Timothy Snyder on Russia and Ukraine, and can we say world and national politics…
“Objectivity does not mean treating an event as a coin flip between two public statements,” he said. “It demands thinking about the objects and the settings that readers require for understanding amidst uncertainty.” Thinking about the world of tfg and his n…
Timothy Snyder on Russia and Ukraine, and can we say world and national politics…
“Objectivity does not mean treating an event as a coin flip between two public statements,” he said. “It demands thinking about the objects and the settings that readers require for understanding amidst uncertainty.” Thinking about the world of tfg and his neverending press, free publicity that kept him in the limelight. We need facts and context and history to make informed decisions, which we read every day in HCR, LFAA.
Every time I hear a news channel cover “candidate Trump”, I TURN IT OFF. We media consumers must show our disapproval by shutting down ANTI-DEMOCRATIC rhetoric when we come in contact with it. REFUSE TO TAKE IN THE LIE, AND TURN OFF THE MEDIA SOURCE. Sign out of your social media source on your phone before you get back to it. Disconnecting by signing out keeps the media source from remaining connected when you aren’t actually engaging. It’s the same for the TV - turn it and and the box off, and make sure it stays off for at least a half hour, so it can record that sign-off.
Disconnecting from media sources is not quitting; rather it is its own statement. Enjoy your summer, and don’t allow yourself to get mired in the hate. Good luck.
Tell the media why you are leaving. They all have contact forms online. Numbers talk (see CNN), and your added explanation - every day for a while - drives home the point that reporting the truth matters.
Sharon, I would like to add that it is not just Pence. The whole lot of them is rotten, untruthful and gutless, including Christie, who seems to have recently dug up his spine from somewhere under a pile of dirty clothes in his walk-in closet.
All of these same people were lavishing TFG in praise as he ran the country full speed towards a cliff. Pence sat back, mute and impotent, for over two years after TFG riled a mob to make him either break law and install a dictator, or be hanged. This week, he invoked a vague messianic purpose and finally said what we all witnessed: TFG sicced a mob to kill him and his family. Now that they're competitors, these pawns suddenly see he's unfit. After TFG channels and coalesces the undercurrents of resentment, racism, xenophobia, misogyny and fascism, just like he did last time, he'll once again become the nominee. Then they'll all return to his side; feckless, fawning obedient lapdogs and reflexively, "support the Republican candidate", like the good pets they are.
My thoughts exactly. You describe them perfectly. I wonder how many more will throw their hat in the ring. I know one other wants to move into the White House. I am surprised he hasn't made his move. Pompeo is his name. His son is married to my friend's granddaughter. He may have running mate plans with tfg....
Do we know these actions you are suggesting do indeed work. If so I'm on board. Please anything to back this up with a link. I know I can get other aboard if I can prove to them that it substantially works. Thanks in advance! -saw-
First, it’s about my own peace of mind that I show my disapproval by disconnecting, but every social-media’s success model is measured in number of engagement hours. Social media companies have learned that stress and conflict increases engagement time. By breaking your engagement, you are retraining both your brain and your tiny corner of the internet that you want the truth.
Peace of mind is right JaneDough. I watch PBS Newshour and nothing else. I read trusted journalists. I enjoy a modicum of good mental health. There is his proof. Sheesh. Everyone is a lawyer today?
Steve, Move On, had a huge campaign after the trump town hall and asked us to write a comment to CNN stating our disapproval of the free publicity for trump and how he treated the interviewer. They provided a space where we could write an email.
I did that along with thousands of other people and it was all sent to CNN. It appears to have worked, as I see Licht has been put out. I think CNN got a lot of blow back for that debacle. But the damage was already done. The good news was after that E. Jean Carroll sued trump again for defamation. Hip hip, hooray for her.
Yes Chris Licht is out but I'm pretty sure the present head of CNN is a pretty strong right wing believer - dont recall his name, but read that in a couple places.
I follow a simple rule about lies and dangerous substances. I don't repeatedly read the warning labels (or relisten to rehashes of old lies) on products (or media outlets) that are a danger to my health and well-being. This being the only reasoning I need to never ingest from the cauldrons of Fox Media, Newsmax, ONAN, etc. I will take @sheila Strands advice and share this with my cable provider.
It’s the media’s job to cover him; not to give air to his lies. And if they’re only doing their jobs, great, but I’m not going in on the lie. I’d rather have no opinion than have a “hair-on-fire” reaction. Every time he speaks.
Whats more chilling is the fact that he hasnt been president for over two years and yet his face & voice are on almost every station every day! THATS chilling!
Irenie, As one who has come to believe that objectivity is not satisfied by two opposing people offering competing opinions, leaving the viewer to split the difference, but instead means sifting the truth from the propaganda, including the little fibs and fantasies as well as the Big Lie of the people in power, I very much appreciate you amplifying Timothy Snyder’s call for critical scrutiny.
I often hear ‘both sides are extreme, both sides do it’! First of all what is it?
Relating to false equivalence, the so called extremists on the left demand support for our less fortunate fellow citizens like : preventive health care; a living wage; affordable housing; clean air and clean drinking water!
While the extremists in the right victimize whatever group suits their red meat base. First it was black skin people, then immigrants, now members of the PRIDE community! They fight against clean energy bills, against healthcare for the less fortunate and affordable housing! They support raw vulture capitalism even though nothing has ‘trickled down’ to them!
Sorry, both sides don’t do it! The right wing owns the hate mongering of talk radio which has been lying to the base for decades!
Exactly, Louis! The "liberal" media are so cowed by the mere suggestion (from the right wing) that they are biased that they have bent over backwards to prove their innocence. Conversely, Faux and other extreme right-wing mouthpieces, not only are shamelessly biased, but have no issues in blatantly lying, even when behind the scenes they discuss their discomfort with their malfeasance and contempt for the very people they lionize, all for the cash that comes their way from our resident oligarchs. When do you ever hear a right-wing commentator deliver a scoop, then say "this information was released by (fill in the blank) but has not yet been confirmed by our network"?
You are dead right!! Extremest on the left are seen as socialists. But as Truman said essentially all social progress, as you mentioned, is seen as socialism by Republicans who see any progress as socialism. And equating socialism with Venezuela and Russia and as everyone knows has been horrible.
I too am tired of this both sides are extreme. There is only one party of death and that is the R party. As an aside, I read an interesting article on Huffpost about Keystone Kev praising Willa Cather as a new statue of her has arrived from Nebraska to the hall of statues in the Capitol Building. It is clear that Kevin doesn't know a damn thing about Cather, but the article did make me smile a lot.
I was glad to see the inclusion of Snyder's views. I have read his whole article and posted it and it is well worth reading. One of his points is that the Russians are always lying, so there is no both sides.
In 1992 soon after the demise of USSR, I was part of a team looking at a possible US - Russian joint venture to build commercial aircraft. I was the tech person for aluminum rolling, we had other tech and business folks. I think the team had 17 members including Boeing and NASA and translators.
We didn't meet a single Russian I would trust to do business with, very different than Japan, China, and Europe.
Kind of like doing business with Trump.
Nothing went forward especially with the Russian mob taking over the Russian aluminum industry.
NPR did a good job on that in its Up First segment. Both assertions were stated, but the analysis of which might be telling the truth favored Ukraine, for Snyder’s reasons and for the military difficultly Ukraine would have had to accomplish an attack on a Russian held dam.
If someone had not highlighted that pertinent "closer", it would have been the only thing I felt needed to be said today....and repeated...with respect to so many issues facing us today. Thanks. Hopefully, journalism and "communications" curriculums, across the country, are thinking about how to wrestle with the ideals of truth and justice in a deeper and more complex way for future students. Failing to address the shocking assaults we have all witnessed, especially during these last 8 (long) years , these "schools" will be forced to acknowledge that they are merely training students as advertising agents for their future handlers' prejudices.
Getting past the self interest of popular writers and major powers' PR agencies has is a serious challenge when leaders happily dance on the verge of terminal nuclear war. Snyder's early work is a major gift, but his buying into "we=good, they=bad" war glorification is letting us down. Y'all help me remember who said, "We historians remind people of things they'd rather forget!" War veterans bring essential knowledge to this proxy war: Matthew Hoh, Iraq war veteran and former State Department officer in Afghanistan brings an essential history of this war at https://matthewhoh.substack.com/p/a-war-long-wanted
Another source that isn't just telling people what they wish were true is a blog by Yves Smith, who I first heard excoriating the banks that illegally booted people out of their homes in the 2008 financial crisis. nakedcapitalism.com, "Fearless commentary on finance, economics, politics and power" is hardly anti-capitalist. Instead it offers daily access to the thinking of insiders in finance, manufacturing, etc. For a brisk review of what Big Media are doing, the broadly quoted "Caitlin Johnstone: 15 Reasons Why Media Don’t Do Journalism" rings true to this former photojournalist. Edward R. Murrow earned the trust of our nation. His signoff words were famously, "Good night and good luck!"
So disheartening to know how much we lose to defense spending - sending our money down a rat hole. It's a travesty. I regularly write to my representatives telling them of my opposition to this waste, and always get back a form email explaining the need for this immoral spending. This of course goes along with our government's propaganda about how glorious it is to "serve" and how honored are those who died for us. All the while there not having been a "necessary" war since WWII. "Where have all the flowers gone?"
"In other news, CNN has parted ways with Chris Licht, its chief executive officer and chair, who had sought to move the network to what he considered the center of American politics. He had done so by highlighting “both sides” of today’s political arguments, firing leading journalists he thought too far on the left and centering Trump in a town hall that became the former president’s triumphant reentry to the political stage as he lied and bullied the interviewer. Some pundits have taken Licht’s fall as a sign that there is no longer a powerful center in American politics, but my own guess is the opposite: that most of us want news based in reality rather than media giving platforms to people who are openly lying."
It seems that "both sides are…" is a coward's way of not taking sides and, thus, avoiding the wrath exhibited by followers of those sides, especially those who proudly and loudly declare their carrying (not merely ownership) of weapons. The willingness of those to court catastrophe by taunting others with terror and to blithely advocate, witness, and even cause death and devastation easily cowers so many others into hoping that they can stave off the monster by offering the sacrifices of some 'goat' -- appeasement of evil -- a slope made slippery by blood. Despite history, both read and remembered….
Timothy Snyder on Russia and Ukraine, and can we say world and national politics…
“Objectivity does not mean treating an event as a coin flip between two public statements,” he said. “It demands thinking about the objects and the settings that readers require for understanding amidst uncertainty.” Thinking about the world of tfg and his neverending press, free publicity that kept him in the limelight. We need facts and context and history to make informed decisions, which we read every day in HCR, LFAA.
Every time I hear a news channel cover “candidate Trump”, I TURN IT OFF. We media consumers must show our disapproval by shutting down ANTI-DEMOCRATIC rhetoric when we come in contact with it. REFUSE TO TAKE IN THE LIE, AND TURN OFF THE MEDIA SOURCE. Sign out of your social media source on your phone before you get back to it. Disconnecting by signing out keeps the media source from remaining connected when you aren’t actually engaging. It’s the same for the TV - turn it and and the box off, and make sure it stays off for at least a half hour, so it can record that sign-off.
Disconnecting from media sources is not quitting; rather it is its own statement. Enjoy your summer, and don’t allow yourself to get mired in the hate. Good luck.
Tell the media why you are leaving. They all have contact forms online. Numbers talk (see CNN), and your added explanation - every day for a while - drives home the point that reporting the truth matters.
I listened to Pense yesterday until I could not handle his lies....I turned him off and got busy on something important.
Sharon, I would like to add that it is not just Pence. The whole lot of them is rotten, untruthful and gutless, including Christie, who seems to have recently dug up his spine from somewhere under a pile of dirty clothes in his walk-in closet.
All of these same people were lavishing TFG in praise as he ran the country full speed towards a cliff. Pence sat back, mute and impotent, for over two years after TFG riled a mob to make him either break law and install a dictator, or be hanged. This week, he invoked a vague messianic purpose and finally said what we all witnessed: TFG sicced a mob to kill him and his family. Now that they're competitors, these pawns suddenly see he's unfit. After TFG channels and coalesces the undercurrents of resentment, racism, xenophobia, misogyny and fascism, just like he did last time, he'll once again become the nominee. Then they'll all return to his side; feckless, fawning obedient lapdogs and reflexively, "support the Republican candidate", like the good pets they are.
My thoughts exactly. You describe them perfectly. I wonder how many more will throw their hat in the ring. I know one other wants to move into the White House. I am surprised he hasn't made his move. Pompeo is his name. His son is married to my friend's granddaughter. He may have running mate plans with tfg....
Do we know these actions you are suggesting do indeed work. If so I'm on board. Please anything to back this up with a link. I know I can get other aboard if I can prove to them that it substantially works. Thanks in advance! -saw-
First, it’s about my own peace of mind that I show my disapproval by disconnecting, but every social-media’s success model is measured in number of engagement hours. Social media companies have learned that stress and conflict increases engagement time. By breaking your engagement, you are retraining both your brain and your tiny corner of the internet that you want the truth.
Peace of mind is right JaneDough. I watch PBS Newshour and nothing else. I read trusted journalists. I enjoy a modicum of good mental health. There is his proof. Sheesh. Everyone is a lawyer today?
Steve, Move On, had a huge campaign after the trump town hall and asked us to write a comment to CNN stating our disapproval of the free publicity for trump and how he treated the interviewer. They provided a space where we could write an email.
I did that along with thousands of other people and it was all sent to CNN. It appears to have worked, as I see Licht has been put out. I think CNN got a lot of blow back for that debacle. But the damage was already done. The good news was after that E. Jean Carroll sued trump again for defamation. Hip hip, hooray for her.
Yes Chris Licht is out but I'm pretty sure the present head of CNN is a pretty strong right wing believer - dont recall his name, but read that in a couple places.
I follow a simple rule about lies and dangerous substances. I don't repeatedly read the warning labels (or relisten to rehashes of old lies) on products (or media outlets) that are a danger to my health and well-being. This being the only reasoning I need to never ingest from the cauldrons of Fox Media, Newsmax, ONAN, etc. I will take @sheila Strands advice and share this with my cable provider.
I wish I could like this post a million times.
Trump is a candidate. That’s news. Do you want media that pretend he’s not? That would be chilling.
It’s the media’s job to cover him; not to give air to his lies. And if they’re only doing their jobs, great, but I’m not going in on the lie. I’d rather have no opinion than have a “hair-on-fire” reaction. Every time he speaks.
Whats more chilling is the fact that he hasnt been president for over two years and yet his face & voice are on almost every station every day! THATS chilling!
Irenie, As one who has come to believe that objectivity is not satisfied by two opposing people offering competing opinions, leaving the viewer to split the difference, but instead means sifting the truth from the propaganda, including the little fibs and fantasies as well as the Big Lie of the people in power, I very much appreciate you amplifying Timothy Snyder’s call for critical scrutiny.
Context absolutely (and human history is a form of it). Context can make all the difference in the world. Hucksters try to distract us from it.
....ahhhh, that pesky need to think...
Well said.
The frequency of false equivalencies by some reporters trying not to appear bias gives extremists a rationale to maintain their erroneous views.
I often hear ‘both sides are extreme, both sides do it’! First of all what is it?
Relating to false equivalence, the so called extremists on the left demand support for our less fortunate fellow citizens like : preventive health care; a living wage; affordable housing; clean air and clean drinking water!
While the extremists in the right victimize whatever group suits their red meat base. First it was black skin people, then immigrants, now members of the PRIDE community! They fight against clean energy bills, against healthcare for the less fortunate and affordable housing! They support raw vulture capitalism even though nothing has ‘trickled down’ to them!
Sorry, both sides don’t do it! The right wing owns the hate mongering of talk radio which has been lying to the base for decades!
Exactly, Louis! The "liberal" media are so cowed by the mere suggestion (from the right wing) that they are biased that they have bent over backwards to prove their innocence. Conversely, Faux and other extreme right-wing mouthpieces, not only are shamelessly biased, but have no issues in blatantly lying, even when behind the scenes they discuss their discomfort with their malfeasance and contempt for the very people they lionize, all for the cash that comes their way from our resident oligarchs. When do you ever hear a right-wing commentator deliver a scoop, then say "this information was released by (fill in the blank) but has not yet been confirmed by our network"?
You are dead right!! Extremest on the left are seen as socialists. But as Truman said essentially all social progress, as you mentioned, is seen as socialism by Republicans who see any progress as socialism. And equating socialism with Venezuela and Russia and as everyone knows has been horrible.
I too am tired of this both sides are extreme. There is only one party of death and that is the R party. As an aside, I read an interesting article on Huffpost about Keystone Kev praising Willa Cather as a new statue of her has arrived from Nebraska to the hall of statues in the Capitol Building. It is clear that Kevin doesn't know a damn thing about Cather, but the article did make me smile a lot.
Here here, Louis!
EXACTLY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWEBisftHio
The NYT committed many “false equivalencies” during the Clinton-Trump campaign, their “weaknesses” were not equivalent, and it hurt Clinton!
I mostly have not read that paper since- I need to tell them why!
Intent of the message, as well as context and credibility of the profferers certainly matters in any form of equivalency doesn't it?
I was glad to see the inclusion of Snyder's views. I have read his whole article and posted it and it is well worth reading. One of his points is that the Russians are always lying, so there is no both sides.
In 1992 soon after the demise of USSR, I was part of a team looking at a possible US - Russian joint venture to build commercial aircraft. I was the tech person for aluminum rolling, we had other tech and business folks. I think the team had 17 members including Boeing and NASA and translators.
We didn't meet a single Russian I would trust to do business with, very different than Japan, China, and Europe.
Kind of like doing business with Trump.
Nothing went forward especially with the Russian mob taking over the Russian aluminum industry.
Thank you for this insight. Yes, just like doing business with death star.
Always good to have reports from been there, done that. Thank you!
NPR did a good job on that in its Up First segment. Both assertions were stated, but the analysis of which might be telling the truth favored Ukraine, for Snyder’s reasons and for the military difficultly Ukraine would have had to accomplish an attack on a Russian held dam.
If someone had not highlighted that pertinent "closer", it would have been the only thing I felt needed to be said today....and repeated...with respect to so many issues facing us today. Thanks. Hopefully, journalism and "communications" curriculums, across the country, are thinking about how to wrestle with the ideals of truth and justice in a deeper and more complex way for future students. Failing to address the shocking assaults we have all witnessed, especially during these last 8 (long) years , these "schools" will be forced to acknowledge that they are merely training students as advertising agents for their future handlers' prejudices.
Spot on reasoning and to be clear, about time.
Getting past the self interest of popular writers and major powers' PR agencies has is a serious challenge when leaders happily dance on the verge of terminal nuclear war. Snyder's early work is a major gift, but his buying into "we=good, they=bad" war glorification is letting us down. Y'all help me remember who said, "We historians remind people of things they'd rather forget!" War veterans bring essential knowledge to this proxy war: Matthew Hoh, Iraq war veteran and former State Department officer in Afghanistan brings an essential history of this war at https://matthewhoh.substack.com/p/a-war-long-wanted
Another source that isn't just telling people what they wish were true is a blog by Yves Smith, who I first heard excoriating the banks that illegally booted people out of their homes in the 2008 financial crisis. nakedcapitalism.com, "Fearless commentary on finance, economics, politics and power" is hardly anti-capitalist. Instead it offers daily access to the thinking of insiders in finance, manufacturing, etc. For a brisk review of what Big Media are doing, the broadly quoted "Caitlin Johnstone: 15 Reasons Why Media Don’t Do Journalism" rings true to this former photojournalist. Edward R. Murrow earned the trust of our nation. His signoff words were famously, "Good night and good luck!"
Agreed, and another good read is Popular Information by Judd Legum.
Just read him and he is on Musk's black list. The focus of the article today is military spending....it will not make you happy.
I did — and you’re right, but I sure don’t know how to change the dynamics of funding the military, LOL
I read Judd everyday.
A friend asked me for a list of trustworthy analysis. Thanks for this addition! - Jerry
So disheartening to know how much we lose to defense spending - sending our money down a rat hole. It's a travesty. I regularly write to my representatives telling them of my opposition to this waste, and always get back a form email explaining the need for this immoral spending. This of course goes along with our government's propaganda about how glorious it is to "serve" and how honored are those who died for us. All the while there not having been a "necessary" war since WWII. "Where have all the flowers gone?"
What is LFAA?
letters from an American
Thank you!!!
"In other news, CNN has parted ways with Chris Licht, its chief executive officer and chair, who had sought to move the network to what he considered the center of American politics. He had done so by highlighting “both sides” of today’s political arguments, firing leading journalists he thought too far on the left and centering Trump in a town hall that became the former president’s triumphant reentry to the political stage as he lied and bullied the interviewer. Some pundits have taken Licht’s fall as a sign that there is no longer a powerful center in American politics, but my own guess is the opposite: that most of us want news based in reality rather than media giving platforms to people who are openly lying."
It seems that "both sides are…" is a coward's way of not taking sides and, thus, avoiding the wrath exhibited by followers of those sides, especially those who proudly and loudly declare their carrying (not merely ownership) of weapons. The willingness of those to court catastrophe by taunting others with terror and to blithely advocate, witness, and even cause death and devastation easily cowers so many others into hoping that they can stave off the monster by offering the sacrifices of some 'goat' -- appeasement of evil -- a slope made slippery by blood. Despite history, both read and remembered….