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Times-Union readers| Florida Times-Union

Republican Partys reputation is crumbling

before the eyes of many Americans

We are witnessing the demise of the Grand Old Party. And the Republican Party has earned the consequence they wrought.

The GOP enabled the dishonesty and ineptness of President Donald Trump while he tried to eliminate the Affordable Care Act without any real attempt at a substitute.

His administration separated babies from their parents at the border to set an example while making virtually no attempt to reunite them.

The gross mishandling and misrepresentation of the grave risks COVID-19 posed for the country serves as another reminder. Let's not forget the blocking of legislation in the Senate by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Enabler-in-Chief; not the least of which was the final relief bill to innocent citizens who may be thrown out of their residences for lack of payment of rent and mortgages.

Let's recall the tax cut that mostly went to the richest Americans. There is the damage to the institutions and norms that have held our democracy together for over 200 years (with one notable exception). And the same can be said for the corporate tax cut, which helped the stock market, but left over 50 percent of the population in the lurch because they dont participate because they are too poor.

There is the politicization of the Justice Department by attempting to use the halls of justice to help friends (Roger Stone, General Flynn and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

And perhaps the worst transgressions on our traditions of fair play and decency involved hypocrisy of the most recent Supreme Court confirmation. No, it was not illegal, just morally reprehensible.

And the top prize for hubris and deceit are the attacks on the integrity of our voting processes without any evidence by Trump, whose only purpose is to sow dissent and open the doors to violence from his alt-right supporters should their party lose the presidential race.

The public will rightly recoil at these insults and attacks on our values and the institutions that keep us on the straight and narrow.

And it is for these reasons that the Republican Party will crumble under the pressure to retain credibility in the public's eyes. And it may well be that the punishment will last for a generation, as the American public recoils from what its leaders let happen to the country and their party in recent years.

Memories are very long for messing with our system of government to this degree for which so many have sacrificed so much except for Trump. He should leave the White House no later than Jan. 20th to the obscurity he so richly deserves.

Bob Fagin, Jacksonville Beach

I was raised as a Democrat but

the party I knew has left me

I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, and I with the rest of my family were brought up as Southern Democrats. Back then I was taught that a Democrat was a person who represented and fought for the working person. A person who stood up for the middle and lower class. A person who fought against government corruption and supported our military and the sanctity of life.

Republicans were viewed as old, fat, rich, white men sitting around their country club drinking scotch and reviewing stock market tickers.

Every morning at school, prior to class we stood with our hands over our hearts and recited the Pledge of Allegiance and remained standing through the playing of the "The Star-Spangled Banner."To not do so would be to invite a bloody nose at recess. My first presidential vote was cast for a peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter, as was my second.

Back then a man would be applauded for exposing government corruption and upholding the laws of the land.

Back then you depended on Huntley and Brinkley for honest non-biased news reporting.

A lot has changed since then.

Now Democrats justify the burning of the American flag and condone the kneeling of people during the playing of the national anthem.

Now Democrats openly invite illegal aliens to cross our borders and have sanctuary cities protecting them from deportation.

Now Democrats want to allow late-term abortion and state their reproductive health is being threatened by attempts to overrule Roe v. Wade. Just what is their definition of reproductive health? Isnt it the ability to give birth to a healthy child?

The Democrats have vowed to do away with the federal death penalty. How can Democrats be anti-death penalty but be pro-abortion?

The Democrats wasted tens of millions of taxpayer dollars attempting to impeach a president for shedding light on the corruption of the previous administration. They knew from the outset they could not win, yet proceeded to waste taxpayers' time and money anyway. The entire time they ignored Hillary Clintons false narrative of Russian collusion and Joe Bidens corruption while in office.

The Democrats and their media allies decide what they want you to see, hear or read. Honest journalism does not exist any longer. They have been reduced to a propaganda extension of the Democratic Party.

I watched with disgust as the Democratic Party condones rioting and looting, refusing to employ the police departments of their cities in stopping destruction of public and private property. Kamala Harris, probably the next vice president, tweeted support for a fund to bail out protesters, some of them violent.

The Democratic Party has become the party of The ends justifies the means. They have already shown that they will turn a blind eye to wrongdoing by their party members. They have spent the last four years undermining the current administration. They have refused bipartisan support on nearly every issue the president has worked for or enacted. The Democrats have spent $1 billion on this election. You cannot convince me that it is for the benefit of this country's citizens.

Is the Republican Party perfect? Not by a long shot. It still has corruption and deceit within its ranks. But they are more in line with my conservative views and ideology than what the Democratic Party now supports.

Ronald Segrest, Jacksonville

See the article here:
Letters: Republican Party is crumbling and a former Democrat explains why he left - The Florida Times-Union

Over the past four years, weve seen an uncontrollable outpour of anger on social media about everything from the presidents infuriatingly racist tweets to emotionally manipulative political propaganda such as the QAnon conspiracy. These acts have led some people to conclude that social media is a real problem destroying our society.

Social media has a role in the increasing polarization of the U.S. The personalization of content has created echo chambers of views that limit us to our side of an argument. They bear the blame for encouraging the division of realities to make us feel comfortable. We seek the feeling of being heard and the desire to be among the majority opinion so much that we trap ourselves inside our echo chambers.

The filter bubble theory by Eli Pariser shows how social media locks us into our echo chambers by creating a false safe space. Our personalized data creates filter bubbles that restrict the information we see, and according to research in his book Filter Bubbles, our search history determines the results brought up by search engines.

Your computer monitor is a kind of one-way mirror, reflecting your interests while algorithmic observers watch what you click, Pariser said.

With every click or search on sites like Facebook or Google, our information is used to feed us targeted ads. These keep the constant pattern of only seeing posts and comments from people that we agree with, which leaves us out of circles with people or sites that we disagree with. This encourages a dangerously false perception of the world. The issue is worsened by our constant dependence on social media for information.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone who has a different opinion than yours, and they give evidence or an article that they refer to as popular, but youve never heard the news? That is the outcome of the filter bubble, giving us the feeling of living in different worlds. The filter bubble creates different realities that are common during intense and confusing times, like the election. Half of the country thinks the election was fair while the other half feels like the results were unfair.

The division is caused by the filter bubble and our desire to escape any meaningful interaction with people whose opinions differ from ours. This behavior encourages symmetric polarization that we can now see in our political spheres and creates the divisions seen in our society today.

An example of this would be conservatives claiming that Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are censuring them at an unequal rate. Broadly, rather than addressing the issues together and condemning hate speech, some people tend to criticize them and encourage the harsh censorship of conservative or controversial content. They bully the writers while thinking they are the majority.

This harsh and needed criticism has led to the social media divide aided by the filter bubble and the creation of alt-right social media such as Parler, which to put it mildly, is a disastrous place for hate where a myriad of dangerously false conspiracies further encourage and feed divisiveness in our country.

To avoid the dangerous backlash of the divide caused by the filter bubble, we should honestly listen to each other and encourage honest conversations with different opinions to protect the sanctity and unity of our country.

See original here:
OPINION: Social media problems have led to a divisive society - Red and Black

New York: Critically-acclaimed books by three Indian writers have featured among this years 100 Notable Books list of The New York Times that also includes former US president Barack Obamas newly released memoir A Promised Land.

Editors of The New York Times book review section selected 100 notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction works from around the world.

The prestigious list also includes the work of fiction A Burningby India-born Megha Majumdar.

A brazen act of terrorism in an Indian metropolis sets the plot of this propulsive debut novel in motion, and lands an innocent young bystander in jail. With impressive assurance and insight, Majumdar unfolds a timely story about the ways power is wielded to manipulate and crush the powerless, the report said of the book.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Lineby Deepa Anappara, who grew up in Kerala, also features on the list.

This first novel by an Indian journalist probes the secrets of a big-city shantytown as a 9-year-old boy tries to solve the mystery of a classmates disappearance. Anappara impressively inhabits the inner worlds of children lost to their families, and of others who escape by a thread, the leading daily said.

Samanth Subramanians A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldaneis a nonfiction work.

Haldane, the British biologist and ardent communist who helped synthesise Darwinian evolution with Mendelian genetics, was once as famous as Einstein. Subramanians elegant biography doubles as a timely allegory of the fraught relationship between science and politics, the report said.

Subramanian is a journalist and lives in London.

Red Pill by British-Indian author Hari Kunzru also features on the list.

A fellowship at a study center in Germany turns sinister and sets a writer on a possibly paranoid quest to expose a political evil he believes is loose in the world. Kunzrus wonderfully weird novel traces a lineage from German Romanticism to National Socialism to the alt-right, and is rich with insights on surveillance and power, the report said.

(PTI)

Go here to read the rest:
Books by Three Indian Writers Feature Among '100 Notable Books' of The New York Times - The Wire

Being thankful for a dumpster fire seems like a weird thing.

And if I'm being honest, I don't suppose it's the actual shinola of 2020 that I'm thankful for. It's what that shinola provided.

Think of all the things that have been stripped away during the coronavirus pandemic. We've missed out on hometown sports and get-togethers and shopping and parades and ... well ... you name it.

Many of us have lost loved ones or suffered ourselves thanks to the virus' effects.

And we've gone through much more than COVID-19.

Our nation has seen a nasty election both sides were ugly and a media that seemed wildly unbalanced.

We've witnessed riots and looting as well police whose actions have warranted protests.

Through it all, we've had a chance to grow. A chance to be better. A chance to focus on the things that matter.

Because apparently we needed it.

In the end, it's 2020's reminders of what matters that really mean something.

The reminder that people still matter. Grace still matters. Love still matters.

Through all of the garbage we've witnessed this year, people have remained. People who are as loved by their Creator as you and I are.

That nasty Republican across the street? Yep, God loves him as much as He loves you.

That weird Democrat neighbor? God loves her, too.

That Antifa protester busting store windows and setting fires and taking whatever he pleases? Still loved by the Big Guy.

That alt-right white supremacist? Loved.

That governor who handed down the lockdown edict that closed your gym or shuttered your business or canceled your school year because, as you believe, he's on a power trip? God's love is for him.

That governor who refused to mandate masks or enact other COVID-19 mandates because, as you believe, he doesn't care if grandma dies? The cross covers him, too.

It's a crazy thing to consider, but 2020 has given us a lot of opportunities to remember that if God loves all of us that much, then the very least that we can do is to try to love each other that much.

We're not called to love just during the easy times, or to love only the people who are easy to love. That's not how real love works. Real love happens without consideration for situations or whether love will be returned.

True love just loves and that's all it does.

It's about everyone else all the time.

It's about coming alongside and just being with people.

It's about following God to people who are hurting and there are a lot of them and being there when they hit the ground hard. ("Catching people on the bounce," as Bob Goff puts it.)

It's about drawing a great big circle around everybody and saying they're all in your circle just like the circle grace drew around all of us.

This year has been ... something. A lesson for us all. A chance to love the way we should. A chance to just be with people.

Be thankful for that.

Link:
It's OK to be thankful for the 2020 dumpster fire - TheBlaze

We haven't seen the last of Pete Evans. Photo / Supplied

When word spread that Pete Evans was closing his Facebook account, people like Kaz Ross were optimistic but sceptical.

The political science expert knows too well how alternative "health and wellness" gurus like the former My Kitchen Rules judge can influence the public and perpetuate their often dangerous and misinformed ideas.

The lecturer predicted that brands that came out publicly dumping Pete this month would walk back their criticism as essential oil multi-level marketing company doTERRA did.

But now it appears Evans hasn't left Facebook after all.

The celebrity chef announced he was closing his account with 1.5 million followers nearly a week ago, but is still regularly posting to his page.

"He will find that without Facebook it's harder to draw traffic to his page," Dr Ross said of Evans' move to his Evolve platform that he has been promoting.

"They've been preparing to move to a separate economic network for a long time.

"We talk about whether he's stupid, crazy, alternative that's the wrong approach Pete Evans is a brand and we have to look at what is the brand doing to build it's brand market share?"

Evans announced he was quitting Facebook after being dumped by his publisher, Channel 10 and other brands he was associated with because of his controversial posts, most recently sharing a neo-Nazi cartoon.

He said he would not be "censored ever again".

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"He will just ride it out," said Dr Ross, who has become an expert on how the far right uses racism against the Chinese to foster neo-Nazi claims.

"When he gets censored, he can use that and incorporate that into his message.

"The message is we have the true story on health and wellness and the mainstream media and the global cabal don't want you to know this."

Global cabal theories centre around the idea that there is a single sinister group of people who secretly control the world.

"The more censored he is, the more it builds his brand because he's saying they don't want the truth to get out," Dr Ross said.

"His fan base really swamps the media, his Facebook page, anyone writing about him and every time he's censored or critiqued, it proves his point.

"Controversy is good for him."

Dr Ross said she knew companies would renege on their dumpings because of the backlash they would get from his followers in doing so.

The same day doTERRA took a stand against him, it later came out saying the company had "felt mounting pressure from a public controversy" and had "reacted with a statement that failed to receive the required thoughtful review that it merited".

Dr Ross said Evans might have been cancelled this Christmas but "you'll see him back on the shelves pretty soon".

With the coronavirus pandemic fuelling conspiracy theories in 2020, Dr Ross said the alternative health and wellness world had embraced them because it suited their brands.

"Anti-Chinese sentiment has been really bad this year, particularly in Melbourne," she said, having started her career in Asian studies.

"The alternative wellness space people have latched on to QAnon and general conspiracy theories because they're good for their brand.

"I think that a lot of people have become more aware of Pete Evans through the conspiracy theory stuff and you see a lot of it with the wellness and anti-vax crew on Instagram.

"These people are getting a lot of exposure because of coronavirus.

"They can build their brand about health and healing and also position themselves against the mainstream media."

QAnon is a wide-ranging, unfounded conspiracy theory that centres on the idea US President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against corrupt and elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and the media.

In a year where things "seem out of control" Dr Ross said you could see why people turned to wellness narratives.

"In a pandemic, people want to believe a simple narrative, and the alternative wellness movement offers that," she said.

"If you're a good person with good intentions and eat nice, clean food, you won't get sick, and that's very empowering.

"You can control your health by eating essential oils and grain-fed beef or whatever they do, and you can ward off illness, and that's a premise of the wellness industry your intentions can create health. But sometimes you get sick, it just happens, you can't control everything."

Dr Ross said it was easy for people just to think of Pete Evans as a personality but he used that to his advantage.

"He puts himself out as a natural, authentic person with a disarming smile and he'll say I don't know, I'm just asking the questions," she said.

"That's his technique. But you should know, you're head of a pretty big brand it's your business to know."

She highlighted how a huge number of people were actually required to keep Evans' brand going.

"The alternative wellness people, they are their own brand and there are huge numbers of people required to keep his business going," she said.

"When you think of it, you just think of Pete Evans as just the individual."

Dr Ross said another technique Evans used was plausible deniability when he posted the cartoon of the black sun and "walked back from it".

"It's a tactic used all the time by the alt-right, since about 2015," she said.

"You post a dodgy meme and say oh no, I didn't know it meant that.

"It's a dog whistle to those that understand it and then you can deny it if you're ever accused."

After Evans was condemned for sharing the cartoon, he later came out saying he didn't know what it represented and had to look up what a neo-Nazi was.

Dr Ross said Evans was not a neo-Nazi, simply an opportunist.

She said a number of the conspiracy theorist types had started to monetise those opportunities.

Alongside the pandemic she said those identities were also fuelled by the anti-vax movement.

Dr Ross said the anti-vaxxers claimed they were suppressed by the mainstream media.

"Someone like Pete Evans gets so much attention from so-called mainstream media, which itself is very misleading, because he does get coverage it's just the things he says are really stupid it doesn't mean there is a cover-up of truth," she said.

Dr Ross said the problems with the promises spruiked by alternative wellness types were they were not medically true.

"Nobody is going to say eating healthy is bad for you; it's just you need to be guided by science and science is contradictory, it isn't a straightforward process," she said.

"It's not we've got the answer now. This is the way science works and people don't think about contradictory science views."

See the rest here:
Why 'stupid, crazy, alternative' Pete Evans labels are the wrong approach - New Zealand Herald