinking and reasoned conclusions.

@MLClark BTW, Hearst was on my mind because we toured Hearst Castle a few weeks back. When I mentioned "Citizen Kane," the staff always wanted to change the subject.

There's very little negative about Hearst at the Castle. It's run by the State of California, but I suspect the Hearst family still has a say and some influence.

@WordsmithFL

The veneration of Murrow and Cronkite also allows us to forget the environment that made them atypical - when that's really what we need to remember.

It's a bit like Western myths of resistance fighters during WWII: They did exist! But in small numbers, because most Westerners in occupied regions weren't willing to give up what comforts they had.

Meanwhile, in Eastern countries, there are fewer myths of plucky resistance groups, because resistance was a more overarching affair.

@MLClark I always laugh when the U.S. militia types think they're training for some sort of guerrilla resistance when the FEMA helicopters come for their guns or whatever. 99% of them are going to meekly surrender rather than give up their smart TVs and phones.

There was a 1984 movie, "Red Dawn," that posited a group of teenagers defending their town from a Soviet occupation. It would never happen, but even if it did they'd quickly give up rather than sacrifice their lives.

@WordsmithFL

The funny/sad part about Red Dawn is that it was remade in 2012, in a context *completely* distinct from the Cold War pressures that informed the original. The original reflects a great deal of anxiety of its moment, and a proper remake would have had the wherewithal to reflect on how that moment has changed.

(Also cute/sad is realizing that a film like WarGames [1983] could never be made today - although I vaguely recall it being parodied in a recent TV show.)

@MLClark @WordsmithFL oh yeah. People forget that newspapers used to explicitly identify themselves as "Republican" or "Democratic" in orientation. And then there's the histories of the American West, where dueling newspapers were very common even in the smallest towns.

For all the complaints about social media, we forget that newspapers and tabloids and broadsheets spreading scurrilous and sensationalist information were common. Newspaper wars existed.

@joycereynoldsward I gladly shell out $72 every six months for Newspapers.com, an archive for thousands of newspapers around the world. Not only is it an excellent research resource, but it's also fun to go back in time and read how the news was reported. I couldn't have written my current history book project without it.

@MLClark