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.
In political and advocacy work we need to persuade people to take on our views on issues and, ultimately, perform an action we desire (vote for a certain candidate, write legislators, donate, etc.) What does it mean to persuade?
In recent months School Boards across the country have been and continue to be stormed by people who are afraid of two things: mask mandates and Critical Race Theory. The controversy surrounding both of these subjects – one around public health, one around a body of legal scholarship – have been manufactured by people who want one thing: to keep our nation divided.
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…
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.
The time we are going through has a name: liminal space, from the Latin meaning threshold. It is that space between what was and what will be. It is a time to act —and we certainly have the time. Will you help change voter consciousness as we transition to a new normal?
Uncover Republican weakness in their projections.
Ripping apart our government, breaking our relationships with allies and walking away from America’s leadership in the world are just a few of the reasons we’re seeing something we would have thought impossible just two years ago: in ever increasing numbers prominent Republicans are calling for voters to vote Democratic! Not just for a candidate…