Weekly newsletter 12/02/24: Bill of Rights Day, Disinformation, Autocracy, Inc.

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December 15th is Bill of Rights Day. 

There are some great resources here provided by Larry Ferlazzo. As the USA moves further from democracy to autocracy a reminder about the Bill Of Rights is especially relevant and timely.

Disinformation can contribute to avoidable harm and death

Disinformation is prolific in our age of digital media when publishing can occur without any editing. It seems ironic that I am writing this when I engage in this activity myself. However, what distinguishes my publication is that I have taken the Pro Truth pledge and promise my readers to publish only what I have vetted and know to be true to the best of my ability.

Some people hold the value of honesty, accuracy, and validity very highly while others, motivated by any number of incentives, are selling something based on explicit and implicit agendas. It behooves the consumer of media to insist on honesty and accuracy and to discern the motivations and incentives of the communicator. The question “Why is this person communicating this to me can be very illuminating.” In everyday language we should ask “What is this communicator up to and hoping will happen as a result of communicating this message”?

Just as people can spread infectious bacteria and viruses, they can spread false information. Just as infectious diseases can harm and kill so can toxic disinformation.

For more from Hayden Godfrey’s article, “Doctors Who Put Lives At Risk With Covid Misinformation Rarely Punished? click here.

Autocracies, Inc by Anne Applebaum

As the US has slipped further from democracy to autocracy with the re-election of Donald Trump as president, knowledge of the signs and symptoms of autocracy as a form of government and the consequences of this development has become much more important. This shift in governance processes have highly significant influence on the daily events described in the media.

From Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum

"Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy but by sophisticated networks relying on kleptocratic financial structures, a complex of security services—military, paramilitary, police—and technological experts who provide surveillance, propaganda, and disinformation.  p. 1

"Unlike military or political alliances from other times and places, this group operates not like a bloc but rather like an agglomeration of companies, bound not by ideology but rather by a ruthless, single-minded determination to preserve their personal wealth and power: Autocracy, Inc.  p. 2

"Instead of ideas, the strongmen who lead Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Angola, Myanmar, Cuba, Syria, Zimbabwe, Mali, Belarus, Sudan, Azerbaijan, and perhaps three dozen others share a determination to preserve their personal wealth and power; Autocracy, inc.  p.3

The world is run by corporations which the US supreme court has deemed as persons for constitutional purposes. What's up with that?

Capitalism where the profit motive is the only legitimate value system for corporations to pursue furthers the power of the oligarchs who can buy the political policies they prefer by financing elections.

What do you think Elon Musk is doing working with Trump heading a concocted government agency called the “Department of Efficiency”? The billionaires run the US.

Our US motto, instead of "In God We Trust" should be "Money Talks and Bullshit Walks."

So, I think Applebaum is on to something in the introduction. And now I am very interested in reading the rest of the book to see what she has to say.

OB-GYNs leaving Texas

What happens in states where OG\B-GYN can no longer provide women with reproductive health care without engaging in criminal activity? They leave the state to practice elsewhere.

Increasingly red states have inferior health care with poorer health care outcomes for women.

For more click here.

This is another example of how poor social policies contribute to lower quality of life for people who live under the jurisdiction of those policies.

"Enshittification" is the word of the year

From The Guardian

We’re all living through the enshittocene, a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit,” author Cory Doctorow said earlier this year.

In 2022, Doctorow coined the word “enshittification”, which has just been crowned Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year. The dictionary defined the word as follows.

“The gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.”

Editor's note: The internet and all the methods of digital communication promised to make human communication more effective and efficient and to help us, as human beings, become smarter.

As is true with everything in life there are adverse side effects and a downside or shadow side to the phenomenon. In many ways the internet and digital communication have enhanced our human interactions and functions, and in other ways it is has made our interactions and functioning more frustrating, anxiety inducing, and dysfunctional.

The hope that as we gain more experience with these tools we, humans, will learn how to use them more effectively and efficiently. In the meantime, enshittification, is something we are challenged by and must learn how to manage efficaciously.

How does disinformation go viral?

 

Across groups, social influences also produce noise. If someone starts a meeting by favoring a major change in the company’s direction, that person might initiate a discussion that leads a group unanimously to support the change. Their agreement might be a product of social pressures, not of conviction. If someone else had started the meeting by indicating a different view, or if the initial speaker had decided to be silent, the discussion might have headed in an altogether different direction—and for the same reason. Very similar groups can end up in divergent places because of social pressures.

Kahneman, Daniel; Sibony, Olivier; Sunstein, Cass R.. Noise . Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition. 

Sometimes what Kahneman et al. call “informational cascades” is called “peer pressure.” Solomon Ashe and other social psychologists demonstrated this dynamic decades ago.

We have colloquial sayings like “Better to go along to get along,” and “When in Rome you do as the Romans do,” and “Why go against the grain?” and “Don’t upset the apple cart,” and “You shouldn’t disturb the status quo.”

Keeping with the title of their book, the authors write that informational cascades are “noise.” Indeed they are. A major contributor to informational cascades is power and what are sometimes called “opinion leaders.” The first story told about the incident, event, or topic "frames" the future discussion to which any subsequent offering will be compared. "Disinformation" often goes viral in this way with the first story constantly being spread as subsequent commentors try to rebut it.

When posts on social media go "viral" they demonstrate what Kahneman is calling an "informational cascade."

To what extent are you an opinion leader in the groups you participate in? When have you been the leader and when have you been subject to another leader and group pressure? Have you ever participated in an organizational decision which didn’t seem right to you but you went along because you did not want to challenge the developing majority opinion of the group?

Noise is well worth reading as it provides a deeper understanding of the disinformation so rampant in our society in our digital age.

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