Why do science and health reporters lack any background in the subject?
Does it make sense for most reporters to report on technical subjects about which they have no specific training?
Why does everyone lie? Because it works.
Why does everyone lie? Because it is effective and easy to get away with it, even when prominent people and organizations tell obvious grand lies. We have been trained not to question, not to think critically, and not to think for ourselves. Thinking for yourself is double-bad wrong think and should be punished.
Climate: Messaging fail
If forests are not renewable, then nothing is renewable. This makes no sense. Source: Greta Thunberg on Twitter: “Climate strike week 233. #FridaysForFuture #ClimateStrike #ForestsAreNotRenewable https://t.co/IZN857fdjy” / Twitter
Did Tesla “invent electricity?
Another social media poster, this one about Tesla, makes the rounds and most of it is misleading or wrong.
Crazy: The U.S. Racial Classification System is Nonsensical
In 1977, the US decided to classify people by race. We decided the world was made up of 4 “races” and 1 “ethnicity”. An indigenous heritage person in North America is “Native American”, but an indigenous person in South America is …. Hispanic. People in Korea, Japan, Singapore, Pakistan, India and more are “Asian” “race”, which makes no sense. And many people are of mixed racial heritage (including my family) – but oddly, even if only a tiny part of the heritage is an ethnic group, it is legal to declare yourself part of that group. As the interviewed professor notes, it is now possible for a majority of the U.S. population to qualify as a “minority owned business”. That’s funny when a majority can qualify as a minority 🙂 It is a big mess that was news to me as I had not thought about these issues before.
“The AI” as the new “appeal to authority argument
The AI – e.g. ChatGPT – may become the “appeal to authority” argument source within another year or so. Disagree with someone or something? Just quote them what The AI says – that will be seen as the authority. And those who control The AI will control the world.
Media: Where did “Bomb Cyclone” come from?
The media loves the term “bomb cyclone”, a technical term from meteorology that sounds super scary. Most of the public has no idea what it means, and even with the official definition, it still is mostly meaningless to the public. But it sounds scary. And that’s the main point.
The media continues to hype a fear monger whose 50 year old predictions have been wrong about everything
“60 Minutes” brings back Paul Ehrlich to make more scary fear-based predictions of the future. He’s been wrong about everything for more than 50 years – so why does the media do this nonsense?
Propaganda comes to restaurant menus
A little more information on restaurant menus could encourage people to choose meals with a lower climate footprint, according to a new study, which found that adding climate impact labels to foods was an effective strategy to reduce red meat consumption. Source: Beef burger or fish sandwich? Climate labels on menus can encourage people to eat less red meat, study shows | CNN To be fair, all restaurant menus are designed to encourage your purchase of higher profit items. They use…
Media myth busted: Suicides do not increase at holidays
Half of recent news reports about holiday suicides spread disinformation that suicides go up over the holidays: Summary:Â Despite media claims that suicide rates increase dramatically over the holiday period, researchers report the average daily suicide rate during the holidays remain among the lowest rate of any period of the year. Source:Â University of Pennsylvania The holiday-suicide myth, the false claim that the suicide rate rises during the year-end holiday season, persisted in some news coverage through the 2021-22 holidays, according to…