Tag: Misinformation

The Danger of Bullshit: Revisiting Harry Frankfurt’s Classic Essay

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat) 
‘The liar is inescapably concerned with truth-values. In order to invent a lie at all, he must think he knows what is true.’ (p. 51)

The Danger of Bullshit: Revisiting Harry Frankfurt’s Classic Essay

Harry Frankfurt argues that bullshit is more dangerous than lying. At first sight, this seems counter-intuitive. Surely lying is worse than bullshitting? Liars are intentionally and deliberately trying to deceive us. Normally, doing something bad (e.g. deceiving someone) intentionally makes the action worse than if it is done unintentionally, for example accidentally or absentmindedly. If this is the case, how can bullshit be worse than lying?

The reason Frankfurt gives is that, whereas liars at least pay some respect to the difference between what is true and what isn’t, bullshitters completely disregard it. They simply don’t care about the difference. This, Frankfurt argues, means that compulsive bullshitters become progressively less able to tell the truth than compulsive liars. Liars and truth tellers are playing on opposite sides of the same game. Bullshitters are playing a different game entirely where the rules of truth don’t matter. This lack of concern, Frankfurt argues, is more corrosive of one’s ability to distinguish the truth than deliberately obscuring the truth. Once one gets into the habit of bullshitting, it is difficult to get out of it.

Related:

On Bullshit Booklet (PDF)Download

PH gov’t encourages youth participation in SCS campaign

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Surprisingly, I didn’t see Powell there. /s

Source

PH gov’t encourages youth participation in WPS sovereignty campaign (Translation by Google Translate)

The Philippine government anchors transparency* efforts in its vision to make the West Philippine Sea (WPS) an “intergenerational concern.”

Commodore Jay Tristan Tarriela of the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) said that the main objective of the government’s efforts is to ensure that the fight for the WPS will be continued by future generations.

Tarriela joined the third episode of the PN Conversations organized by Palawan News on September 13.

“The national government’s responsibility now for the younger generation is for us to hold the line so that the next generation of Filipinos can still be able to fight for our rights in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.

The transparency effort implemented under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., is part of the government’s obligation to provide the right information to Filipinos, he added.

Tarriela believes that the right information will also awaken Filipinos’ sense of patriotism, particularly among the youth.

The government’s transparency could also raise awareness among the international community about the situation in the WPS.

The limited information given during the previous administration under former president Rodrigo Duterte made it easy for China to spread disinformation, Tarriela said. In contrast, the current administration supported the concept of having “many voices with one message.”

“We recognize that our fight in the West Philippine Sea cannot be met by us alone,” he said.

National Youth Commission (NYC) Commissioner-at-Large Karl Josef Legazpi, a Palaweño himself, shares the view on the need to emphasize that the future of younger generations is at stake in the fight for sovereignty.

“But the waters that belong to us are gradually being taken from us—we want to convey to you what is happening. Our future is at stake,” he said.

NTF-WPS is actively working with various partner agencies, including the state information arm, Philippine Information Agency** (PIA). Director General Jose Torres, Jr.***, also joined Tarriela in the forum, believing in the role of the youth in the fight over the WPS.

Torres emphasized that the youth’s use of technology plays a significant role in fighting misinformation and disinformation about WPS.

“The young people play a great role and challenge when it comes to the West Philippine Sea. As young people, we need to stand up for our country and truth,” he said.

The PN Conversations is a Palawan News initiative that provides a platform for in-depth discussions on pressing issues faced by the community, such as WPS.

Notes on page 2:

As predicted: violence by the far-right Venezuelan opposition breaks out across Caracas

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Sources; Venezuela/Iraq

The day after the Venezuelan people voted in their presidential elections, a number of seemingly coordinated protests broke out across Caracas

Venezuela’s far-right refuses to recognize electoral results, violent protests break out across Caracas

Related:

President Nicolás Maduro Denounces Violent Acts Perpetrated by the Far Right in Venezuela

He also said that they know the “operandis mode” with which the right acts, recalling that it is the one “has been used for the April 2002 coup d’état, for the first guarimba of 2004, for the actions of Capriles after the elections and for the guarimbas of 2014”.

Guarimba is a ‘protest method’ devised by Venezuelan opposition member, Robert Alonso (who collaborated with the CIA to train terrorists). It was ‘inspired’ by Gene Sharp’s book, From Dictatorship to Democracy (see my ‘front organizations’ page for more on Sharp).

2014 Venezuelan ‘protests’:

Source

Previously:

Read More »

The Washington Post already called the Venezuelan election at 5 a.m. EDT

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

July 28, 2024 at 5:08 a.m. EDT

Updated July 28, 2024 at 7:38 p.m. EDT|Published July 28, 2024 at 5:08 a.m. EDT

Edison Research/Edison Research Team*

National Election Pool:

NEP has relied on the Associated Press to perform vote tabulations and has contracted with Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International to “make projections and provide exit poll analysis.” 

…

The US has funded exit polls abroad because, state dept. officials testified, it is one of the few ways to expose and ascertain the extent of large-scale fraud. Indeed, discrepancies between exit polls and the official results have been used to successfully overturn election results in Serbia, Peru, the Republic of Georgia and, in November 2004, Ukraine [Orange Revolution].

The US government funds election observers and exit polls for regime change

US gov’t-linked firm is source of exit poll claiming Venezuelan opposition won election

Related (election observers, etc.):

Read More »

LGBTQ community sounds alarm bells over Vance

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

LGBTQ community sounds alarm bells over Vance

In addition to a history of anti-LGBTQ statements, the Ohio Republican is the primary sponsor of at least two pieces of federal legislation threatening to sharply roll back transgender rights, including one proposal that aims to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors nationwide. 

That bill, the Senate version of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) Protect Children’s Innocence Act, would charge health care providers who violate it with a Class C felony, punishable by more than a decade in prison. It would also prevent institutions of higher education from providing instruction about gender-affirming care and cut funding for health plans that cover treatment.

Related:

Cis boys get gender-affirming surgeries more often than trans minors

Transgender kids rarely get gender-affirming surgeries — in fact, cisgender children are much more likely to get them, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Neoreactionaries

The FDA Just Quietly Gutted Protections for Human Subjects in Research

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Late last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly introduced a regulation that may be one of the most important shifts in how non-profit and for-profit U.S. institutions, both at home and abroad, conduct future medical and public health research. It represents an erosion of personal medical choice and threatens to undermine the public’s trust in scientific investigations in biomedicine.

The FDA Just Quietly Gutted Protections for Human Subjects in Research

CIA Front, East-West Center honors PH STAR editor-in-chief

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)2 Comments

East-West Center honors STAR editor-in-chief

MANILA, Philippines — The East-West Center in Hawaii has chosen The Philippine Star editor-in-chief Ana Marie Pamintuan as one of this year’s Journalists of Courage and Impact.

In conferring the award, the East-West Center said Pamintuan and the six other honorees from across Asia, the Pacific and the United States “have displayed exceptional commitment to quality reporting and freedom of the press often under harrowing circumstances.”

Also receiving the award on Monday night were Sincha Dimara, news editor, Inside PNG in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Tom Grundy, founder and editor-in-chief, the Hong Kong Free Press (Hong Kong); Alan C. Miller, founder of the Washington-based News Literacy Project; Soe Myint, editor-in-chief and managing director of Mizzima (Chiang Mai, Thailand); John Nery, columnist and editorial consultant of Rappler and Kamal Siddiqi, former news director of Aaj News (Karachi, Pakistan).

Related:

WikiSpooks:

The East–West Center (EWC), or the Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960, officially to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. It is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The center had long been affiliated with CIA activities in the Asia-Pacific region. Barack Obama’s mother Ann Dunham worked on behalf of a number of CIA front operations, including the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii.

Front Organizations