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Always explore who’s really saying it

Certainly for any pundit worth his salt but also for self-respecting readers, it’s not enough to just state something or to quote someone from our own confirmation bias unless we have back-material or links to it which establish who we are, what we are about.

One aspect of that is to create a “watch list” of “iffy sources” … ours here are both under Other in the Navbar and at NOWP in various places, also at UHC-WP. One not on that yet is Bannon and yet in the last few months his connection with Epstein has corroboration to it, if not final proof.

Why it matters

I should have thought it self-evident … not only does the admin/pundit stand or fall by “the receipts” but regulars are also “tarred” by his/her modus operandi. The admin needs to have at least “checked out” the source and if he/she misses something, always a chance if editing an extensive blog on news of the day, he needs to feel other contributors will point something out.

An example in my scrolling through X this morning was looking at, say, Diane Kruger, seemingly a typical MAGA/AF but there were questions … firstly, which one?

Having decided that, go to the profile:

Real Estate? Chicago? Uh huh. The profile itself tells much, inc how many of our own followers follow her. So I went to another one:

Manhattan? Numbers followed vs following? Email up front is interesting. FP? Free Press. Uh huh … checking that out, guess who is a major contributor there, from West Seattle? Amanda Knox … remember her? Would Lucy, being so young, be aware of all that? And her own story? A bit like Lara Logan’s to my mind. Lucy explains and will take out this post now …

“In three parts, I explain how I was brainwashed into becoming a biased climate reporter.

Step 1: Deconstruct your identity.

When I entered a newsroom at 25, this was the pervasive ideology: The world is divided into two groups—the oppressed and the oppressors.

If you are white, straight, privileged, or American, you are inherently an oppressor. Everything you grew up believing is wrong or evil. You cannot be trusted to see the world as it really is because you are inherently racist, biased, and part of the oppressor class.

I was young, excited to be there, and surrounded by people I thought were smarter and cooler than I was. So I absorbed their worldview and ceded my judgment to the group.

Once you are demoralized, feel guilty for being an oppressor, can no longer trust your own intuition, or your own interpretation of the facts, you will believe whatever the group tells you to believe.

Step 2: Atone for your sins.

Because you are an oppressor all you can do is atone for the sins of your birth. You can do that by repeating and advancing the group’s ideology. You never question it, because questioning the ideology is treated as proof that you are racist, selfish, or an oppressor.