Tag Archives: Truth

Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health

Talking to science deniers and sceptics is not hopeless | Nature

Fears of backfire effects are overblown, and advice to listen and interact still stands.

By Lee McIntyre, 5 August 2021

Vaccine prepared…

I was at the March for Science in Boston, Massachusetts, on 22 April 2017, as were many scientists.

About 70,000 of us descended on the Boston Common, a famous park in the city. We were there to stand up for facts and truth. Where are the crowds of scientists now?

Since then, harms from science denial have only increased: global suffering has grown owing to inaction on climate change, and COVID-19 infections have risen along with the scourge of vaccine scepticism.

I’ve been out there — I talked to flat-earthers at a convention in Denver, Colorado, and went to rural Pennsylvania to talk to coal miners about climate change — and I’ve asked my scientist friends to come with me.

No dice. “Those people just aren’t worth talking to,” they’ll say. “I wouldn’t make a difference anyway.”

That’s wrong, both factually and morally. Those people can and do change their minds, although it requires someone to put in the time to overcome distrust.

-From article..

Source: Talking to science deniers and sceptics is not hopeless

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Web & Technology

‘Not Sitting Quietly Anymore’: How Librarians Are Fighting Trump | Broadly

“In a political climate where truth is dismissed, it can be difficult to figure out where politics end and moral, or even professional, imperatives begin.”

Though some people may think the job involves more shushing than rallying, many librarians consider “making America read again” to be a radical political proposition.

Source: ‘Not Sitting Quietly Anymore’: How Librarians Are Fighting Trump | Broadly

Current Affairs

These are the American people Trump calls enemies of the American people – The Washington Post

#FreePress #Journalism #Journalists #NotOurEnemies #Media

The Post newsroom is filled with people of all backgrounds, from the military to delivering pizzas.

Source: These are the American people Trump calls enemies of the American people – The Washington Post

Science & Health

‘We did not start this fight’: In Trump era’s dawn, scientists rally in Boston – The Washington Post

#GoScience #Resistance #Facts #Truth

The demonstration was a small-scale version of a much larger March for Science planned in April.

Source: ‘We did not start this fight’: In Trump era’s dawn, scientists rally in Boston – The Washington Post

Current Affairs

Covering politics in a “post-truth” America | Brookings Institution

In a new Brookings Essay, Politico editor Susan Glasser chronicles how political reporting has changed over the course of her career and reflects on the state of independent journalism after the 2016 election.

Source: Covering politics in a “post-truth” America | Brookings Institution

Books & Reading, Web & Technology

Introducing This Is Fake, Slate’s tool for stopping fake news on Facebook.

Wonderful idea, whose time is perhaps just right (though I wish we’d had this *before* the election).. hopefully, this can be cloned and re-coded for all the major browsers…

Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Medioimages/Photodisc.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Medioimages/Photodisc.

“How It Works

Once you install the extension, as you scroll through your Facebook feed, stories that Slate has identified as fake news will be flagged with a red banner over the preview image, informing you that they’ve been debunked. What differentiates This Is Fake from some other, earlier experiments in fake-news prevention is that the banner links directly to an article from a reputable source that debunks the story in question, and it prompts the user to share the debunking as a comment on the offending post.”

Source: Introducing This Is Fake, Slate’s tool for stopping fake news on Facebook.