There are lots of problems with cults, but one is that they’re not terribly self-aware. The Make American Great Again (MAGA) “movement”, to frame it generously, lacks even the most rudimentary self-awareness. Many of its staunchest adherents – zealots, perhaps; those who disseminate their religion with furious keyboard strokes and oddly-placed capital letters (you’ll know them from the Kool-Aid running down their chins) – are not even cognisant of the ideology they’re embracing.
We all know there are Nazis at Trump rallies. There were Nazis at Charlottesville. There were Nazis storming the barricades during the attempted coup on 6 January. We all know the KKK endorses Trump. But the people who don’t know it, the people who deny it with every misspelled slur, every comedic self-own, are Trump supporters.
It’s weird. They don’t even know what they stand for.
Russian soldiers have been caught on tape discussing tactics and tips for murdering Ukrainian civilians. German intelligence teams gathered the evidence against occupying forces when they intercepted military radio, Der Spiegel magazine reports. That report adds further weight to the accusations Russian soldiers have committed war crimes.
Insurrectionists carried concealed pistols, allegedly stockpiled weapons nearby, and called for overthrowing the US government.
This attempted political cover-up has hinged on another specific claim: that no one who stormed the Capitol brought guns.
Evidence of numerous firearms among January 6 perpetrators shows those claims to be false. A Mother Jones investigation drawing on public video footage, congressional testimony, and documents from more than a dozen federal criminal cases reveals that various Trump supporters descended on DC that day armed for battle with guns and other potentially lethal weapons. At least three people arrested in connection with the insurrection are facing charges for carrying firearms on Capitol grounds. At least eight others carried knives or tasers at the Capitol, including two defendants who allegedly committed assaults with tasers, according to FBI and court documents. Multiple others arrested downtown and in the vicinity of the Capitol had rifles, pistols, explosive materials, and large supplies of ammunition. And communications among numerous January 6 suspects detailed in court documents indicate that many of their fellow insurrectionists were armed with guns.
Tips for allies: make educating yourself your own responsibility; do not discredit people’s feelings and experiences of racism based on your (in)experience of it as an ally; challenge the status quo every time you can; racism is systemic, it does not rest, Black people are black 24/7, an ally should be one 24/7; be loud about your allyship and make sure your actions match your words; and last, but not least, understand you are not a hero for being an ally; you are just a human doing the right, decent thing.
“He knows it’s over,” one adviser said. But instead of conceding, they said, he is floating one improbable scenario after another for staying in office while he contemplates his uncertain post-presidency future. Advertisement
His Narcissism can’t allow him to admit he is wrong
The entirely self-inflicted nature of this tragedy is one of its central elements, as is the way Trump’s incredible irresponsibility and arrogance was mimicked by his supporters, significantly exacerbating the pandemic. It’s a hugely important element of what’s going on here.
In a jaw-dropping operational security lapse, President Donald Trump discussed his demand for Ukraine to open investigations of Joe Biden and other Democrats in a cellphone conversation with an American diplomat who was in a restaurant in Ukraine at the time, the House impeachment inquiry was told on Wednesday.
Trump’s appalling operational security is notable because, during the 2016 presidential campaign, he frequently accused Hillary Clinton of having committed a crime and compromised national security by using a private email account as secretary of state. Since taking office, however, Trump has reportedly continued to make calls on his iPhones, even after warnings from American intelligence officials that Russian and Chinese spies are regularly eavesdropping on his calls.
We voted for DENIAL rather than TRUTH and pay the higest price in the OECD for the privilige to hear it. Raids and outlawing any unions is fine as long as they are left-wing. Associations of White Sumpremecists, Assimilationists, Nationalists etc are fine.(ODT)
Our Prime Minister assures us that the AFP raids of last week had absolutely nothing to do with him. Well, of course not — he and his Government are never responsible for anything.
President Donald Trump on Monday appeared largely unimpressed by the dire warnings outlined in a recent scientific report issued by more than a dozen federal agencies, which, among its various conclusions, found that the United States is bound for economic disaster unless its reliance on fossil fuels is dramatically curtailed.
“I’ve seen it, I’ve read some of it, and it’s fine,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a campaign rally in Mississippi. The milquetoast response was paired with a physical shrug of the shoulders.
Trump then directly dismissed the report’s conclusion that climate change will bring severe economic damage to the country.
“I don’t believe it,” Trump continued. “No, no I don’t believe it.” He then appeared to blame China, Japan, and “all of Asia” for being the world’s worst climate change offenders, while claiming that the US is currently the “cleanest we’ve ever been.”
So, there we have it, the UN the IPCC and the scientists who have prepared 6,000 research papers, on the subject, are urging action on climate change. We have been told that we need to remove extreme right-wing governments to be replaced by more progressive thinking governments prepared to take up the challenge.
The solution then for this new government and, mechanism to gain across the board public support, would be a positive response. This aims at atmospheric Co2 management including, in particular, carbon capture at point of emission, removing Co2 from the atmosphere, reforestation, incentive-based emission reduction guidelines, electricity storage and support for alternative energy.
This has been promised by the Labor if they win the next election. Both government and big business need to take affirmative action on behalf of each and every one of us. If the fossil fuel industry wishes to survive they need to participate and work towards reducing or eliminating their carbon footprint.
NBC weatherman Al Roker debunked EPA head Scott Pruitt’s false claim that carbon dioxide is not a primary contributor to global warming during an appearance on MSNBC Live, explaining that there is “no credible science or scientist” to support Pruitt’s statement.During the March 10 segment, Roker addressed Pruitt’s comments on the Marc
To conservatives who blindly deny the systemic racism of a nation where so many bleed and die from it: Last month, a (black) attorney and state legislator, 79, was arrested for filming a traffic stop of another (black) man. Last year, grim video shows, a (black) father of four died in jail after five fat (white) cops piled on him, though he cried “I can’t breathe” 19 times in nine minutes. And so many more. Activists hope a national boycott slated for December can stem the savagery.
Before Major Nunn set out on his evil killing spree in my sacred Gamilaraay lands. He was given orders by the governor of the time to get rid of the black problem in the Gamilaraay Nation.
Over several weeks as he was heading up Mt Kaputar he heard loud roars and thought it was thunder.
When he kept looking up he could see all these flickering lights and thought it was lighting and then the sky turning dark, which he thought were rain clouds.
When he and his men had reached the top of Mt Kaputar and looked out over the land he could not believe what lay before him.
The loud roar that he thought was thunder was the Gamilaraay 500 + who where being led as always by our brave Gamilaraay woman banging on there shields and possum skin drums.
He and his men could also see that the flickering lights that they thought was lightning was the many fires still burning through the night.
What he thought were rain clouds was nothing more than the 500 + proud strong Gamilaraay warriors and our woman dancing and all singing in unison the mighty fighting dance with dust flying high over their heads.
After witnessing this Major Nunn and his men took off back to Singleton.
Then several weeks had passed and our mob began thinking that this evil man was not coming back into our sacred lands.
So the Gamilaraay 500 + had all dispersed and went back to their clan areas.
But then this evil man came back several months later with more troopers and committed genocide on our then small band of unsuspecting proud brave warriors, beautiful strong woman and children and this is what is now known as Slaughterhouse Creek
What’s the best way to show a climate change denier the error of their ways? A new online course answers this question for the masses.
Hint: it’s not lobbing an endless stream of scientific evidence that proves human-driven climate change. While this approach may be cathartic, telling those who refuse to accept climate science for political, cultural, or ideological reasons over and over that they’re wrong is ineffective at best, and oftentimes counterproductive.
How to make progress in this Sisyphean pursuit then? Cue the new, first-of-its kind climate change denial massive open online course, or MOOC. So far the course, called “Making Sense of Climate Science Denial” has more than 10,000 people from 150 countries signed up to find out not only how to confront climate science deniers more effectively, but the psychological and social drivers behind this denial. The 7-week curriculum, which commenced on April 28, also includes responses to the most pervasive climate change denial myths and the insights into the underlying techniques these anti-science perpetrators most frequently employ.
In the scientific community there is little controversy over the root of climate change, with 97 percent of climate scientists concluding humans are causing global warming. However in the public the issue is far more muddled with misinformation and fraught with disingenuous objectives. The course attempts to bridge that gap and in doing so, move the discussion around climate change one giant step forward.
The course, also referred to as “Denial101x,” includes interviews with 75 researchers from the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K., including some big names such as Sir David Attenborough. It is being coordinated by John Cook, a fellow at the University of Queensland Global Change Institute Climate Communication and creator of the popular website Skeptical Science.
In describing the course, Cook writes that in his own research, when he’s “informed strong political conservatives that there’s a scientific consensus that humans are causing global warming, they become less accepting that humans are causing climate change.”
He says you can’t adequately address the issue of climate change denial “without considering the root cause: personal beliefs and ideology driving the rejection of scientific evidence. Attempts at science communication that ignore the potent influence effect of worldview can be futile or even counterproductive.”
So what is the best response?
According to Cook, the answer can be found in “inoculation theory,” a branch of psychology in which misinformation is neutralized by “explaining the fallacy employed by the myth.”
“Once people understand the techniques used to distort the science, they can reconcile the myth with the fact,” writes Cook. Instead of more science, what will help stem the spread of climate denial is debunking misconceptions about the science, an approach that “results in significantly higher learning gains than customary lectures that simply teach the science,” according to Cook.
Inoculation theory works in a similar way to how flu vaccines work: by providing a weak form of the virus. In the course, students will be exposed to “a weak form of science denial” that will inoculate their minds against misinformation.
By taking advantage of the online education opportunities available through MOOCs, Cook and his associates in the course hope that instead of just reaching a few classrooms, they can potentially reach hundreds of thousands of students.
Dan Bedford, a geography professor at Weber State University in Utah, told ThinkProgress that the concept of the MOOC is to equip people with the tools necessary to identify what’s wrong “with all the arguments presented in climate science misinformation” and “move past the manufactured ‘debate’ about climate change.”
Bedford contributes to one lecture in the course, but wrote a 2010 paper called Agnotology as a teaching tool: Learning climate science by studying misinformation that heavily influenced the curriculum. He said that the bottom line is that the MOOC “is important because we’re providing an understanding of how misinformation works, why it’s wrong, and thereby, we hope, helping people to spot it and ward it off.”
Sarah Green, a chemist at Michigan Technological University, told ThinkProgress that “educating people about facts is not sufficient.” Green, who contributed four lectures to the course, said this is especially the case when political or industry groups can “bamboozle them” with easily digestible “pseudo-facts.”
Some of the most common myths that will be dispelled by the course include the “long pause” argument that there hasn’t been any warming since 1998; that global warming is caused by the sun; and that climate impacts will be no big deal, and possibly even beneficial. It will also investigate climate science to some degree in an effort to better understand past climate changes as well as how models predict future climate impacts.
The course also helps differentiate denial, which is a process, from skepticism, which is an intricate part of the scientific method. A real skeptic comes to a conclusion after considering all the evidence, while someone who denies the science discounts any evidence that competes with their beliefs or worldview. In a way, deniers and skeptics are polar opposites.
Keah Schuenemann, an assistant professor of meteorology at Metropolitan State University of Denver and an instructor in the course, told ThinkProgress that she meets numerous people frustrated at the lack of understanding and action on climate change.
“It is these passionate people who I would like to arm with some of the knowledge, critical thinking, and communication skills that I have picked up through years of teaching this topic,” she said. “My true passion stems from wanting to improve science literacy.”
In the introductory video about the course, Cook says the course is necessary “at the most fundamental level” because “a well functioning democracy depends on a well informed public.”
“People have a right to be accurately informed,” he says. “And if the public is being misinformed by people who deny climate science, that has social and environmental consequences.”
olddogthoughts 