In “The Gulag Archipelago,” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn describes the bizarre spectacle of party members clapping in “tribute to Comrade Stalin.” The applause carried on for seven minutes, nine minutes, eleven minutes. “Palms were getting sore and raised arms were already aching. And the older people were panting from exhaustion. It was becoming insufferably silly,” Solzhenitsyn writes. “However, who would dare be the first to stop?” Decades later, in “Koba the Dread,” Martin Amis speculated that the unhinged applause for Stalin must have sounded like “the music of psychosis.” Tuesday night, as Putin acolyte Donald Trump spoke for an hour and 40 minutes, members of the legislative branch he’s made irrelevant clapped and clapped. The question arises again: Who will dare be the first to stop? The president’s speech was, predictably, a tangled skein of fibs and whoppers. Social Security is not supporting 10 million people over the age of 119. Trump did not inherit a nation experiencing “an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare.” Nor did he win “the popular vote by big numbers.” (Fact-checking 26 suspect claims in Trump’s address to Congress.) Trump recently decreed that English is America’s official language, but deceit has become its authorized vernacular. (The new strategy to promote Trump as ‘KING.’) Legacy media organizations — what’s left of them — invest considerable effort and money in tracking errors and deceptions promulgated by major political figures. But we already know the 21st century will be a field well fertilized with bull. Social media companies like Facebook, Instagram and Elon Musk’s X — the platform formerly known as useful — have effectively drained journalism’s business model and lured away the audience with a rich diet of bigotry, frivolity and grift. There are plenty of recent books — e.g. by Steven Brill, Sander van der Linden, Sasha Issenberg and Barbara McQuade — that aim to inoculate adults against misinformation. But, as you may have heard, inoculations are going out of style in Washington. And frankly, I’m more concerned about the kids. As the Earth heats up, novel viruses spread, and the U.S. government abandons democratic allies in favor of despots, we need a new generation that’s more news savvy than we are. That starts with getting reliable information into homes so kids regularly see what real journalism looks and sounds like. High schools need to teach journalism, districts need to fund student newspapers, and principals need to keep their controversy-averse paws off these practice presses. But it’s never too early to start helping children discern the difference between truth and lies, information and propaganda. Here are a few books to check out: - “Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots,” a picture book by Michael Rex, teaches children the difference between statements that are true, statements that are false, and statements that are opinions (ages 5-8).
- “Killer Underwear Invasion!: How to Spot Fake News, Disinformation & Conspiracy Theories,” by Elise Gravel, is an irresistible graphic novel for kids (ages 7-11).
- “Can You Believe It?,” written by Joyce Grant and illustrated by Kathleen Marcotte, helps children understand how readers should approach what they see online (ages 9-12).
- “True or False?: The Science of Perception, Misinformation, and Disinformation,” by retired clinical psychologist Jacqueline Toner, presents engaging, real-world explanations of the way our minds interpret information and cling to suggestions (ages 10-14).
- “True or False,” by former CIA analyst Cindy Otis, offers teens a “guide to spotting fake news.” Writing in The Washington Post, Christina Hillsberg said, “Though billed for young adults, this is a book that every adult should read.”
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The latest from our Automotive Industry Reporter, Phil R. Upp
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SELF HELP DEPARTMENT (must read to earn course credit)
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Entertainment/Style/Living/Dying Section: a tip from an anonymous & prominent north american non subscriber: if you can get Apple TV, definitely check out Shrinking our media reviewer, paulinovich kale, gives it high marks its in nice bite-sized 1/2 hour episodes and builds slowly to sparkling writing, sentiment, pathos, & LOL hysterically funny give it 6 episodes and you'll surely be addicted two seasons and a third is on the way
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