Category: media

Racism Doesn’t Need a Devil’s Advocate

Racism Doesn’t Need a Devil’s Advocate

As a concept, the devil’s advocate is incoherent. If a position is really as unpopular as the name indicates, there is no need to argue for it. Debating isn’t an ideology; it’s a methodology. We debate to get to a truth, not for its own sake. Most often, the devil’s advocate is really saying there is something at the core of the argument that they are (perhaps ashamedly) compelled by, and so they employ a rhetorical trick allowing themselves to argue a position without ever having to hold it. This allows exploration of deep-seated racism under the guise of putting forth someone else’s argument. The irony is that it could invite a deeper discussion of race than may otherwise happen, since it inherently reveals what white people really think and struggle with around race.

Trump’s Cult Was Designed to Withstand This Current Media Onslaught and That’s What’s Happening

Trump’s Cult Was Designed to Withstand This Current Media Onslaught and That’s What’s Happening

I have even come up with the hashtag of to describe Trump’s biggest fans. This is a nod to him being our 45th president and the old Billy Dee Williams TV commercial for beer whose famous catchphrase I imagine being transformed into, “Cult 45… they will believe him EVERY time.”

How to Convince Someone When Facts Fail

How to Convince Someone When Facts Fail

Why? “Because it threatens their worldview or self-concept.” For example, subjects were given fake newspaper articles that confirmed widespread misconceptions, such as that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. When subjects were then given a corrective article that WMD were never found, liberals who opposed the war accepted the new article and rejected the old, whereas conservatives who supported the war did the opposite … and more: they reported being even more convinced there were WMD after the correction, arguing that this only proved that Saddam Hussein hid or destroyed them. In fact, Nyhan and Reifler note, among many conservatives “the belief that Iraq possessed WMD immediately before the U.S. invasion persisted long after the Bush administration itself concluded otherwise.”

The_Donald Monderator, Breitbart editor and Trump Shill, Milo Yiannopoulos — Starts a grant for White Males to go to post-secondary and STEALS all the donations for himself. Promptly shuts down Grant after collecting THOUSANDS for his personal gain. • /r/EnoughTrumpSpam

The_Donald Monderator, Breitbart editor and Trump Shill, Milo Yiannopoulos — Starts a grant for White Males to go to post-secondary and STEALS all the donations for himself. Promptly shuts down Grant after collecting THOUSANDS for his personal gain. • /r/EnoughTrumpSpam

Fascinating story of how Milo Yiannopoulos might have created a fake charity and pocketed the money when he thought everyone had forgotten about it.

The media have reached a turning point in covering Donald Trump. He may not survive it.

The media have reached a turning point in covering Donald Trump. He may not survive it.

It happened because the Post’s David Fahrenthold and some other reporters did what journalists are supposed to do. They raised questions about Trump’s fundraiser, and when they didn’t get adequate answers, they investigated, gathered facts, and asked more questions.

It was excellent work — time-consuming, difficult, and ultimately paying dividends in public understanding. And Trump’s attack on them for doing their jobs the way those jobs are supposed to be done couldn’t have been better designed to get every other journalist to want to do the same. They’re no different than anyone else: When you make a direct attack on their professionalism, they’re likely to react by reaching back to their profession’s core values to demonstrate that they can live up to them. Trump may have wanted to intimidate them, but it’s likely to have the opposite effect.

Wow, journalism. It gets stuff done.

Thiel Shows Why Tech Billionaires Are The New Robber Barons

Thiel Shows Why Tech Billionaires Are The New Robber Barons

Thiel appears to have a political and social viewpoint grounded on a subversion of libertarian principles, in which what’s good for him, or his companies, is, by extension, a public good. Hence, destroying Gawker is not just revenge or a kind of political act, it’s in Thiel’s words “philanthropic.”