Apr 24, 2022·edited Apr 24, 2022Liked by Chris Bray
The solution is nearer than you think. But thinking is the problem. Most consumers of information are woefully uncritical in their thinking. They always have been. The difference now is we swim in the information ocean. The rivers of information, the sources, haven't dried up; they empty into one vast sea. I'm reading what you write. I affirm what I agree with and argue with you if I think you are wrong. And most of the world can do exactly the same thing if they so choose.
That's why the left is hysterical about 'mis/dis/information.' Everybody is reading and believing what they want. No control. The power that governs hates that.
El Gato/Bad Cattitude also wrote a great piece about critical thinking recently.
Also, in this era of “executive orders,” it’s become pretty clear that much of what we’re told is not meant to be accurate or enforceable, it’s supposed to elicit action. Biden can drop an imaginary golden hammer and order everyone to get vaccinated, even though I suspect they knew quite well they couldn’t do that. Didn’t matter. They wanted you to believe they had that authority, and perceived authority can force action by the uncritical thinker, which is what they banked on. Actual facts and critical thinking have no place in these matters.
Like a blind man's guide dog, journalists are, or were, a citizen's eyes, ears, and watchdog. Now people who call themselves journalists tell us what we should think and do, lying to us about what they see and hear. As watchdogs, they bark their warnings, not at threats to us, but at threats to their narrative. In short, they are journalists only in the sense that they have replaced journalists. They themselves are petty little commissars who double as the regime's hit men.
They’re lying to us. They always lie to us. And have been for generations. Mark Twain left many pithy quotes regarding the prevaricating press and paltering politicians. One hundred and fifty years ago! When the only technology available was the printing press. Twain is often credited, (probably inaccurately), with the phrase, “"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." The abuse of stats far predates Mr. Twain. Or English, for that matter. Read Juvenal’s satires. Our modern world is one of information overload. We are relentlessly bombarded. A continuous spate of information. With no pause to consider the veracity of any concept. We can’t believe anything we read, hear, or, in the last few years, see. Virtually all reporting from government agencies is massaged to slant the information. If in fact it is reported at all. “News” stories are published on Fridays, and ‘memory holed’ by Monday. And reversed the next week. Technology enables venues like Substack, where consumers of ‘news’ can discuss the vents of the day; but it also provides the medium for fakebook, the bird, and thousands of other purveyors of the narrative du jour.
The fact that both US and Canadian governments and their fake news outlets (mainstream media) are giving distracting vacuous fake news says to me something deeper and more troubling is going on. Which could be our "democracy" or lack thereof. Going Woke is simply a look over THERE, while we are doing something quite damaging to our nation over HERE...quietly. I have never taken notice how much Canada mirrors the US as I do now. Both in news and policy...Covid policy certainly! Lots to think about...
Mathew Crawford earlier this week made a comment to the effect that when math went woke he thought the world must be coming to an end. For a good while I've been having the same idea of our demise, but my frustration arises from the depths of deception that we exist in now. And, plenty of people are completely clueless and happy to stay that way. Thank you for your writing, it is good not to exist alone in this maddening times.
Thank you for your previous article on the DA. I have recently started paying attention to politics, but because of the news fakery phenomenon you describe in this article, it is very difficult to get to the bottom of what is actually happening. Your DA articles gives me something to sink my teeth into.
I just had a haircut and my barber had recently moved from Portland, OR to Eugene, OR. As with every barber visit, you either avoid everything and politely discuss the weather, or you find someone that is willing to share his or her world view. We left encouraged that the other person was a free-thinker. His parents, Black Panthers, taught him that the news is never the news, but must always be dissected to understand what the media wanted you to believe so you could understand what they didn't want you to know about. I was raised a preacher's kid, whose father continually "talked back" to Walter Cronkite and especially war coverage correspondents during the Vietnam conflict. I learned that having your own thoughtful opinion of the news (and what factors needed to be in place to begin to assume it was believable) was important. Sources were limited then but now we have the ability to out maneuver the mainstream media. For that and your work, I'm very grateful.
Wait, let me get this straight. Those who see government as the only solution to every problem are complaining about revoking the exemption of a corporation that allowed them to rule a large part of a state to the extent of hiring their own police and fire department at their own discretion, running their own sanitation and all other public services? And their objection is that revocation, meaning local government retakes those services, will result in worse services and higher prices? Florida just voted to revoke what could only happen in an Ayn Rand wet dream, and the pro-government, anti-capitalist folks are raising holy hell about it? Good to know.
Remember Dan Bongino years ago telling us there was no discussion possible with these leftists. And he was right.
But, discussion must be forced, or they must be removed, period. Full stop!
How we go about that appears to be the real discussion, and a solution that comes before, not after, tens, hundreds, now thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands currently or even dare I say millions or billions of deaths in the near future is required.
The perceived lack of critical thinking isn’t the actual problem. It is the ignorance of organic plurality on all sides, or the deep understanding that not everyone has it bad under a certain scaffolding. People who are doing very well under a certain mindset have no reason to rock the boat -- and people’s criticism means nothing to them. The core problem is the critics -- they seem to lack the incentive to go out and strike it on their own. You go your way, and I go mine. You cannot passively complain and then expect another party to reset the system for you.
Worse, the critical thinkers fall a little too hard for their own thinking and then get on a hamster wheel of criticizing, and it is this habit that prevents innovation and change. If you want something better, let go of the past and start from scratch. Let them go their own way and then take the bold step to go your own.
That we have a dysfunctional system and a dysfunctional journalism is obvious. I went into journalism in order to conduct empirical studies on why it failed and how to make an alternative system (coming up with three in the bargain). Since 2005, I write books on the problems, but also the solutions. We don’t have empirical journalism. We don’t have therapeutic journalism. I devised systems for both. I wrote books on information verification, loaded language, and other problems, but then gave blueprints for solutions.
While it is refreshing to see a whole new class of people see the deficits of authority-based journalism, it is troubling that in two years, it has plateaued at this point. People are not going to change and come over to the other side based on criticism or a theory. They have no incentive to give up what they have on the say-so of people who just talk a good talk. People hedge their bets on the bottom line. It’s not an easy process, but it is doable. Instead of looking down on people who don’t use “critical thinking”, build something tangible that produces real results that trump the empty threats, promises, and bribes the other side throw as misdirection. Get off the hamster wheel and build a vehicle that gets you out of that cycle. You’ll be too busy to notice the complacent and incompetent, and without having critics to fuel them, the cycle needed to keep everyone in place is broken.
most people I know on both sides of the political spectrum are completely and totally in the thrall of MSNBC or Fox news . both are pure propaganda, but everyone trusts " their guy" .
The solution is nearer than you think. But thinking is the problem. Most consumers of information are woefully uncritical in their thinking. They always have been. The difference now is we swim in the information ocean. The rivers of information, the sources, haven't dried up; they empty into one vast sea. I'm reading what you write. I affirm what I agree with and argue with you if I think you are wrong. And most of the world can do exactly the same thing if they so choose.
That's why the left is hysterical about 'mis/dis/information.' Everybody is reading and believing what they want. No control. The power that governs hates that.
El Gato/Bad Cattitude also wrote a great piece about critical thinking recently.
Also, in this era of “executive orders,” it’s become pretty clear that much of what we’re told is not meant to be accurate or enforceable, it’s supposed to elicit action. Biden can drop an imaginary golden hammer and order everyone to get vaccinated, even though I suspect they knew quite well they couldn’t do that. Didn’t matter. They wanted you to believe they had that authority, and perceived authority can force action by the uncritical thinker, which is what they banked on. Actual facts and critical thinking have no place in these matters.
P.S. I appreciate your work so much. Thank you.
Like a blind man's guide dog, journalists are, or were, a citizen's eyes, ears, and watchdog. Now people who call themselves journalists tell us what we should think and do, lying to us about what they see and hear. As watchdogs, they bark their warnings, not at threats to us, but at threats to their narrative. In short, they are journalists only in the sense that they have replaced journalists. They themselves are petty little commissars who double as the regime's hit men.
They’re lying to us. They always lie to us. And have been for generations. Mark Twain left many pithy quotes regarding the prevaricating press and paltering politicians. One hundred and fifty years ago! When the only technology available was the printing press. Twain is often credited, (probably inaccurately), with the phrase, “"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." The abuse of stats far predates Mr. Twain. Or English, for that matter. Read Juvenal’s satires. Our modern world is one of information overload. We are relentlessly bombarded. A continuous spate of information. With no pause to consider the veracity of any concept. We can’t believe anything we read, hear, or, in the last few years, see. Virtually all reporting from government agencies is massaged to slant the information. If in fact it is reported at all. “News” stories are published on Fridays, and ‘memory holed’ by Monday. And reversed the next week. Technology enables venues like Substack, where consumers of ‘news’ can discuss the vents of the day; but it also provides the medium for fakebook, the bird, and thousands of other purveyors of the narrative du jour.
The fact that both US and Canadian governments and their fake news outlets (mainstream media) are giving distracting vacuous fake news says to me something deeper and more troubling is going on. Which could be our "democracy" or lack thereof. Going Woke is simply a look over THERE, while we are doing something quite damaging to our nation over HERE...quietly. I have never taken notice how much Canada mirrors the US as I do now. Both in news and policy...Covid policy certainly! Lots to think about...
Mathew Crawford earlier this week made a comment to the effect that when math went woke he thought the world must be coming to an end. For a good while I've been having the same idea of our demise, but my frustration arises from the depths of deception that we exist in now. And, plenty of people are completely clueless and happy to stay that way. Thank you for your writing, it is good not to exist alone in this maddening times.
Thank you for your previous article on the DA. I have recently started paying attention to politics, but because of the news fakery phenomenon you describe in this article, it is very difficult to get to the bottom of what is actually happening. Your DA articles gives me something to sink my teeth into.
Thank you for your insights and reporting. Much appreciated.
I just had a haircut and my barber had recently moved from Portland, OR to Eugene, OR. As with every barber visit, you either avoid everything and politely discuss the weather, or you find someone that is willing to share his or her world view. We left encouraged that the other person was a free-thinker. His parents, Black Panthers, taught him that the news is never the news, but must always be dissected to understand what the media wanted you to believe so you could understand what they didn't want you to know about. I was raised a preacher's kid, whose father continually "talked back" to Walter Cronkite and especially war coverage correspondents during the Vietnam conflict. I learned that having your own thoughtful opinion of the news (and what factors needed to be in place to begin to assume it was believable) was important. Sources were limited then but now we have the ability to out maneuver the mainstream media. For that and your work, I'm very grateful.
Wait, let me get this straight. Those who see government as the only solution to every problem are complaining about revoking the exemption of a corporation that allowed them to rule a large part of a state to the extent of hiring their own police and fire department at their own discretion, running their own sanitation and all other public services? And their objection is that revocation, meaning local government retakes those services, will result in worse services and higher prices? Florida just voted to revoke what could only happen in an Ayn Rand wet dream, and the pro-government, anti-capitalist folks are raising holy hell about it? Good to know.
I am reminded of "The Prisoner" with Patrick McGooghan (sp?).
"To be continued."
Must be continued!
Remember Dan Bongino years ago telling us there was no discussion possible with these leftists. And he was right.
But, discussion must be forced, or they must be removed, period. Full stop!
How we go about that appears to be the real discussion, and a solution that comes before, not after, tens, hundreds, now thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands currently or even dare I say millions or billions of deaths in the near future is required.
Yes!
The perceived lack of critical thinking isn’t the actual problem. It is the ignorance of organic plurality on all sides, or the deep understanding that not everyone has it bad under a certain scaffolding. People who are doing very well under a certain mindset have no reason to rock the boat -- and people’s criticism means nothing to them. The core problem is the critics -- they seem to lack the incentive to go out and strike it on their own. You go your way, and I go mine. You cannot passively complain and then expect another party to reset the system for you.
Worse, the critical thinkers fall a little too hard for their own thinking and then get on a hamster wheel of criticizing, and it is this habit that prevents innovation and change. If you want something better, let go of the past and start from scratch. Let them go their own way and then take the bold step to go your own.
That we have a dysfunctional system and a dysfunctional journalism is obvious. I went into journalism in order to conduct empirical studies on why it failed and how to make an alternative system (coming up with three in the bargain). Since 2005, I write books on the problems, but also the solutions. We don’t have empirical journalism. We don’t have therapeutic journalism. I devised systems for both. I wrote books on information verification, loaded language, and other problems, but then gave blueprints for solutions.
While it is refreshing to see a whole new class of people see the deficits of authority-based journalism, it is troubling that in two years, it has plateaued at this point. People are not going to change and come over to the other side based on criticism or a theory. They have no incentive to give up what they have on the say-so of people who just talk a good talk. People hedge their bets on the bottom line. It’s not an easy process, but it is doable. Instead of looking down on people who don’t use “critical thinking”, build something tangible that produces real results that trump the empty threats, promises, and bribes the other side throw as misdirection. Get off the hamster wheel and build a vehicle that gets you out of that cycle. You’ll be too busy to notice the complacent and incompetent, and without having critics to fuel them, the cycle needed to keep everyone in place is broken.
most people I know on both sides of the political spectrum are completely and totally in the thrall of MSNBC or Fox news . both are pure propaganda, but everyone trusts " their guy" .
Would be someone so kind and share with my some alternative sources of media to follow?
I have discovered recently UKColumn.org, TheOrganicPrepper.com ZeroHedge.com, DollarCollapse.com, PeakProsperity.com, ChildrensHealthDefense.eu, SubStack.com, Rumble.com, Odysee.com. Are some others, which are interesting and can help to provide some normal information?