The Meh-ssage The message above is an example of what I call a meh-ssage. OK… I guess. Not framed well, not really motivating. Factual, but not terribly effective. Note the words “deserve” as in we must allow trans kids to play sports —though they already have that right, and perhaps “belonging”; but “a chance” at…
It is a very difficult thing to counter lies, especially ones consciously engineered as part of a much larger, well funded and relentless propaganda effort. Responding to the lies may be necessary, but it is not sufficient —and potentially counterproductive. Do these things instead.
Levitin first captured my attention when I read one of his magazine articles because of the way he uses language to activate shared values. I was impressed by his framing ability and looked forward to more of the same in his book.
The metaphor of a ball and chain is useful to describe the legacy of the GOP over the last few decades.
With today’s GOP it would be exhausting to counter every lie with the truth. Lying, conspiracy theories, propaganda, gaslighting and other forms of manipulation are age old tricks used to keep citizens out of the decision making process and the GOP embraced these methods well before Trump. Though at some level lies and propaganda must…
Using the word Republican is not as easy as you might think. Usually we want to use fewer terms, but in this case the Republican party split apart at the seams leaving people on the right and left confused. Making some distinctions will be helpful. We must say up front that there are Republicans who…
Here is an excellent lesson in using the Stop portion of Stop, Drop and Roll: to identify what is being said, what frames our opponent is using, and, importantly, what the real issue is. After four hundred years since our nation’s original sin of slavery, the forces aligned to perpetuate racism have opened a new…
Science News articles on identifying and countering Fake News.
A spectrum is a metaphor for political beliefs. A spectrum suggests that an individual can be placed in a single spot on the spectrum, or perhaps slides left or right from time to time. A spectrum also implies that if you are far right or left you are an extremist and if you are not,…
As Republicans unleash a coordinated effort to prevent voting in America, we must be ready to defend this most basic of democratic rights.
Guest Blogger Antonia Scatton on How to be an Anti-Anti-Governmentist
Back in Action: look in the right column for details.
I retired recently which created the domino effect of changing insurance companies for each family member. In the aftermath we experienced this scenario.
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