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As I Was Saying . . .

An Example of Disinformation’s Power

Craig Cheslog Craig Cheslog
June 2, 2022
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Don Moynihan examines how a fake news story became a viral conservative hit in his latest Can We Still Govern? substack.

A network of partisan conservative websites pushed a story that falsely claimed that a school district was going to require teachers to adjust their grading scales to account for the ethnicity of their students.

Moynihan examines how the story spread, the organizations behind that, and some of the famous people who spread the lie without checking its veracity. As Moynihan writes:

“When you give the benefit of the doubt to partisan fake news rather than professional educators, it is hard to take the whole “I’m here to defend education” bit too seriously.”

Ukraine Prepares for World Cup Qualifiers

Craig Cheslog Craig Cheslog
June 1, 2022
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Grant Wahl interviews the Guardian’s Nick Ames to discuss the Ukrainian Men’s National Soccer Team’s preparations for Wednesday’s World Cup playoff against Scotland.

As you can imagine, preparations have been difficult since Russia’s invasion in February. Ames has been following the Ukrainian team as they have prepared in Slovenia the past few weeks. Is soccer meaningful when one’s country is facing extermination? As Ames tells Wahl:

So it is important. And I think also it’s important to remember that what Russia is trying to do in Ukraine is erase Ukrainian culture, no more, no less, really. I think I said it in my piece from Slovenia. And I think as you and I both know, Grant, from our travel: What is an international football team, if not an expression, a representation of a culture, of a country’s hope, of a country’s ambition, of how a country expresses itself and everything around it? So I think that is all tied into what the feeling was in the camp.

If Ukraine can beat Scotland and then Wales, they will face the United States in the first game of the World Cup’s group stage in November.

I’m glad they will be able to try.

Guns vs. Children

Craig Cheslog Craig Cheslog
June 1, 2022
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In his latest Puck newsletter, Baratunde Thurston frames the choice our nation has made as gun violence continues to kill so many people.

When given the choice, we have decided to get rid of children rather than guns. We’ve absurdly interpreted the Constitution to defend this madness while forgetting that the Constitution can be changed while dead children cannot be brought back to life.

We can choose a better outcome. We should ask ourselves why our society refuses to do so.

We Should Assume the Police Are Lying

Craig Cheslog Craig Cheslog
June 1, 2022
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The Uvalde Elementary School Massacre is the latest example of the police lying to the public about their activities.

Aaron Rupar examines how the story the police told changed dramatically as their lies were exposed as the facts came to light. As Rupar writes:

The lesson here, as my friend Alexandria Neason wrote better than I can, is that police departments lie, primarily to make themselves look like necessary servants of an endangered public. Allowing them to self-justify off the record is, at this point, inexcusable.

Rupar explores how what the police said about the imaginary school resource officer, the mythical Border Patrol agent, the nonexistent body armor, and the children who weren’t dead yet were lies designed to make law enforcement appear to be the heroes.

After all of these incidents, law enforcement has lost the benefit of the doubt.