Anti-Social Media #236
By Hank Silverberg
How are you getting the information you need to cast an informed vote in elections? And where are you getting it from?
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We are all reading more online. I do. And admit it, you do you. With an election campaign coming up it's important that everyone is aware that what they read online is often not true. I have a whole chapter on this in the textbook I wrote for the college classes I teach (see link at end of the blog). I want my students to understand that knowing the source of something you read can give you a good indication if it's true or fake. It's one of the reasons I post the links here in this blog from which I base my weekly writeups. News Platform Fact Sheet | Pew Research Center
There's a good chance you are reading this blog from a link put up on a social media page. I publish in Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook along with hanksilverberg.blogspot.com.
You probably think you are media savvy and will be able to tell the difference between fact and fiction. But with the advent of Artificial Intelligence, that is becoming harder and harder. What you are reading may or may not be true and now it may or may not have been written by a human being.
How many times has a friend forwarded a story to you from their Facebook page that later, after it gets you angry, sad or annoyed, turns out to be fake or misleading?
Apply this now to the election when candidates are using social media more and more to get out their message. Instead of calling a traditional news conference, Ron DeSantis used Twitter to make his formal announcement that he is running for president. And that's on Twitter, now controlled by Elon Musk who has pretty much admitted he can and will manipulate what is on the site.
Here is just one example that might make you laugh if it wasn't such a tragedy.
NBC news is reporting that hundreds of Donald Trump supporters have been scammed out of thousands of dollars because they bought "Trump Bucks" online, convinced that they were legal tender that could be cashed in at the bank like savings bonds. In some cases, the deals included membership cards, coins and even a "Trump Rebate Banking System" handbook which the sellers claimed was an "official document".
Trump Supporters Scammed By Novelty Items—‘Trump Bucks’—Advertised As Legal Tender (msn.com)
There's nothing wrong with selling commemorative items, but only the U.S. Mint can print or produce legal tender. There's no indication that Trump or his campaign had anything to do with this scam, but one group claimed the "TrumpCoin," worth about two cents, could be used as the official currency for Trump's social media site, Truth Social.
If scammers can fool people into buying this fake product so easily, imagine what political propagandists can do with voters.
Don't believe it just because it looks official and it's online. Stay with reputable news organizations that have been around for decades and have proven their competency. Avoid cable news pundits and certainly don't spread anything online you are not totally sure of.
I do not exaggerate when I write that our democracy has been harmed greatly by disinformation spread by disreputable political propagandists, and in some cases foreign governments.
Poetry Emotion!
There are some things about the current political climate that I just don't get. Here's one of them. A poem recited by its writer, Amanda Gorman, at President Biden's Inauguration called "The Hill We Climb," was highly praised. The poet, a young Black woman, was doing what most poets do, looking at the world from her perspective. Her words had meaning and were praised for eloquence and expression. Here's a sample:
"We’ve braved the belly of the beast.
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace,
And the norms and notions of what ‘just is’
Isn’t always justice.
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow, we do it.
Somehow, we’ve weathered and witnessed
A nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished."
(You can read the full poem at the link above.)
Someone in Miami-Dade School District was apparently offended by Ms. Gorman's words claiming they were not educational and had indirect hate messages. That "parent" demanded that the published version of the poem be removed from the elementary school libraries. It was.
I posted a link to the story on my Linkedin page last week and it received more views and responses than anything I have ever posted before. I am happy to say most of those who commented were appalled by the censorship. I remain very dismayed that one complaint could defame someone's work and damage the education of our nation's future, our young people. On Sunday the mother who filed the initial complaint admitted she had only read parts of the poem and noted it was not banned, but simply set aside for older children.
But there is more. Read on!
Banned Books!
Nothing makes me angrier than ignorance. Not an uneducated mind, but real ignorance. Let's get this clear from the start. Illiteracy is a big problem around the world and across the United States. That's terrible, and we need to spend more time, effort and money teaching people how to read and to understand what they are reading. But that is not what makes me angry. What makes me blow my rhetorical top off is people who simply fail to stay informed about things that really matter. And people who try to judge society by what someone tells them rather than checking it out for themselves. As I wrote above, it happens a lot on the internet these days, but it can be just as harmful if it's spread at the PTA meeting or the water cooler.
That is happening in many places across
Don't get me wrong. There should be an effort to keep books on some subjects available only to age-appropriate students. But those decisions need to be made by librarians and teachers who have read the books and REALLY know what's in them.
Florida is leading the way in making many dumb decisions on books, but it's not the only place.
The phenomenon is not new. Books were banned and burned in the past. Most notably, science books that included the theory of evolution.
In each case, those seeking to ban the book overreact to a paragraph or chapter or two and read into the books something that is not there. They see some hidden agenda where there really isn't one.
An earlier generation may remember the Scopes/Monkey trial of the 1930's and its fictional recap in a great 1960 movie called "Inherit the Wind." (Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly were among the stars.)
Below I have a list of books that have been banned or removed from various places across the country. If you take a close look at the titles, you can tell most of them have some content involving race, religion, ethnicity or gender identity. Those banning the books simply don't want children of any age reading about people who are different from whatever their parents think threatens their vision of themselves.
The banned book list comes from PEN America, a non-profit group which, according to its website, "works to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others."
As an author and retired journalist, I find solidarity with this group. And please note they seek to protect all views, including those of the same conservatives who want to ban these books.
Duval County, Florida has banned 176 books. Here is a partial list. I highlight only two to put the list in context.
- Chik Chak Shabbat, by Mara Rockliff and Kyrsten Brooker
- Dreamers, by Yuyi Morales
- Dumpling Soup, by Jama Kim Rattigan, and Lillian Hsu-Flanders
- Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, by Kevin Noble Maillard and Juana Martinez-Neal
- The Gift of Ramadan, by Rabiah York Lumbard and Laura K. Horton
- Grandfather Tang’s Story, by Ann Tompert and Robert Andrew Parker
- Hush! A Thai Lullaby, by Minfong Ho and Holly Meade
- Islandborn, by Junot DÃaz and Leo Espinosa
- Little Night/Nochecita, by Yuyi Morales
- Looking for Bongo, by Eric Velásquez
- My Two Dads and Me, by Michael Joosten and Izak Zenou
- My Two Moms and Me, by Michael Joosten and Izak Zenou
- Neither, by Airlie Anderson
- Never Say a Mean Word Again: A Tale from Medieval Spain, by Jacqueline Jules and Durga Yael Bernhard
- Nya’s Long Walk: A Step at a Time, by Linda Sue Park and Brian Pinkney
- On Mother’s Lap, by Ann Herbert Scott and Glo Coalson
- One Green Apple, by Eve Bunting and Ted Lewin
- The Rough-Face Girl, by Rafe Martin and David Shannon
- Running the Road to ABC, by Denize Lauture
- Sulwe, by Lupita Nyong’o and Vashti Harrison
- Uncle Jed’s Barber Shop, by Margaree King Mitchell and James E. Ransome
- Yoko (Yoko Series), Rosemary Wells
- Zen Shorts (Zen Series), by Jon J. Muth
- 10,000 Dresses, by Rex Ray and Marcus Ewert
- 14 Cows for America, by Carmen Agra Deedy, Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah and Thomas Gonzalez
(Full list here).These 176 Books Were Banned in Duval County, Florida - PEN America
I suspect that those who decided to ban these books have no more information about them than the titles and the fact that they were listed in the Essential Voices Collection for elementary students aimed at highlighting the diversity in our population.
In Chik Chak Shabbat, there is a woman named Goldie Simcha who is famous for her Sabbath meal called cholent stew. When her diverse group of neighbors find out she can't make the meal on the Sabbath because she is ill, they all chip in with different types of help. The book is about Jewish tradition and neighbors helping each other. It's a great story for second graders, but apparently not in Duval County.
A second book called Fry Bread, A Native American Family Story also centers around food. Young Seminole children bring ingredients for Fry Bread to their aunt who holds the family recipe that has been used to bring the tribe and family together for generations. But apparently, references to the tragic history of Native Americans are too much for the folks in Duval County.
If you check the books above, you will see they all involve either ethnic minorities or gender orientation.
Of note: any book that shows up on a shelf in a school library anywhere in the country has been reviewed by a group of librarians trained on what to look for on age appropriateness.
What we need in American schools are students who read MORE books, not students who are discouraged from reading books.
If you are the parent your job is not to run to the school board over a book that your child may or may not have access to. Your job is to find out what they are actually reading and then have an informed conversation with them about the content of that book.
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
Running for president is not easy. Saying dumb things early in the race can kill your chances before you even start. Joe Biden learned that the hard way the first time he ran for the White House way back in 1988. Several gaffes early on eliminated him before things really got going.
Now it's Florida Governor and GOP presidential Candidate Ron DeSantis' turn to find out the hard way. His formal announcement on Twitter was a technical disaster, though one could easily pass that off as a blunder by Twitter owner Elon Musk who takes most of the blame.
DeSantis has said many dumb things about Disney Corp, CRT and lots of other issues, but it's a comment about his wife this week that looks really bad.
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| (The DeSantis Family) |
"If she were a Democrat, she'd be on every fashion magazine, they would be making the biggest deal, but because she is conservative, we know that that's not going to happen."
He wants to be president and all he can say about his very accomplished wife is that she should be in a fashion magazine. He just doesn't get it.
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