I’m in a terrible sleep cycle. My circadian rhythm is shot. I’m up half the night and sleeping all morning. That is not conducive to blogging. I’m writing now at 2 PM but I should be out of the house. I just called Jane and told her that I’d be over when I’m done blogging. I missed writing yesterday and My Gentle Readers shouldn’t have to go two days without.
Despite my sleep issues I got myself to go to my PO box for the first time since Christmas. I was rewarded by two cards and a CD from a band I met at NERFA. I’m just getting to much of the music I got at NERFA now so that works out. There is a lot of great music out there. I just finished listening to The Whispering Tree and now I’m listening to Jonathan Byrd. The album in the mail was by Moonfruits.
After the post office I went to Trader Joe’s. Once again they were out of the flatbread I love. This time I asked. It’s called lavash and they no longer carry it. It’s the best thing for making wraps and rolls. I got small round flatbreads that are like thick tacos, not as good. I’m addicted to breakfast sandwiches. There is a reason I keep away from drugs. I can resist anything but temptation.
Damn this Jonathan Byrd album is good, so was The Whispering Tree. I need to have my own radio station so I can play all the great music that people aren’t exposed to. Anyone want to give me one for my birthday?
I had a dearth of musical plans in the near future. So far today I planned for a second show on Sunday and was offered a ticket to see the great Jill Sobule tonight. Now I have less time to write.
I saw The Social Network the other night. I found myself rooting for Zuckerberg and against the Winklevoss twins. I have many issues with Zuckerberg, he has power that gives him moral authority but lacks moral depth. But that’s getting to what I want to discuss. I am less upset with social media over Russian interference in the 2016 election than most people. I think what happened is terrible, I’m just not as clear that the fault likes with Zuckerberg and the other social media giants. The fault dear Readers lies not with the social media stars but with ourselves, that we are gullible.
Do we blame Guttenberg for Mein Kompf?. Are the people who made the film responsible for The Triumph of the Will? It’s unclear how much I want the social media companies controlling what we can see. That gives them great power, power that I don’t know they are competent to wield. I don’t know if it can be done justly, and if it is possible if we have the wisdom to know how. The devil might well be in the details.
There’s more to it than that. There is little that the Russians did that Americans weren’t doing without outside help. The only reason what the Russians had an effect is that Americans repeated, reposted, retweeted, their propaganda; just as they did other propaganda. I had friends that opposed Trump but posted everything bad they could find about Hillary, and did so without checking to see if it were true. This continued right until election day. I have not seen one take responsibility for it. Not one questioned his or her actions.
The real problem is that too many people think the test of truth is how it makes them feel. It if appeals to their prejudices it bears repeating. This is why I so often criticize those that I agree with when they make invalid arguments and post lies masquerading as facts. How many times have you seen the graphic that shows how much more the US government spends on the military than on healthcare and social spending? The problem with that graphic is that it’s wrong. We spend more far more on Medicare and Social Security than we do on the military. If you don’t know that your opinions are totally uninformed. This is not arcane knowledge. As Krugman says, the federal government is an insurance company with an army. State and local governments are school systems with a police force. That’s where our money goes. I would like more money spent on social welfare, far more money, but we shouldn’t lie to get it done. We shouldn’t lie to ourselves to get it done.
I don’t know how we change this. We can start in the schools, teaching our children critical thinking. Give tests on discriminating fact from opinion. Teach them how to fact check. Teach them the importance of fact checking. Then maybe they can teach their parents. I question how many parents want to learn. It feels good to have our prejudices confirmed and people like to feel good. I’m sure I do it myself. I’m human; it’s the way we are built. It’s a design flaw in the modern world. We need work-arounds. We need to minimize acting on our prejudices, we can’t eliminate it.
That’s today’s rant. Tomorrow I write about Jill Sobule. What will be much better. Now to post this and get moving.
Wise Madness 