We can debate the best way to pay for a bridge. We can argue about the best place to locate a bridge. But if one side believes the river does not exist we have nothing left to discuss.
The sad truth is that vast portions of our population can’t discern fact from fantasy.
Daniel, yes, full of sound and fury signifying nothing and we are fed the useless crap every day by the media whom we should be able to trust. We need a literal gag order imposed on Trump and anyone who is pushing his lies. We already know well the 2020 election was as free of fraud as any election can be, so no one should ever permit on air anyone's lies that it was a fraudulent election without the words on screen and spoken that the claim is a lie, maybe with a voice that shows some frustration that it has to be said again because a toddler-man can't get past it and grow up.
Ruth Sheets: I was noticing last evening that 'Deadline Whitehouse' made a point of not showing some segments featuring lying DJT. It was not perfect, but it was deliberate and refreshing. Nicole Wallace, the host, seemed determined to limit it for a change.
Laurie, I've taken to supplementing my news diet with Scripps outlets like ABC here locally. They 'seem' for now to be broadcasting 'news' as we knew it pre 1980's - as in "here are the facts."
Daniel. Little donnie is not an idiot. He is an evil genius. He knows how to read a room and play to the crowd. To our everlasting shame he read the conservative room correctly.
They want to implode government. He wants to grift.
As Bob Segar said. “I was using her and she was using me. “
He is most probably as dangerous to himself as to the public. The defense would be an inability to control himself due to mental illness. If I were his lawyer, I'd plead he is unable to stqand trial as he is a hazard to himself.
A frend of mine was representing a cop who was an accised murderer. During his trial he changed his testimony to allege allege he was a Nazi, and was just following Hitler when he killed drug dealers, and stole their contraband. Said he couldn't tell right from wrong.
A skeptical judge asked him why he had a Jewish lawyer if he was a Nazi.
I, too, would have him plead insanity or whatever mental illness that can save him from imprisonment, and I suspect that may be in the works as a last resort. It is clear he suffers from some sort of psychopathy (or more aptly put, the American people are suffering from his psychopathy).
One of his judges could actually do that. Force him to have a psych evaluation. But anyone who does the exam and any facility he was in would have to have round the clock security against his cult members who would go after the doctors and anyone else who agreed he is crazy.
And they end up drowning when they attempt to cross the "river that doesn't exist"! I think part of the problem is that they don't want to admit that their ideas and beliefs are false, so they continue to cling to them no matter what.
Tim : they don't realize that they are hurting themselves when they don't examine their beliefs more closely, and check the facts: or they can't because they don't know how, or where to look. All the more reason to police the media for lies: which are not free speech. If it is not a crime to mislead or misinform the public, it should be. With fines, or $$Judgements galore!
it seems their beliefs are so entangled with their deep seated emotional committments that they can't let go. Not that we aren't all like that to one degreee or another.
Speaking of the river, I'm thinking of the Rio Grande. Now, >everyone< sees that. What they don't see is the kind of US foreign policies in place, that prop up the regimes that cultivate all that migration. Fix those policies and watch those crowds at the river begin to dwindle and fade away. Oh! That may be a lot like asking plutocrats to pay tax, but I'm sure there's no connection! 🙄
DZK: yours is the first voice I’ve heard mention the critical truth that the long-standing colonial policies of the U.S. and the vicious regimes they supported in South and Central America during the 20th century are responsible for the wave of desperate migration. United Fruit Company anyone? They just wanted to pick some bananas. But that critical truth is, as Chomsky might say, “outside the envelope of thinkable thought”.
uh, no. I don’t think it’s the long-standing colonial policies of the U.S. and the “vicious regimes they supported in South & Central America that are responsible for the wave of desperate migration.”
Climate change is a factor now, but Reagan and the policies of the 70's and 80's were the starting point. American businesses didn't want democracies to deal with. They couldn't bribe them for favorable conditions. Democracies would have been looking out for the people, not foreign investors. But dictators and Juntas didn't care about the people and were happy to let those companies rape the country of it's assets to line their own pockets, and the US supported them.
So US policies with regard to that part of the world include climate policies. Think support for regimes supporting the clear-cutting of the rain forests for commercial gain. Climate policy is an integral part of all foreign policy. It's not a one or the other proposition.
But how does an impoverished African (from many countries), Cuban, Afghan, Haitain, Ukranian, etc get the dinero to fly to Mejico to get to the border?
Ans, From Republican/Russian/Saudi interests who want to hurt Biden.
❤️ Reich ❤️"(The New York Times...notoriously colluded with [Dick Cheney...aka Darth Vader]propagating its blatant lie about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction.)"... Trump has unexplainable popularity while petulantly refusing to abide by the court or to abide by Fauci during COVID-19. Bush had unexplainable 90% popularity while petulantly refusing to abide by his Presidential Speech Writers ..some of the best in the world... his alcoholic Evangelical war mongering oxymoronic brain destroying or even reversing the intended meaning of his sentence... seemingly unaware and REMORSELESS (since confusing a nation means nothing when you have Jesus to forgive you 😳😲🤪)
Results: a million COVID deaths and a million Iraqis dead. The iraq War was 70% popular and I toured the"Berkeleys of America:"
Madison, Ann Arbor, Austin, Boston, interviewing Anti War leaders. America was ready to Read the Minds of Sadaam without ever hearing ONE SENTENCE TRANSLATED😳😲🤪?
Twenty years later I'm interviewing 100s of Undergrads and found only one that Googled words they didn't know. This one exception is called "Intellectual Maturity." Then I interviewed famous Professors with the word ANGER in the title of their book. No one had Googled "science of anger..."... this is called EMOTIONAL IMMATURITY.😲😳🤪
I measure my anxiety depression and anger daily in 20 seconds. Fast Acting anxiety and or depression CBT Therapy is called T.E.A.M. Therapy where the T stands for Testing. 89% of America's psychologists don't test*... instead "wallowing in science denial" (preferring perpetually insecure clients that idolize them and have NEVER CONSIDERED THEIR TREATMENT DOESN'T BEAT THE PLACEBO EFFECT*) and so science denial is WAY MORE EASY AND PROFITABLE.
The Atlantic basin is home to an area where the development of nature's fury is watched very closely. Throughout history the storms that were spawned off of the Western coast of Africa have matured into atmospheric monsters. With no concern for human life or property, we fell victim to the destructive nature of the hurricane. Through our scientific advancements, we now have the ability to track, via satellites, these killer storms from their infancy. Meteorologists can predict their projected paths and their intensity as these events travel across the Atlantic. With all the scientific tools we have at our disposal, we have learned to identify and prepare for the destruction these massive storms can produce. We name them alphabetically as they make their appearance in the warm waters of the South Atlantic. The remnants of Philippe are still being felt along the Eastern seaboard. In short order storms represented by the letters "R" and "S" will make their appearance. At some point, the "T" storm will develop and pose a clear and present danger to this country and our people. The heck with the name previously picked to fill the "T" slot, everyone consciously concerned with the health of our country knows the atmospheric cartography that is unfolding over this country should carry the name of "Trump." Why is it we can combat the effects of Mother Nature but an overweight aging man who cheats at golf as well as life can cause a tidal surge capable of this country's utter destruction? Trump has a BP of less than 920 millibars, a Cat #5 by description. We have to find a way to inject a massive dose of silver iodide into the thought processes of the people infected by this developing storm. For the common good of us all we need to seed this guy.
Telling the truth, or searching for it if truth is not obvious, is scary. The cost of being a truth teller can be very high, especially if the individual has little power or influence or knowledge
...sorry, another cat-related interruption... we are fortunate to have persons such as you, Prof. Reich, to help us have eyes to see the truth, and courage to shine light on the truth.
Yes, and there seems to be multiple types of issues Professor Reich is writing about. He devotes most, it seems, to the money interests. That is a problem, but not unsolvable with the right policies (eventually, someday, maybe it would happen). The more bothersome is the denial of the river type of non-truth you write of. That is a big time cultural problem and I do not know if there is even a fix. The society of the USA has for a long time not valued critical thinking, analysis, or truth. Any decent reality show is more popular. Cultural failure IMHO.
Trump needs to have a life sentence for treason. It needs to be the TOP story of entertainment for the millions who want to pretend this is just fun to watch.
Al, you are right about a significant number of people in our country unable to discern fact from fantasy, and there are a lot of conservatives and Republicans right now, but others on occasion too who want to keep it that way. If people don't know, they will not challenge. They will believe whatever BS is pumped out and not be able to think far enough into the future to see what damage those lying fantasy drug pushers are doing to them while they do the sleight of hand blaming everyone else for the fantasy folks' resentments. It really is disgusting and even more so because just enough of our journalists and elected officials are among the fantasy pushers.
Something I’ve realized in my many years is that a significant portion of the population has very limited ability to be analytical. They cannot be presented different view points and make an objective choice. They typically find someone they can relate to and follow them and believe whatever they say. Unfortunately this is a fact of life that we have to deal with.
Skip Reynolds : As long as critical thinking is not taught, we will be stuck with that fact. The younger generations are now being taught critical thinking and Civics, along with financial literacy. They are motivated by a desire to survive and enjoy freedom.
That is a good thing, to learn to think for yourself. Question everything. Unfortunately, too many just don’t have that ability. They just follow a leader. I do believe that most can learn to be objective. Trump sure lowered my belief in the intelligence of many to think.
In my community, Easthampton, MA , the schools feature Civics and financial literacy. The high school kids have attended and won national Civics competitions. I wish they were teaching these when my own children were attending. It can be searched, to learn more about where these are taught. Or where the competitions are held
Not precisely what she intended? She knew exactly what she was doing. The damage to the nation and people without the ability to understand or evaluate that oxymoronic statement and shut her down is what we are dealing with now. I for one have stopped giving the benefit of the doubt to those who spread purposefully give false information to further their own ends. The means matter.
Tara, when I read Russell's comment, I had the exact reaction you had. Conway may not be the brightest bulb in the string, but she knew exactly what she was saying and why. She was trying to excuse her outright lies and those of her beloved cult leader. A lie is a lie when it is public and deliberately said to do harm or to acquire or keep power.
And look who won out. She and her husband are divorced. Maybe what Trump was became more important to her than what truth he was telling about Trump. She need to council with Mary Maitland (sp ?) if she wanted to save marriage.
Too many Americans want to be entertained. They are not interested in issues until the issue hits them. They can listen to the right wing and media tell them that social security can't be maintained and they are ok with it until social security disappears and then they look for someone to blame.
Buying off the media is nothing new for those folks. :) Just look back in history to Henry Flagler. He bought the newspapers running stories about how he treated the workers building his rail road.
If we went back before social media I am sure you would find equal amount of people couldnt figure out what was fact or fiction. Now they get bombarded with nonsense. Before social media there were guardrails on information that was vetted to the populace. Not anymore. Does that speak poorly of the recievers of the information or on how we deregulated how false information gets to people?
It's always been that way-a limited ability of the public to discern fact from fiction. But there was a governing elite and media consensus (like it or not) that steered public understanding of reality. That no longer exists.
Media plays a big role in their sticking to the truth.
Even when they say that they hate media outside the extremist right-wing bubble, the reachable ones follow major media, and the problem is that those media do not outrightly reject those lies, they don't show up the consequences. They just do enough to not become legally complicit which ultimately confirms MAGAs in their wrong beliefs. After all, if "liberal media" only rejects it halfheartedly, it can't be bad, can it?
(Tbc, I'm aware of exceptions like Ali Veishi and Joyce Vance, but they're exceptions, and e. g. Vance is still clearer in her substack here)
Americans need to demand better off their media, especially from outlets outside the right-wing bubble, Fox News isn't an excuse, it rather gives cause to speak out more clearly.
For example - the flat earth society. They have a rather large offering of materials online - just type the name in your web browser. A stunning array of nonsense. Here is a quote from one of their drop down menu buttons - "Our new website includes the Flat Earth Society forums a thriving online community since 2004.” WTH. This is going to be a tough slog.
The MAGA Fascist media project or confess their beliefs. They accuse the Democrats of what they say or do.
"Meanwhile, what about us? Well, we have to change our lives to accommodate risk wherever we go. We have to move out of cities for the sake of the safety of our families and our own safety. That’s what’s happening", said Fox News host Greg Gutfeld.
It's not their kids who most fear being shot in school. It's not mostly their kids whose schools have armed police walking the halls.
"What does that leave you with? It leaves you with ‘you need to make war to bring peace’ because you have a side that cannot change. Because then that means the admission that their beliefs have been corrupt all the time. So, in a way, you have to force them to surrender", said Fox News host Greg Gutfeld.
Again, it's the MAGA Right which has refused to change or moderate their policy positions. They are the ones that can't admit their beliefs on abortion are unpopular with even their wives, daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and coworkers. They are determined to make Democrats and the majority of their fellow Americans surrender our lives to their authoritarian demands. Not just women, but transgender, and LGB people. Everyone other than their own rich, racist, and entitled white people.
This reader totally agrees with Professor Reich's points, but he says, "We must demand that the leaders of giant platforms like Facebook, Google, and “X” act as trustees of the common good, and take appropriate steps to guard the truth."
How do we "demand?" The only way to get the attention of those entities is to dis-connect from them and somehow let them know why. But nobody does that. Everybody (almost) continues using those entities and nothing changes.
Unless I missed it in my reading of the essay today, there was no mention of Elizabeth Warren and yet she has been the leading voice for wresting some control over those "social media" entities, holding them accountable. In response to her efforts on behalf of American consumers she has been lambasted, mocked and vilified. My point is that we citizens need to back electeds who are actually good representatives and advocates FOR the public good! (And as a side point, that odious Patrick McHenry who just demonstrated his version of manhood by really slamming that gavel down, shaking his little bowtie with his performance of ferocity just before he summarily evicted Pelosi and Hoyer from their offices "immediately" AND had the offices re-keyed! is known for brazen, proud even, "pay to play" behavior and a long history of doing NOTHING in government BUT collecting money - HE had the gall to call Elizabeth Warren a liar. For that alone, fie upon him.)
I loved what you said here. I, too, would like to know how we can 'demand' the huge leaders act for the common good. Every petition I sign and letter I write goes straight to file 13. I really would like to know how to go about making my demands heard!
The first sentence of your essay, Prof. Reich, says: “Today.... I want to focus on what each of us can do to discover, spread, and insist upon public truth”. I kept waiting to read what those things are, but disappointedly didn’t find any. I found the essay illuminating and thought-provoking, but sadly am left feeling as powerless as I usually do.
When Twitter first launched, a long time Silicon Valley co-worker engineer and friend became an active Twitter Tweeter. At that time I had nonchalantly created a Facebook account but only logged in a couple times a week (and had 2 friends (also previous co-workers)). And this was 4 years before I had a cellphone to use if it was necessary. It was still easier to run to a neighbors house. My Tweeting Twitter friend said to me, "Time to learn to Tweet?" I did create a Twitter account and logged in 4 times in a decade. I read some tweets fully aware of the 140 character tweet limit. Pondering the 140 character limit, I knew that I would never be a Twitter Tweeter. I couldn't communicate a thought into a concise, yet clever sentence and succeed in making a point, with proper punctuation. I know myself and I have written runaway sentences that are also paragraphs. I might type one 140 character tweet in 140 minutes. Hitting the SEND key would immediately throw me into a state of panicking ADHATD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Attempted Tweet Disorder). I would need psychotherapy after every stupid Tweet to reinstate well-being.
---> Musk true joke: Asked why he changed the name Twitter to X, he answered, because X is my favorite character. Why hasn't anyone ever asked me if I have a favorite character? Because I look like an adult. My book of 12 true funny short short stories will be out as soon as I write it. See? My spontaneous sentences/paragraphs are not Twitter Talk. Birds were here first and so we're their tweets.🐦🦜🦆🦢🦅🦚
Your prolixity proclivity makes you a bad twitter critter.
I probably tweeted 6 times though I some times liked to follow a few people.So it wasn't hard to get off. It brought back memories of those scrolling one liner chat rooms which were inane. I need to find some one who can help with my MS Word to EPUB conversion so if you have any suggestion....find a local writers group I guess. Some places want to charge alot for doing very little.
Lying. Nothing entertaining about being sick to heart. It’s soul destroying to be buried by lies and the feeling of impotence to fight the deluge and try to rescue truth .
Nausea is also my reaction to TUMP's serial. I am about ready to leave everything behind except my books and my wardrobe behind and get out of the United States. All of this corrupt BS going on with TUMP and those criminals in Congress are the most disgusting events that i have ever endured in my life. I am totally fed up with these treasonous corrupt criminals getting away with their criminal actions. I have my hands over my eyes afraid to see how all of this is going turn out. And to think, i only thought these kind things went on in third world nations. My, was i ever WRONG.......
I am getting my passport application today and will fill it out. I love my country and would hate to leave it but I will if that man goes back to the White House!!!
I do care about my nation too, but i have just about had it. I just can't see why all of this law breaking by the Fascist GQP is being allowed to happen. They are committing Felonies by their treasonous actions and deliberate flaunting our election laws, threats of violence, and their numerous death threats to judges, District Attorneys, and potential jury members. Nothing is being done about all of this. I am so fed up with this.
What steps do i need to take to get my passport?? I have never applied for a passport so i am new at this. I want to get one as soon as possible. I have a pretty decent amount of money saved and have good credit and have credit cards so expenses are no problem for me. I am also appalled that there are so many stupid, gullible, ignorant, uneducated wingnuts that vote for these treasonous domestic terrorists in the Fascist GQP. I want to go to Nova Scotia or New Brunswick Canada if that insane ape Donald TUMP weasel's his way to Dictator. I hate that orange ape with a blind passion.
If you don't mind, let me know what i have to do to get my passport, i would appreciate that very much, and thank you very much for your reply.
I am sorry, John. I understand your frustration!! All you need to do is go to your post office and ask for a passport application. You need to be prepared because once you fill it out and send it back, you will wait on average six months to a year before receiving your passport! Good luck to you!
Thank you so much, Peggy. I am going to the post office next week to get my application. Just long as i get the passport by about this time next year. On another note, i just got an email that said TUMP is encouraging his followers to start shooting in stores. They need to put him in jail with NO contact with the outside world... Words cannot describe just how much i despise and hate that violent monster.
You are most welcome, John! I so hope that you will not have to use it except for vacations!! Yes, they do need to lock him up. He is a most dangerous man!
Now he's contemplating being speaker. Raging rants 24/7. Demands violence from his cult. When Trump acted out in the NY civil fraud hearing, pounding on the table, had I been Engoron, I would have asked him, on the reciord, how he was doing. Given his profile, I'd expect a rant. A rant is a predicate to see whether he is a risk to himself or anyone else. Wonder whether his kids agree.
It takes a majority of the House to change rule 26 which would allow Trump to be speaker. I don't think that is out of the question given what we have seen. If I were Trump I think I might want to be Speaker. The Jordan endorsement can be an opening gambit.
My mom told me basically the same thing. She said "When you lie, you're setting yourself up to be caught out in that lie because you never remember exactly how you lied. With the truth, you never forget." Such wise words to live by!
I agree with you! What happened? Did parents stop teaching their children the importance of a sense of honor and ethics? I know that was drilled into me daily growing up!
It’s always been that way. Parents and groups without ethics don’t teach ethics. That’s what schools and society should try to do. I instilled strong ethical behavior and manors in my children as well as any other young person I was around. We all have to do that to make things better. I travel a lot and have met so many courteous young people. I’ve seen a few of the others too. I do have hope for humanity even with all the disfunction going on.
Yes, Keith. She was my rock! She taught me to have strength and courage and always do the right thing. I lost her to cancer but not after she fought it off three other times. She was an amazing woman and I try to live the way she taught me. I feel in my heart that is the best way to honor her. Thank you. Your comment made my day.
Sometimes there is a distinction in the law between "truth" and "credubility."
E.G. When I was at SSA, many times, people would lie about mundane things. Their names. "I have always been known as...." Their ages. Their daily activities. But the medical records would show that their conditions met the requirements. Thus, "disabled liars."
In a few cases, psychiatrists diagnose somatoform disorders, where physical symptoms suggest a physical disorder, but there are no demonstrable organic findings and there is strong evidence for link to psychological factors or conflicts. The term is from Greek, “soma” for body. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532253/
In my experience, psychiatrists would probably testify that for people like Trump, their entire personal idenity has been a lie and the revelations about his fake business personna are more devastating to him than the loss of his ability to keep his property or the threats of incarceration.
Exactly. That's how I was taught and most children. I grew up believing that and always told the truth. I am 70 and I still believe that. What happened to make adults believe in lies? Promotions? Paybacks? I refuse to believe that I am one of the few! The Senate and Congress were elected to serve the people. The President is elected because we believe he/she will do good for the Country and because he/she is respected and not someone who grabs women's pu#&$! Shamefull. Trump should have been shut down immediately, but instead, the republicans wanted to win by any means necessary and continue to support lies to get that idiot elected again and destroy DEMOCRACY to boot!
Kathryn, I do believe there are a lot of young people who were taught lying is wrong. The problem is that often when one enters the "work world" lying is often required to just survive on the job. People lie on their resume because so many lie they think their honest resume will never get them anywhere, then once the lying starts, it is hard to stop it. I was supposed to lie on a couple of my jobs and I hated it, so eventually had to leave. My bosses didn't want truth because they might not get enough grant money with the truth. Here's to all the people our age (I am also 70) who believe lying is only acceptable if someone's life is on the line or if the lie is irrelevant (say I like a movie I really didn't like). Even then, the lie is not really worth it.
That makes three of us. I just turned 70 on September 21st. I guess you, Ruth and I were all raised by good parents. I believe even simple lies have a way of coming back on you. My parents also raised me that if you don’t have anything good to say about someone, don’t say anything.
Truth used to be valuable. Reporters like, Edward E. Murrow, Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley could be trusted and were trusted because they brought us the news - what was really happening. We could rely on investigative reporters like Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward to give us the real news. I do remember when I watched in horror as younger reporters forcibly shoved microphones in people's faces and asked inane questions like "How do you feel" That was when I started to distrust the news. Now I no longer watch TV at all (except for DVDs) there is not a single reporter since 2015 that I trust. They were so willing to repeat anything trump or q-anon drivelled. I do remember Moynihan's remark about being entitled to your opinion but not your own set of 'facts'. That age seems to be gone. I'm so thankful for Substack - at least here, writers still distinguish between opinion and fact.
You grew up during my time!! I remember those reporters and trusted them. I agree with you that reporters today seem so hell bent on getting their sound bite, they are rude as well as stupid!
You are correct Peggy, they are rude, at least those who aren't anchors. And those who are anchors don't seem to be trained in how to handle rude bullies. They just flutter their lashes and smile. ps I'm 91 We got our first TV when I was 19.
Oh Fay!! You are spot on with the fluttery eyelashes!! Made me laugh! We had a little black and white tv on a rolling cart. My mom kept it in her bedroom and only rolled it out for us to watch The Ed Sullivan Show, Bonanza, and the news. She said too much tv would warp our character!!
Make Google into a public utility. It's laughable that corporations would ever - these days - serve the public good when they can serve profit. Profit seeking is the corporations raison d'etre. Can you imagine what our climate would be today had Big Oil/Gas/Coal served the public good after learning and taking to heart the research conclusions their own scientists arrived at decades ago? Asking corporations to serve the public good is tantamount to requiring your dog get a PhD in physics. Whatever we depend on as the public good ought to be a public enterprise - water, electricity, schools, health care, parks, libraries, etc.
Selina Sweet : Yes, serving, or at least not harming, the public good , should be mandatory. The world and it's resources: as we knew them , is shrinking. This fact affects everyone : even the obscenely wealthy! There is a reason that we have rules for sanitation, for example, and public toilets! The Common Good! Pretty basic!
This is excellent!! How would we be able to make them public entities when they are owned and controlled by CEOs and stockholders? They would never let them go without a price that I doubt we would be able to afford!
Peggy Freeman : They cannot afford the price either, no matter how many billions and even trillions they may have. The Common Good depends on a healthy environment, as well as all the other goods and services.. Life itself.. some day some Harvard grad will come up with this astounding discovery! It is already evident and even a dog can sniff it!
Well given that you mark cramer possess the elusive crystal ball or God has marked you as his mouthpiece, shall we use your knowledge as a rationalization to sit back, eat guacamole and chips, imbibe one Victoria after another and watch Netflix 24 -7? Or also given, all those block caps in your comment, would it be advisable to pour that big energy into loving the world in all the ways we can easily see it needs loving? If the latter, what love-needing attention element of today's misery would you devote your loving energy to?
works for me, or some kind of mixed entity.The thing is, climate change is such a huge threat that it is easy to point to extreme or unusual things to support. Boundary conditions before chaos.
This is what has really disturbed me about present public discourse: the dispersion & ready acceptance of lies, distortions, misinformation, false propaganda & conspiracy theories, & the denial & repudiation of science, facts, evidence, truth & reason. Some 30-40% of the American people readily accept notions that no rational being would believe. It boggles my mind how some people so easily fall for obvious lies by obvious conmen, & will believe disinformational propaganda funded by billionaire corporate executives over sound science & their own eyes, ears & body.
The main purveyors of false information are right-wing media & the Republican Party, although religious zealots are also guilty, while the fossil fuel industry & other corporations fund, formulate & drive much of the narrative. Just about every Republican politician from their President to their Speaker of the House lies as a matter of course. Just about every MAGA devotee believes & promulgates some of the wildest, wackiest ideas one could conceive.
I just watched an interview on CNN with Katlin Collins and her guest Cornel West. Mr. West is an educated intelligent man who must have met Kanye West for lunch and contracted the same disorder that rendered him visibally ignorant. Cornel just decided to drop his intention to run on a "Greene" party ticket and enter the race as an Independent. A child of 3 could see this move only benefits Trump's political position in the upcoming 2024 election. Mr. West, not the naive younger one, is against all things Trump. However, his entering the 2024 presidential race is a move that leaves Trump's dreams less than dry. He is simply campaigning for Trump's reelection, and there is no other way to view it. Cornel West's action will draw votes from Biden's camp and give Trump a clear path back to the White House and thus create an environment directly in opposition to the world Cornel envisions for this country. Trump has infected West's thinking to the point where the two have become one. With the Supreme Court about to hear the mess Trump has been brewing, this country is waiting to see how off-base their decision concerning Donnie Boy might be. No President has ever been indicted criminally, since this is uncharted territory for Trump's friends they are about to come to a river where they must make a decision, how do they get across? It's not that deep and there is a small boat on the shore. Do they "row" or do they "wade?" Deja vu all over again.
Everyone, nearly, wants recognition and to make a splash in the world. Or to preserve their good name. For some it is all consuming. Or as Einstein told Oppenheimer who wanted to defend himself at a government hearing --don't do it. You don't need these people.
I will give you a good example of your truthful last sentence, Jaime Ramirez.... The other day when the emergency alert test was issued, some of those ignorant idiot MAGA fanatics were placing aluminum foil over their smart phones and i phones because their conspiracy theorists said the Government was sending a signal that would cause harm to them. I don't know the full details of this as my daughter had told me about this. They put the foil on their phones in order to keep the signal from reaching them. I haven't felt any ill effects as i have 2 smart phones and i heard the signal on both of them. Looney tunes to the extreme to describe these ignorant cretins.
Haha! I hadn't heard about that, but it doesn't surprise me.
At some point this type of reaction by them will have catastrophic consequences for them. You could say it already has with the elevated deaths during the pandemic due to not taking basic, reasonable precautionary steps to protect themselves from the virus.
I agree Jamie. I don’t know this for a fact, but I think
rank and file republicans have been conditioned
(by that I mean psychologically/emotionally manipulated) to accept lies for about 3 decades. I also think the tactics used to achieve this are KBG (or whatever they call themselves currently) tactics.
l also think Russia has had operatives here for many years, and possibly longer. For example, do you remember Marina Butina? She infiltrated the NRA long before Trump was president and she influenced members to move further to the right on gun control issues. Not long after the 2016 election she was arrested and eventually deported to Russia.
Consider that Russia may have had dozens more
Russian operatives here infiltrating various groups
of people and manipulating them to become more
and more extreme--like evangelical groups & Right to Life groups. Also consider that lots of Russian money was being spent to influence Americans, as well as GOP billionaire money. A good number of GOP elected officials (senators & reps.) have been accepting large amounts of money from Russian oligarchs for many years in return for encouraging the GOP to be more extreme. OpenSecrets states Dark money is "pouring" into U.S. elections, but not only are its donors not being disclosed, the total quantity of the dark money isn't either. "The vast majority" of what is spent "is not being disclosed to the Federal Election Commission.
I remember reading that people were being paid to attend Trump’s rallies when he began running for the presidency. The purpose of all that money and effort has been to use our “relatively” open culture against us by dividing us, spreading misinformation and
encouraging chaos.
If there’s enough money involved, many senators & reps will happily go along with the program and “play dumb.” In addition, somewhere along the line a few members of the FEC stopped doing their jobs. There’s at least one whistle blower statement from a couple of FEC members available on the internet.
There are also numerous longstanding ties between
Rupert Murdoch and Russia. Ditto for the Kochs.
Here’s a headline from Reuters, dated 2012, “FBI looking at Murdoch operations in Russia.”
Here’s an excerpt, “The company’s activities in Russia are being looked at as part of a broader FBI investigation into possible violations by News Corp of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - an inquiry fueled by allegations that journalists for Murdoch newspapers in Britain for years systematically made questionable payments to public servants, including police and military officials, in return for story tipoffs.”
That money may be the reason we see bizarre and
patently false statements from numerous republicans.
For sure there has been a strong, alarming Russian element to the extremification & perversion of the Republican Party throughout this century which has worked in tandem with FoxNews & right-wing radio, & billionaire corporate executives like Murdoch & Koch .
We certainly must "demand leaders of giant platforms act as trustees of the common good, & take appropriate steps to guard the truth," but that means recognizing some are pathological narcissists who are psychologically incapable of hearing or telling the truth, so will never be trustworthy unless forced to by the strict rules of being a public service utility. https://samray.substack.com/p/psychiatry-and-psychology-are-failing
"In recent years, public truth has been undermined by people who have been willing to do whatever it takes to gain wealth or power."
...and where a lie won't fit, the clever twisting/leveraging of religious beliefs will do the trick. World over, the powers that be weaponize religion to attack and more often to distract. Would love to see what effectively regulating religious discourse in the interest of the common good would look like.
The real problem is the people who believe lies, their inability to tell the difference. We sure don’t want a government that decides what is lies and the truth and censors what they determine to be lies.
As long as Greed is the motivating factor, not Truth, Honesty, Justice, or Morality, nothing will change. Humans will be extinct in a few generations, brought on by our own embracement of Lust, Greed, Hate, Superiority, and Entitlement. We are a failed evolutionary experiment, burning ourselves out and killing all life on the Planet in just a few thousand years. Keep in mind that the Dinosaurs lived in harmony with the Planet for MILLIONS of years, wiped out only by the external force of Comets.
Well that’s a cheery thought. I’m glad that I see evidence of intentionality in the intricate web of life, and believe, for logical reasons, that we had a Designer with a purpose. Obviously we have deviated from the path intended (free will being part of our design, that possibility was available to us; “predestination” and free will are mutually exclusive beliefs, and free will aligns with observed reality) but that should not, does not, defeat our Designer. Not being a blind Force, but a Mind, “He” is quite capable of intervening. Some refer to karma, but that’s a poor substitute.
Better yet, He has communicated his intentions quite clearly, to those willing to listen. But we abandoned his guidance by listening to a deviant agent, a malignant narcissist (now being ably modeled by an ex-president) who gaslit us with a false promise of freedom. This event is described in the origin story in the Bible. Whether you take the story literally or not, the essential element has direct relevance to the present predicament. The flood of lies today is the last effort by the Liar (aka “devil”) to take as many into death with him as possible. Like all narcissists, ‘if he can’t have it, no one can.’ But of course he will lose.
Our Designer knows our makeup (and the way his enemy thinks as well) and could tell us long ago how things would end (not, as some say, by “looking ahead into Time,” which implies both predestination and that the Creator is inferior to Time, since that would mean He has to learn by looking to see what Time has predestined).
The original lie: Genesis 3:1-6. The end: Daniel 2:41-44. Verses 41-43 describe the final human world power (us) perfectly; verse 44 is the next event.
If you object, “well why did your sky fairy make the devil, hmmm?” that simply shows you haven’t thought this through. Do you not understand what free will means? Even an “angel” can choose to go wrong, and clearly one did. And that was just the beginning. Do not study this with crowing gaslighters leaning over your shoulder mocking every word. Start skeptical, as Reich said, but not cynical. You may just arrive at the truth.
The abolition of the Fairness Doctrine, coupled with the Powell Memorandum, really did set these Benighted States on a course on which jumping the shark was inevitable.
We can debate the best way to pay for a bridge. We can argue about the best place to locate a bridge. But if one side believes the river does not exist we have nothing left to discuss.
The sad truth is that vast portions of our population can’t discern fact from fantasy.
And what's even worse is that you can show them the river & they'll still deny it exists.
That's psychotic. Worthy of institutionalization.
The "big lie" 'tis a tale twice told by an idiot. All sound and fury signifying nothing.
Daniel, yes, full of sound and fury signifying nothing and we are fed the useless crap every day by the media whom we should be able to trust. We need a literal gag order imposed on Trump and anyone who is pushing his lies. We already know well the 2020 election was as free of fraud as any election can be, so no one should ever permit on air anyone's lies that it was a fraudulent election without the words on screen and spoken that the claim is a lie, maybe with a voice that shows some frustration that it has to be said again because a toddler-man can't get past it and grow up.
Ruth Sheets: I was noticing last evening that 'Deadline Whitehouse' made a point of not showing some segments featuring lying DJT. It was not perfect, but it was deliberate and refreshing. Nicole Wallace, the host, seemed determined to limit it for a change.
Laurie, I've taken to supplementing my news diet with Scripps outlets like ABC here locally. They 'seem' for now to be broadcasting 'news' as we knew it pre 1980's - as in "here are the facts."
Daniel. Little donnie is not an idiot. He is an evil genius. He knows how to read a room and play to the crowd. To our everlasting shame he read the conservative room correctly.
They want to implode government. He wants to grift.
As Bob Segar said. “I was using her and she was using me. “
He is most probably as dangerous to himself as to the public. The defense would be an inability to control himself due to mental illness. If I were his lawyer, I'd plead he is unable to stqand trial as he is a hazard to himself.
A frend of mine was representing a cop who was an accised murderer. During his trial he changed his testimony to allege allege he was a Nazi, and was just following Hitler when he killed drug dealers, and stole their contraband. Said he couldn't tell right from wrong.
A skeptical judge asked him why he had a Jewish lawyer if he was a Nazi.
Response: "I said I'm crazy, not stupid."
I, too, would have him plead insanity or whatever mental illness that can save him from imprisonment, and I suspect that may be in the works as a last resort. It is clear he suffers from some sort of psychopathy (or more aptly put, the American people are suffering from his psychopathy).
One of his judges could actually do that. Force him to have a psych evaluation. But anyone who does the exam and any facility he was in would have to have round the clock security against his cult members who would go after the doctors and anyone else who agreed he is crazy.
Emergency Order of Detention
Does not have a firm grasp on reality and is clearly a danger to himself and others.
Held for 30 days observation.
I’m thinking a facility for the criminally insane.
If warranted, placed in treatment.
William was a pretty good philosopher.
And they end up drowning when they attempt to cross the "river that doesn't exist"! I think part of the problem is that they don't want to admit that their ideas and beliefs are false, so they continue to cling to them no matter what.
Tim : they don't realize that they are hurting themselves when they don't examine their beliefs more closely, and check the facts: or they can't because they don't know how, or where to look. All the more reason to police the media for lies: which are not free speech. If it is not a crime to mislead or misinform the public, it should be. With fines, or $$Judgements galore!
The trouble with stupid people is they're too stupid to realize how stupid they are.
it seems their beliefs are so entangled with their deep seated emotional committments that they can't let go. Not that we aren't all like that to one degreee or another.
Tim Baldwin : No matter what; If Tfg or his sycophants prevail, his 'believers' will realize, too late, that they have been 'had'.
Right. Today Hillary in an interview said Trump will be the Republican nominee.
I recall she pointed out in her campaign those same voters cling to their guns and religion.
And they will vote for him again.
Speaking of the river, I'm thinking of the Rio Grande. Now, >everyone< sees that. What they don't see is the kind of US foreign policies in place, that prop up the regimes that cultivate all that migration. Fix those policies and watch those crowds at the river begin to dwindle and fade away. Oh! That may be a lot like asking plutocrats to pay tax, but I'm sure there's no connection! 🙄
DZK: yours is the first voice I’ve heard mention the critical truth that the long-standing colonial policies of the U.S. and the vicious regimes they supported in South and Central America during the 20th century are responsible for the wave of desperate migration. United Fruit Company anyone? They just wanted to pick some bananas. But that critical truth is, as Chomsky might say, “outside the envelope of thinkable thought”.
I have my moments! Let me compliment you on picking up on what I'm driving at here.
uh, no. I don’t think it’s the long-standing colonial policies of the U.S. and the “vicious regimes they supported in South & Central America that are responsible for the wave of desperate migration.”
It’s climate change.
Climate change is a factor now, but Reagan and the policies of the 70's and 80's were the starting point. American businesses didn't want democracies to deal with. They couldn't bribe them for favorable conditions. Democracies would have been looking out for the people, not foreign investors. But dictators and Juntas didn't care about the people and were happy to let those companies rape the country of it's assets to line their own pockets, and the US supported them.
So US policies with regard to that part of the world include climate policies. Think support for regimes supporting the clear-cutting of the rain forests for commercial gain. Climate policy is an integral part of all foreign policy. It's not a one or the other proposition.
In part both.
But how does an impoverished African (from many countries), Cuban, Afghan, Haitain, Ukranian, etc get the dinero to fly to Mejico to get to the border?
Ans, From Republican/Russian/Saudi interests who want to hurt Biden.
❤️ Reich ❤️"(The New York Times...notoriously colluded with [Dick Cheney...aka Darth Vader]propagating its blatant lie about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction.)"... Trump has unexplainable popularity while petulantly refusing to abide by the court or to abide by Fauci during COVID-19. Bush had unexplainable 90% popularity while petulantly refusing to abide by his Presidential Speech Writers ..some of the best in the world... his alcoholic Evangelical war mongering oxymoronic brain destroying or even reversing the intended meaning of his sentence... seemingly unaware and REMORSELESS (since confusing a nation means nothing when you have Jesus to forgive you 😳😲🤪)
Results: a million COVID deaths and a million Iraqis dead. The iraq War was 70% popular and I toured the"Berkeleys of America:"
Madison, Ann Arbor, Austin, Boston, interviewing Anti War leaders. America was ready to Read the Minds of Sadaam without ever hearing ONE SENTENCE TRANSLATED😳😲🤪?
Twenty years later I'm interviewing 100s of Undergrads and found only one that Googled words they didn't know. This one exception is called "Intellectual Maturity." Then I interviewed famous Professors with the word ANGER in the title of their book. No one had Googled "science of anger..."... this is called EMOTIONAL IMMATURITY.😲😳🤪
I measure my anxiety depression and anger daily in 20 seconds. Fast Acting anxiety and or depression CBT Therapy is called T.E.A.M. Therapy where the T stands for Testing. 89% of America's psychologists don't test*... instead "wallowing in science denial" (preferring perpetually insecure clients that idolize them and have NEVER CONSIDERED THEIR TREATMENT DOESN'T BEAT THE PLACEBO EFFECT*) and so science denial is WAY MORE EASY AND PROFITABLE.
*Subscribe for details 😁
It's hurricane season--
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
8:44 AM (0 minutes ago)
The Atlantic basin is home to an area where the development of nature's fury is watched very closely. Throughout history the storms that were spawned off of the Western coast of Africa have matured into atmospheric monsters. With no concern for human life or property, we fell victim to the destructive nature of the hurricane. Through our scientific advancements, we now have the ability to track, via satellites, these killer storms from their infancy. Meteorologists can predict their projected paths and their intensity as these events travel across the Atlantic. With all the scientific tools we have at our disposal, we have learned to identify and prepare for the destruction these massive storms can produce. We name them alphabetically as they make their appearance in the warm waters of the South Atlantic. The remnants of Philippe are still being felt along the Eastern seaboard. In short order storms represented by the letters "R" and "S" will make their appearance. At some point, the "T" storm will develop and pose a clear and present danger to this country and our people. The heck with the name previously picked to fill the "T" slot, everyone consciously concerned with the health of our country knows the atmospheric cartography that is unfolding over this country should carry the name of "Trump." Why is it we can combat the effects of Mother Nature but an overweight aging man who cheats at golf as well as life can cause a tidal surge capable of this country's utter destruction? Trump has a BP of less than 920 millibars, a Cat #5 by description. We have to find a way to inject a massive dose of silver iodide into the thought processes of the people infected by this developing storm. For the common good of us all we need to seed this guy.
Telling the truth, or searching for it if truth is not obvious, is scary. The cost of being a truth teller can be very high, especially if the individual has little power or influence or knowledge
Rita--The need for the truth is obvious. It is what we all require in order to keep things functioning smoothly. Unless your name is Trump.
...sorry, another cat-related interruption... we are fortunate to have persons such as you, Prof. Reich, to help us have eyes to see the truth, and courage to shine light on the truth.
Yes, and there seems to be multiple types of issues Professor Reich is writing about. He devotes most, it seems, to the money interests. That is a problem, but not unsolvable with the right policies (eventually, someday, maybe it would happen). The more bothersome is the denial of the river type of non-truth you write of. That is a big time cultural problem and I do not know if there is even a fix. The society of the USA has for a long time not valued critical thinking, analysis, or truth. Any decent reality show is more popular. Cultural failure IMHO.
It's like talking to a religious person and tell him/her that God does not exist. A complete waste of time and effort.
And Summer Time,
Trump needs to have a life sentence for treason. It needs to be the TOP story of entertainment for the millions who want to pretend this is just fun to watch.
AT LEAST only 10% of our population, or 40% of the 25% registered insurrectionist Trumplican, support that morbidly obese man-child RAPIST.
Al, you are right about a significant number of people in our country unable to discern fact from fantasy, and there are a lot of conservatives and Republicans right now, but others on occasion too who want to keep it that way. If people don't know, they will not challenge. They will believe whatever BS is pumped out and not be able to think far enough into the future to see what damage those lying fantasy drug pushers are doing to them while they do the sleight of hand blaming everyone else for the fantasy folks' resentments. It really is disgusting and even more so because just enough of our journalists and elected officials are among the fantasy pushers.
Something I’ve realized in my many years is that a significant portion of the population has very limited ability to be analytical. They cannot be presented different view points and make an objective choice. They typically find someone they can relate to and follow them and believe whatever they say. Unfortunately this is a fact of life that we have to deal with.
Skip Reynolds : As long as critical thinking is not taught, we will be stuck with that fact. The younger generations are now being taught critical thinking and Civics, along with financial literacy. They are motivated by a desire to survive and enjoy freedom.
That is a good thing, to learn to think for yourself. Question everything. Unfortunately, too many just don’t have that ability. They just follow a leader. I do believe that most can learn to be objective. Trump sure lowered my belief in the intelligence of many to think.
Tfg had help : the media.
Well, Republicans will surely put a stop to that Laurie.
Where? Which schools are teaching these subjects?
In my community, Easthampton, MA , the schools feature Civics and financial literacy. The high school kids have attended and won national Civics competitions. I wish they were teaching these when my own children were attending. It can be searched, to learn more about where these are taught. Or where the competitions are held
Many Democrats seem not to get this.This is why narrative framing is so important. Why she is important. https://keywiki.org/Anat_Shenker-Osorio
Precisely; Conway's "alternative facts," while not precisely what she intended, was harbinger of the New Norm.
Not precisely what she intended? She knew exactly what she was doing. The damage to the nation and people without the ability to understand or evaluate that oxymoronic statement and shut her down is what we are dealing with now. I for one have stopped giving the benefit of the doubt to those who spread purposefully give false information to further their own ends. The means matter.
Tara, when I read Russell's comment, I had the exact reaction you had. Conway may not be the brightest bulb in the string, but she knew exactly what she was saying and why. She was trying to excuse her outright lies and those of her beloved cult leader. A lie is a lie when it is public and deliberately said to do harm or to acquire or keep power.
Tara Lane : yes, certain people, once I have 'their number' as liars, ; I know they are lying if their lips are moving.
Ms Conway was being 'tutored' by the liar in Chief : her boss at the time.
And look who won out. She and her husband are divorced. Maybe what Trump was became more important to her than what truth he was telling about Trump. She need to council with Mary Maitland (sp ?) if she wanted to save marriage.
True, but what I've always thought she meant to say was "alternative sources;" it's more fitting under the circumstances.
Too many Americans want to be entertained. They are not interested in issues until the issue hits them. They can listen to the right wing and media tell them that social security can't be maintained and they are ok with it until social security disappears and then they look for someone to blame.
Oh, that's VERY good; simply and well stated. 👏🏼
Exactly!
Two things need to occur to begin to correct the path we are on:
1) Donald Trump, Fox News, Newsmax... need to tell the truth. It is only through them that their willfully ignorant followers will believe the truth.
2) We need to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine#:~:text=The%20fairness%20doctrine%20of%20the,that%20fairly%20reflected%20differing%20viewpoints.
Buying off the media is nothing new for those folks. :) Just look back in history to Henry Flagler. He bought the newspapers running stories about how he treated the workers building his rail road.
If we went back before social media I am sure you would find equal amount of people couldnt figure out what was fact or fiction. Now they get bombarded with nonsense. Before social media there were guardrails on information that was vetted to the populace. Not anymore. Does that speak poorly of the recievers of the information or on how we deregulated how false information gets to people?
It's always been that way-a limited ability of the public to discern fact from fiction. But there was a governing elite and media consensus (like it or not) that steered public understanding of reality. That no longer exists.
Media plays a big role in their sticking to the truth.
Even when they say that they hate media outside the extremist right-wing bubble, the reachable ones follow major media, and the problem is that those media do not outrightly reject those lies, they don't show up the consequences. They just do enough to not become legally complicit which ultimately confirms MAGAs in their wrong beliefs. After all, if "liberal media" only rejects it halfheartedly, it can't be bad, can it?
(Tbc, I'm aware of exceptions like Ali Veishi and Joyce Vance, but they're exceptions, and e. g. Vance is still clearer in her substack here)
Americans need to demand better off their media, especially from outlets outside the right-wing bubble, Fox News isn't an excuse, it rather gives cause to speak out more clearly.
For example - the flat earth society. They have a rather large offering of materials online - just type the name in your web browser. A stunning array of nonsense. Here is a quote from one of their drop down menu buttons - "Our new website includes the Flat Earth Society forums a thriving online community since 2004.” WTH. This is going to be a tough slog.
The MAGA Fascist media project or confess their beliefs. They accuse the Democrats of what they say or do.
"Meanwhile, what about us? Well, we have to change our lives to accommodate risk wherever we go. We have to move out of cities for the sake of the safety of our families and our own safety. That’s what’s happening", said Fox News host Greg Gutfeld.
It's not their kids who most fear being shot in school. It's not mostly their kids whose schools have armed police walking the halls.
"What does that leave you with? It leaves you with ‘you need to make war to bring peace’ because you have a side that cannot change. Because then that means the admission that their beliefs have been corrupt all the time. So, in a way, you have to force them to surrender", said Fox News host Greg Gutfeld.
Again, it's the MAGA Right which has refused to change or moderate their policy positions. They are the ones that can't admit their beliefs on abortion are unpopular with even their wives, daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and coworkers. They are determined to make Democrats and the majority of their fellow Americans surrender our lives to their authoritarian demands. Not just women, but transgender, and LGB people. Everyone other than their own rich, racist, and entitled white people.
Dunning Kruger effect
They can, they just chose not to...:)
They have us exactly where they wants us, and Trump has really helped them spread falsehoods.
Sharing the truth and challenging the miss informed is what all of us sane people need to do (NOW). Thanks for Robert’s report.
This reader totally agrees with Professor Reich's points, but he says, "We must demand that the leaders of giant platforms like Facebook, Google, and “X” act as trustees of the common good, and take appropriate steps to guard the truth."
How do we "demand?" The only way to get the attention of those entities is to dis-connect from them and somehow let them know why. But nobody does that. Everybody (almost) continues using those entities and nothing changes.
Unless I missed it in my reading of the essay today, there was no mention of Elizabeth Warren and yet she has been the leading voice for wresting some control over those "social media" entities, holding them accountable. In response to her efforts on behalf of American consumers she has been lambasted, mocked and vilified. My point is that we citizens need to back electeds who are actually good representatives and advocates FOR the public good! (And as a side point, that odious Patrick McHenry who just demonstrated his version of manhood by really slamming that gavel down, shaking his little bowtie with his performance of ferocity just before he summarily evicted Pelosi and Hoyer from their offices "immediately" AND had the offices re-keyed! is known for brazen, proud even, "pay to play" behavior and a long history of doing NOTHING in government BUT collecting money - HE had the gall to call Elizabeth Warren a liar. For that alone, fie upon him.)
I loved what you said here. I, too, would like to know how we can 'demand' the huge leaders act for the common good. Every petition I sign and letter I write goes straight to file 13. I really would like to know how to go about making my demands heard!
empower others to be good voters
Yes! I do try to encourage everyone I know to get out and vote but I can do more.
The first sentence of your essay, Prof. Reich, says: “Today.... I want to focus on what each of us can do to discover, spread, and insist upon public truth”. I kept waiting to read what those things are, but disappointedly didn’t find any. I found the essay illuminating and thought-provoking, but sadly am left feeling as powerless as I usually do.
I don't use twitter. I got off it when Musk bought it.
When Twitter first launched, a long time Silicon Valley co-worker engineer and friend became an active Twitter Tweeter. At that time I had nonchalantly created a Facebook account but only logged in a couple times a week (and had 2 friends (also previous co-workers)). And this was 4 years before I had a cellphone to use if it was necessary. It was still easier to run to a neighbors house. My Tweeting Twitter friend said to me, "Time to learn to Tweet?" I did create a Twitter account and logged in 4 times in a decade. I read some tweets fully aware of the 140 character tweet limit. Pondering the 140 character limit, I knew that I would never be a Twitter Tweeter. I couldn't communicate a thought into a concise, yet clever sentence and succeed in making a point, with proper punctuation. I know myself and I have written runaway sentences that are also paragraphs. I might type one 140 character tweet in 140 minutes. Hitting the SEND key would immediately throw me into a state of panicking ADHATD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Attempted Tweet Disorder). I would need psychotherapy after every stupid Tweet to reinstate well-being.
---> Musk true joke: Asked why he changed the name Twitter to X, he answered, because X is my favorite character. Why hasn't anyone ever asked me if I have a favorite character? Because I look like an adult. My book of 12 true funny short short stories will be out as soon as I write it. See? My spontaneous sentences/paragraphs are not Twitter Talk. Birds were here first and so we're their tweets.🐦🦜🦆🦢🦅🦚
Your prolixity proclivity makes you a bad twitter critter.
I probably tweeted 6 times though I some times liked to follow a few people.So it wasn't hard to get off. It brought back memories of those scrolling one liner chat rooms which were inane. I need to find some one who can help with my MS Word to EPUB conversion so if you have any suggestion....find a local writers group I guess. Some places want to charge alot for doing very little.
Nausea has been my reaction to Trump’s serial
Lying. Nothing entertaining about being sick to heart. It’s soul destroying to be buried by lies and the feeling of impotence to fight the deluge and try to rescue truth .
Nausea is also my reaction to TUMP's serial. I am about ready to leave everything behind except my books and my wardrobe behind and get out of the United States. All of this corrupt BS going on with TUMP and those criminals in Congress are the most disgusting events that i have ever endured in my life. I am totally fed up with these treasonous corrupt criminals getting away with their criminal actions. I have my hands over my eyes afraid to see how all of this is going turn out. And to think, i only thought these kind things went on in third world nations. My, was i ever WRONG.......
I am getting my passport application today and will fill it out. I love my country and would hate to leave it but I will if that man goes back to the White House!!!
I do care about my nation too, but i have just about had it. I just can't see why all of this law breaking by the Fascist GQP is being allowed to happen. They are committing Felonies by their treasonous actions and deliberate flaunting our election laws, threats of violence, and their numerous death threats to judges, District Attorneys, and potential jury members. Nothing is being done about all of this. I am so fed up with this.
What steps do i need to take to get my passport?? I have never applied for a passport so i am new at this. I want to get one as soon as possible. I have a pretty decent amount of money saved and have good credit and have credit cards so expenses are no problem for me. I am also appalled that there are so many stupid, gullible, ignorant, uneducated wingnuts that vote for these treasonous domestic terrorists in the Fascist GQP. I want to go to Nova Scotia or New Brunswick Canada if that insane ape Donald TUMP weasel's his way to Dictator. I hate that orange ape with a blind passion.
If you don't mind, let me know what i have to do to get my passport, i would appreciate that very much, and thank you very much for your reply.
I am sorry, John. I understand your frustration!! All you need to do is go to your post office and ask for a passport application. You need to be prepared because once you fill it out and send it back, you will wait on average six months to a year before receiving your passport! Good luck to you!
Thank you so much, Peggy. I am going to the post office next week to get my application. Just long as i get the passport by about this time next year. On another note, i just got an email that said TUMP is encouraging his followers to start shooting in stores. They need to put him in jail with NO contact with the outside world... Words cannot describe just how much i despise and hate that violent monster.
You are most welcome, John! I so hope that you will not have to use it except for vacations!! Yes, they do need to lock him up. He is a most dangerous man!
The really scary part is that so many people follow him, even worship him. My belief in humanity dropped several points since he came along.
Indeed; it was like Turbo Limbaugh, revolting rather than riveting.
What do you mean 'was?"
Now he's contemplating being speaker. Raging rants 24/7. Demands violence from his cult. When Trump acted out in the NY civil fraud hearing, pounding on the table, had I been Engoron, I would have asked him, on the reciord, how he was doing. Given his profile, I'd expect a rant. A rant is a predicate to see whether he is a risk to himself or anyone else. Wonder whether his kids agree.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/.../involuntary_civil.
It takes a majority of the House to change rule 26 which would allow Trump to be speaker. I don't think that is out of the question given what we have seen. If I were Trump I think I might want to be Speaker. The Jordan endorsement can be an opening gambit.
If trump became speaker, start looking for assassination attempts on Biden and Harris.
Daniel, when I try that link I get “403 Forbidden.”
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/involuntary_civil_commitment
Thanks, Daniel. Fortunately in over 38 years in practice I never had to initiate that process.
Who was it that said, “the truth isn’t the truth”? Rudy Drunken Giuliani
My dad said to me,”always telling the truth means, it will set you free from trying to remember exactly how you told the lie”
My mom told me basically the same thing. She said "When you lie, you're setting yourself up to be caught out in that lie because you never remember exactly how you lied. With the truth, you never forget." Such wise words to live by!
Unfortunately, too many people don’t have any sense of honor and ethics.
I agree with you! What happened? Did parents stop teaching their children the importance of a sense of honor and ethics? I know that was drilled into me daily growing up!
It’s always been that way. Parents and groups without ethics don’t teach ethics. That’s what schools and society should try to do. I instilled strong ethical behavior and manors in my children as well as any other young person I was around. We all have to do that to make things better. I travel a lot and have met so many courteous young people. I’ve seen a few of the others too. I do have hope for humanity even with all the disfunction going on.
Peggy, Your mom is good people.
Yes, Keith. She was my rock! She taught me to have strength and courage and always do the right thing. I lost her to cancer but not after she fought it off three other times. She was an amazing woman and I try to live the way she taught me. I feel in my heart that is the best way to honor her. Thank you. Your comment made my day.
Peggy !, Spot. On ! The TRUTH ROAD , has NO 'TURNOFFS !'
( IT IS STREIGHT ! and NARROW !
When MANKIND, makes a 'right, or a left
Turn' FROM, the STREIGHT,, ALL KINDS OF KADYWHUMPUSS, !!, can LEAVE !, You, IN DEAD. SPACE !
( the WORLD !, .....FULL of. LIES !!!)
SEEK. TRUTH ! (JESUS !), and GOD !,
GUARANTEES 💯 ! ...YOU !, WILL !,
BE. SET . ...FREE !!! HALLELUJAH. !!
Sometimes there is a distinction in the law between "truth" and "credubility."
E.G. When I was at SSA, many times, people would lie about mundane things. Their names. "I have always been known as...." Their ages. Their daily activities. But the medical records would show that their conditions met the requirements. Thus, "disabled liars."
In a few cases, psychiatrists diagnose somatoform disorders, where physical symptoms suggest a physical disorder, but there are no demonstrable organic findings and there is strong evidence for link to psychological factors or conflicts. The term is from Greek, “soma” for body. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532253/
In my experience, psychiatrists would probably testify that for people like Trump, their entire personal idenity has been a lie and the revelations about his fake business personna are more devastating to him than the loss of his ability to keep his property or the threats of incarceration.
Exactly. That's how I was taught and most children. I grew up believing that and always told the truth. I am 70 and I still believe that. What happened to make adults believe in lies? Promotions? Paybacks? I refuse to believe that I am one of the few! The Senate and Congress were elected to serve the people. The President is elected because we believe he/she will do good for the Country and because he/she is respected and not someone who grabs women's pu#&$! Shamefull. Trump should have been shut down immediately, but instead, the republicans wanted to win by any means necessary and continue to support lies to get that idiot elected again and destroy DEMOCRACY to boot!
Kathryn, I do believe there are a lot of young people who were taught lying is wrong. The problem is that often when one enters the "work world" lying is often required to just survive on the job. People lie on their resume because so many lie they think their honest resume will never get them anywhere, then once the lying starts, it is hard to stop it. I was supposed to lie on a couple of my jobs and I hated it, so eventually had to leave. My bosses didn't want truth because they might not get enough grant money with the truth. Here's to all the people our age (I am also 70) who believe lying is only acceptable if someone's life is on the line or if the lie is irrelevant (say I like a movie I really didn't like). Even then, the lie is not really worth it.
That makes three of us. I just turned 70 on September 21st. I guess you, Ruth and I were all raised by good parents. I believe even simple lies have a way of coming back on you. My parents also raised me that if you don’t have anything good to say about someone, don’t say anything.
Wise words, Keith
trump doesn't worry about being caught in lies. Bannon taught him to fill the space with sh*t so fast, they can't catch up to you.
Truth used to be valuable. Reporters like, Edward E. Murrow, Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley could be trusted and were trusted because they brought us the news - what was really happening. We could rely on investigative reporters like Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward to give us the real news. I do remember when I watched in horror as younger reporters forcibly shoved microphones in people's faces and asked inane questions like "How do you feel" That was when I started to distrust the news. Now I no longer watch TV at all (except for DVDs) there is not a single reporter since 2015 that I trust. They were so willing to repeat anything trump or q-anon drivelled. I do remember Moynihan's remark about being entitled to your opinion but not your own set of 'facts'. That age seems to be gone. I'm so thankful for Substack - at least here, writers still distinguish between opinion and fact.
You grew up during my time!! I remember those reporters and trusted them. I agree with you that reporters today seem so hell bent on getting their sound bite, they are rude as well as stupid!
You are correct Peggy, they are rude, at least those who aren't anchors. And those who are anchors don't seem to be trained in how to handle rude bullies. They just flutter their lashes and smile. ps I'm 91 We got our first TV when I was 19.
Oh Fay!! You are spot on with the fluttery eyelashes!! Made me laugh! We had a little black and white tv on a rolling cart. My mom kept it in her bedroom and only rolled it out for us to watch The Ed Sullivan Show, Bonanza, and the news. She said too much tv would warp our character!!
She was right about TV warping some people's character - but only those who do not want to think.
Yeah. The obligatory how do you feel is as big a problem as starting almost every story with a description of the clothing of the subject.
Make Google into a public utility. It's laughable that corporations would ever - these days - serve the public good when they can serve profit. Profit seeking is the corporations raison d'etre. Can you imagine what our climate would be today had Big Oil/Gas/Coal served the public good after learning and taking to heart the research conclusions their own scientists arrived at decades ago? Asking corporations to serve the public good is tantamount to requiring your dog get a PhD in physics. Whatever we depend on as the public good ought to be a public enterprise - water, electricity, schools, health care, parks, libraries, etc.
Yes. Twitter/X & maybe Facebook should also be made public utilities.
Selina Sweet : Yes, serving, or at least not harming, the public good , should be mandatory. The world and it's resources: as we knew them , is shrinking. This fact affects everyone : even the obscenely wealthy! There is a reason that we have rules for sanitation, for example, and public toilets! The Common Good! Pretty basic!
This is excellent!! How would we be able to make them public entities when they are owned and controlled by CEOs and stockholders? They would never let them go without a price that I doubt we would be able to afford!
Peggy Freeman : They cannot afford the price either, no matter how many billions and even trillions they may have. The Common Good depends on a healthy environment, as well as all the other goods and services.. Life itself.. some day some Harvard grad will come up with this astounding discovery! It is already evident and even a dog can sniff it!
So true!
Selina, there is a way to suppress the worst behavior
from corporations- regulate them. Republicans
are doggedly determined to do away with all regulations for obvious reasons--regulations are a “check” on their bad behavior.
Sàlina ! ....THE. WORLD !, in the END !!
WILL. 🔥 BURN. UP ! ( AS, IT IS WRITTEN ! ,. ...'WORD, of. GOD ,' )
SO WILL, ALL !, the. GREEDY. MAMMONITES ! & the. TRASH, There of, ... GOD BLESS YOU !, .....and. Yours !
Well given that you mark cramer possess the elusive crystal ball or God has marked you as his mouthpiece, shall we use your knowledge as a rationalization to sit back, eat guacamole and chips, imbibe one Victoria after another and watch Netflix 24 -7? Or also given, all those block caps in your comment, would it be advisable to pour that big energy into loving the world in all the ways we can easily see it needs loving? If the latter, what love-needing attention element of today's misery would you devote your loving energy to?
I just used one of my favorite tools on Mr Cramer - BLOCK!!!
Salina !, My 'Energy!', is the
Breath, that GOD, so Freely GIVES !
to. EACH, OF US!, . ..HIS CREATION !
I AM SORRY !, that You, are
'Offed', by My "CAP" Usuage,,
but, I , use. It, for More
EMPHASASE( I KNOW !, I'M
a BAD Speller !)
The. HOLY SPIRIT, of GOD, ....
BURNS, in. Me, to SPEAK,
HIS. WORD, to a 'Lost' MANKIND !
YES !....I AM INCLUDED, in this
MESS, ..TOO !
IF !, ONES. Heart, is OPEN, to Hear,
"That Still, 'Small Voice !', " Then,
That. HEART, !, ....can 'have Rest !'
in. This CHAOTIC. WORLD !
We Mortally. Live. In !
BLESSINGS !, .....and. LOVE !,
ABOVE !, ....ALL ELSE !
GOD !, .... has Set, EVERY
FOOTSTEP !, For. HIS !
CREATION !
AGAIN. !, ......BLESSINGS!
works for me, or some kind of mixed entity.The thing is, climate change is such a huge threat that it is easy to point to extreme or unusual things to support. Boundary conditions before chaos.
This is what has really disturbed me about present public discourse: the dispersion & ready acceptance of lies, distortions, misinformation, false propaganda & conspiracy theories, & the denial & repudiation of science, facts, evidence, truth & reason. Some 30-40% of the American people readily accept notions that no rational being would believe. It boggles my mind how some people so easily fall for obvious lies by obvious conmen, & will believe disinformational propaganda funded by billionaire corporate executives over sound science & their own eyes, ears & body.
The main purveyors of false information are right-wing media & the Republican Party, although religious zealots are also guilty, while the fossil fuel industry & other corporations fund, formulate & drive much of the narrative. Just about every Republican politician from their President to their Speaker of the House lies as a matter of course. Just about every MAGA devotee believes & promulgates some of the wildest, wackiest ideas one could conceive.
Misdirected--
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
2:32 AM (3 minutes ago)
I just watched an interview on CNN with Katlin Collins and her guest Cornel West. Mr. West is an educated intelligent man who must have met Kanye West for lunch and contracted the same disorder that rendered him visibally ignorant. Cornel just decided to drop his intention to run on a "Greene" party ticket and enter the race as an Independent. A child of 3 could see this move only benefits Trump's political position in the upcoming 2024 election. Mr. West, not the naive younger one, is against all things Trump. However, his entering the 2024 presidential race is a move that leaves Trump's dreams less than dry. He is simply campaigning for Trump's reelection, and there is no other way to view it. Cornel West's action will draw votes from Biden's camp and give Trump a clear path back to the White House and thus create an environment directly in opposition to the world Cornel envisions for this country. Trump has infected West's thinking to the point where the two have become one. With the Supreme Court about to hear the mess Trump has been brewing, this country is waiting to see how off-base their decision concerning Donnie Boy might be. No President has ever been indicted criminally, since this is uncharted territory for Trump's friends they are about to come to a river where they must make a decision, how do they get across? It's not that deep and there is a small boat on the shore. Do they "row" or do they "wade?" Deja vu all over again.
Everyone, nearly, wants recognition and to make a splash in the world. Or to preserve their good name. For some it is all consuming. Or as Einstein told Oppenheimer who wanted to defend himself at a government hearing --don't do it. You don't need these people.
Steve--Like Oppenheimer Trump is poised to destroy a world, ours.
I will give you a good example of your truthful last sentence, Jaime Ramirez.... The other day when the emergency alert test was issued, some of those ignorant idiot MAGA fanatics were placing aluminum foil over their smart phones and i phones because their conspiracy theorists said the Government was sending a signal that would cause harm to them. I don't know the full details of this as my daughter had told me about this. They put the foil on their phones in order to keep the signal from reaching them. I haven't felt any ill effects as i have 2 smart phones and i heard the signal on both of them. Looney tunes to the extreme to describe these ignorant cretins.
Haha! I hadn't heard about that, but it doesn't surprise me.
At some point this type of reaction by them will have catastrophic consequences for them. You could say it already has with the elevated deaths during the pandemic due to not taking basic, reasonable precautionary steps to protect themselves from the virus.
I agree Jamie. I don’t know this for a fact, but I think
rank and file republicans have been conditioned
(by that I mean psychologically/emotionally manipulated) to accept lies for about 3 decades. I also think the tactics used to achieve this are KBG (or whatever they call themselves currently) tactics.
l also think Russia has had operatives here for many years, and possibly longer. For example, do you remember Marina Butina? She infiltrated the NRA long before Trump was president and she influenced members to move further to the right on gun control issues. Not long after the 2016 election she was arrested and eventually deported to Russia.
Consider that Russia may have had dozens more
Russian operatives here infiltrating various groups
of people and manipulating them to become more
and more extreme--like evangelical groups & Right to Life groups. Also consider that lots of Russian money was being spent to influence Americans, as well as GOP billionaire money. A good number of GOP elected officials (senators & reps.) have been accepting large amounts of money from Russian oligarchs for many years in return for encouraging the GOP to be more extreme. OpenSecrets states Dark money is "pouring" into U.S. elections, but not only are its donors not being disclosed, the total quantity of the dark money isn't either. "The vast majority" of what is spent "is not being disclosed to the Federal Election Commission.
I remember reading that people were being paid to attend Trump’s rallies when he began running for the presidency. The purpose of all that money and effort has been to use our “relatively” open culture against us by dividing us, spreading misinformation and
encouraging chaos.
If there’s enough money involved, many senators & reps will happily go along with the program and “play dumb.” In addition, somewhere along the line a few members of the FEC stopped doing their jobs. There’s at least one whistle blower statement from a couple of FEC members available on the internet.
There are also numerous longstanding ties between
Rupert Murdoch and Russia. Ditto for the Kochs.
Here’s a headline from Reuters, dated 2012, “FBI looking at Murdoch operations in Russia.”
Here’s an excerpt, “The company’s activities in Russia are being looked at as part of a broader FBI investigation into possible violations by News Corp of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - an inquiry fueled by allegations that journalists for Murdoch newspapers in Britain for years systematically made questionable payments to public servants, including police and military officials, in return for story tipoffs.”
That money may be the reason we see bizarre and
patently false statements from numerous republicans.
For sure there has been a strong, alarming Russian element to the extremification & perversion of the Republican Party throughout this century which has worked in tandem with FoxNews & right-wing radio, & billionaire corporate executives like Murdoch & Koch .
"Don't be evil" used to be in Google's mission statement, but has been removed.
Kinda says it all.
We certainly must "demand leaders of giant platforms act as trustees of the common good, & take appropriate steps to guard the truth," but that means recognizing some are pathological narcissists who are psychologically incapable of hearing or telling the truth, so will never be trustworthy unless forced to by the strict rules of being a public service utility. https://samray.substack.com/p/psychiatry-and-psychology-are-failing
"In recent years, public truth has been undermined by people who have been willing to do whatever it takes to gain wealth or power."
...and where a lie won't fit, the clever twisting/leveraging of religious beliefs will do the trick. World over, the powers that be weaponize religion to attack and more often to distract. Would love to see what effectively regulating religious discourse in the interest of the common good would look like.
The real problem is the people who believe lies, their inability to tell the difference. We sure don’t want a government that decides what is lies and the truth and censors what they determine to be lies.
As long as Greed is the motivating factor, not Truth, Honesty, Justice, or Morality, nothing will change. Humans will be extinct in a few generations, brought on by our own embracement of Lust, Greed, Hate, Superiority, and Entitlement. We are a failed evolutionary experiment, burning ourselves out and killing all life on the Planet in just a few thousand years. Keep in mind that the Dinosaurs lived in harmony with the Planet for MILLIONS of years, wiped out only by the external force of Comets.
What is more valued -quick money or democracy ? The Grand Inquisitor of Brothers Karamozov.
Well that’s a cheery thought. I’m glad that I see evidence of intentionality in the intricate web of life, and believe, for logical reasons, that we had a Designer with a purpose. Obviously we have deviated from the path intended (free will being part of our design, that possibility was available to us; “predestination” and free will are mutually exclusive beliefs, and free will aligns with observed reality) but that should not, does not, defeat our Designer. Not being a blind Force, but a Mind, “He” is quite capable of intervening. Some refer to karma, but that’s a poor substitute.
Better yet, He has communicated his intentions quite clearly, to those willing to listen. But we abandoned his guidance by listening to a deviant agent, a malignant narcissist (now being ably modeled by an ex-president) who gaslit us with a false promise of freedom. This event is described in the origin story in the Bible. Whether you take the story literally or not, the essential element has direct relevance to the present predicament. The flood of lies today is the last effort by the Liar (aka “devil”) to take as many into death with him as possible. Like all narcissists, ‘if he can’t have it, no one can.’ But of course he will lose.
Our Designer knows our makeup (and the way his enemy thinks as well) and could tell us long ago how things would end (not, as some say, by “looking ahead into Time,” which implies both predestination and that the Creator is inferior to Time, since that would mean He has to learn by looking to see what Time has predestined).
The original lie: Genesis 3:1-6. The end: Daniel 2:41-44. Verses 41-43 describe the final human world power (us) perfectly; verse 44 is the next event.
If you object, “well why did your sky fairy make the devil, hmmm?” that simply shows you haven’t thought this through. Do you not understand what free will means? Even an “angel” can choose to go wrong, and clearly one did. And that was just the beginning. Do not study this with crowing gaslighters leaning over your shoulder mocking every word. Start skeptical, as Reich said, but not cynical. You may just arrive at the truth.
(Pancha Chandra): Follow ethical conduct and instill ethical values in your children. Life is not that complicated!
I truly love your prose and insight.
The abolition of the Fairness Doctrine, coupled with the Powell Memorandum, really did set these Benighted States on a course on which jumping the shark was inevitable.
throw in huge new political power to the billionaires and yeah, that's a problem. Way to go SCOTUS.
True; corporations are crwatures of the Stale, rather than the bloody reverse.
Wonderful piece, professor. Truly great. And very badly needed.
I agree! But would use 'objective truth' rather than 'public truth'! And add, "whereas objective truth unites us, subjective belief divides us"!