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.
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.)
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 .
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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 .
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”
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
(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.
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"!