Category Archives: democracy

democracy, For Students, Politics in Canada, US Politics, World Politics

The New(er) World of Untruth Part II

Alternative facts, misdirection, and outright propaganda seem to dominate the news media landscape today in a way that is quite different from the past.

Presented February 10th, Society for Learning in Retirement

Thank you to the Society for Learning in Retirement in Kelowna for honouring me with a lifetime membership! I feel very privileged to be able to continue serving this very wonderful group of humans!

Some Tools for Media Literacy

Readings

2018 Edelman Trust Barometer. (2017).

Art of the lie—Post-truth politics. (2016). The Economist. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2016/09/10/art-of-the-lie?cid1=cust/ednew/n/bl/n/2016098n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/NA/n

Benkler, Y., Faris, R., Roberts, H., & Zuckerman, E. (2017). Study: Breitbart-led right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda—Columbia Journalism Review. Columbia Journalism Review. http://www.cjr.org/analysis/breitbart-media-trump-harvard-study.php

ChatGPT: Optimizing Language Models for Dialogue. (2022, November 30). OpenAI. https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/

Coaston, J. (2018). #QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy theory, explained—Vox. Vox. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/1/17253444/qanon-trump-conspiracy-theory-reddit

Coles, T. J. (2018). Fake News and Weaponized Bots: How Algorithms Inflate Profiles, Spread Disinfo and Disrupt Democracy. Counterpunch. https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/08/fake-news-and-weaponized-bots-how-algorithms-inflate-profiles-spread-disinfo-and-disrupt-democracy/

Devega, C. (2018). Donald Trump’s “chaos magic”: Author Gary Lachman on the far right’s links to occult philosophy | Salon.com. Salon. https://www.salon.com/2018/07/16/donald-trumps-chaos-magic-author-gary-lachman-on-the-far-rights-links-to-occult-philosophy/

Edwards, S., & Livingston, S. (2018). Fake news is about to get a lot worse. That will make it easier to violate human rights—And get away with it. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/04/03/fake-news-is-about-to-get-a-lot-worse-that-will-make-it-easier-to-violate-human-rights-and-get-away-with-it/?noredirect=on

Gonzalez, R. J. (2018). The Mind-Benders: How to Harvest Facebook Data, Brainwash Voters, and Swing Elections. Counterpunch. https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/23/the-mind-benders-how-to-harvest-facebook-data-brainwash-voters-and-swing-elections/

Gross, J. (2023, January 10). How Finland Is Teaching a Generation to Spot Misinformation. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/world/europe/finland-misinformation-classes.html

Gutting, G. (2011). The Social Side of Reasoning—The New York Times. The New York Times Opinionator – The Stone. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/argument-truth-and-the-social-side-of-reasoning/

How to Spot a Bogus News Site. (n.d.). Pocket. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://getpocket.com/collections/how-to-spot-a-bogus-news-site

Illing, S. (2018). Hashtag wars: How Facebook, Twitter, and social media changed how we fight wars—Vox. Vox. https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/world/2018/10/8/17884154/social-media-cyberwar-isis-taylor-swift-peter-singer

Jenkins, H. (2009). How "Dumbledore’s Army" Is Transforming Our World: An Interview with the HP Alliance’s Andrew Slack (Part One)—Henry Jenkins. Henry Jenkins.Org. http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2009/07/how_dumbledores_army_is_transf.html

Morgan, J. (2017). Sockpuppets, Secessionists, and Breitbart – Data for Democracy – Medium. Data for Democracy. https://medium.com/data-for-democracy/sockpuppets-secessionists-and-breitbart-7171b1134cd5

Mosleh, M., Pennycook, G., Arechar, A. A., & Rand, D. G. (2021). Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter. Nature Communications, 12(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20043-0

Pennycook, G., Epstein, Z., Mosleh, M., Arechar, A. A., Eckles, D., & Rand, D. G. (2021). Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online. Nature, 592(7855), Article 7855. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03344-2

Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2022). Accuracy prompts are a replicable and generalizable approach for reducing the spread of misinformation. Nature Communications, 13(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30073-5

Shao, C., Ciampaglia, G. L., Varol, O., Yang, K., Flammini, A., & Menczer, F. (2017). The spread of low-credibility content by social bots. http://arxiv.org/abs/1707.07592

Weisburd, A., Watts, C., & Berger, J. (2016). Trolling for Trump: How Russia Is Trying to Destroy Our Democracy. War on the Rocks. https://warontherocks.com/2016/11/trolling-for-trump-how-russia-is-trying-to-destroy-our-democracy/

Yglesias, M. (2017). The Bullshitter-in-Chief—Vox. Vox. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/30/15631710/trump-bullshit

democracy, Human Rights, World Politics

The End of Impunity: Making Human Rights Work in the World

Despite a plethora of treaties, constitutional guarantees, and international organizations, the world continues to be afflicted with senseless atrocities that offend human conscience.   Why are institutions powerless against such waves of human cruelty and ruthlessness?  This session will explore what can be done to make human rights real.  Talk November 14th at Okanagan College, November 18th at SLR.

References

Holloway, K. (2017, November 24). Racism is a highly profitable online business | Salon.com. Salon. https://www.salon.com/2017/11/24/racism-is-a-highly-profitable-online-business/

Jones, D. (2007). The depths of disgust. Nature, 447(7146), 768–771. https://doi.org/10.1038/447768a

Mugabo, L. (2018, April 6). Liberation, Decolonization, Gacaca – Reflecting on the Rwandan Genocide, 24 Years Later – The Volcano. The Volcano. https://www.thevolcano.org/2018/04/06/liberation-decolonization-gacaca/

Nelson, B. (2022, November 5). How Stochastic Terrorism Uses Disgust to Incite Violence – Scientific American. Scientific America. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-stochastic-terrorism-uses-disgust-to-incite-violence/

Resnick, B. (2018). Psychologists surveyed hundreds of alt-right supporters. The results are unsettling. Vox. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/15/16144070/psychology-alt-right-unite-the-right

Resnick, B. (2017). The dark psychology of dehumanization, explained. Vox. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/3/7/14456154/dehumanization-psychology-explained

Serwer, A. (2018, March 14). Obama’s Legacy of Impunity for Torture – The Atlantic. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/obamas-legacy-of-impunity-for-torture/555578/

Shieber, J. (2018, August 28). Distributor of plans for 3D-printed guns puts his product back in circulation | TechCrunch. Techcrunch.Com. https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/28/distributor-of-plans-for-3d-printed-guns-puts-his-product-back-in-circulation/

Smith, J. A. (2022, April 19). How War Shapes Our Attitudes About Violence. Greater Good Magazine: Politics. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/war_shapes_attitudes_about_violence

Timmons, H. (2022, October 29). Hate speech, online extremism fed Pelosi attack, terror experts believe | Reuters. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hate-speech-online-extremism-fed-pelosi-attack-terror-experts-believe-2022-10-29/

Waldstein, D. (2015, June 17). In Chile’s National Stadium, Dark Past Shadows Copa América Matches – The New York Times. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/sports/soccer/in-chiles-national-stadium-dark-past-shadows-copa-america-matches.html

Zhang, L., Lee, E., & Kim, E. (n.d.). IMMIGRANTS IN COVID AMERICA – Xenophobia & Racism. University of Minnesota. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://immigrantcovid.umn.edu/xenophobia-racism

democracy, Human Rights, Inequality, political theory, Politics in Canada, US Politics, World Politics

Attack on Democracy

Around the world, the institutions of liberal democratic systems are
waging a rear-guard action against sustained attacks from populist
and extremist movements. These trends are not new, but can be
traced to events in the recent past, as well as broader historical
developments. In this session, participants will learn why political
scientists are so concerned about these trends, and what ordinary
citizens can do to improve democratic accountability in Canada.

Attack on Democracy