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HAF Book Club: Reality Check discussion

Started by Sandra Craft, March 14, 2018, 01:32:32 AM

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Sandra Craft

Just got my copy in today, but know there's bound to be at least one person already finished.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Davin

This one is another case of agreeing already with almost everything. I felt like I read the same paragraph in about every chapter talking about how reality matters. The author did provide many examples about why reality matters and how not following it can lead to... well where we are right now in the US.

This is not a simple problem to solve, it requires many different approaches from education to removing the public platform from liars.

Betsy Devos is ruining education, because people without the tools for critical thinking and learning, people are easier to fool.

The FCC is being sued for possibly returning a favor to the Sinclair broadcasting group. The deal, that Sinclair would show more positive reports about Trump and in return the FCC will remove some road blocks from a merger that Sinclair wants. Sinclair did show positive reports on Trump and the FCC did remove merger rules.

News has been getting less and less focused on reporting facts and more and more about getting ratings.

If we could start working on those things, education, a single broadcasting company that has most of the US as an audience, and news stations that freely and openly report false information as if it were news, then we could go a long way to making things better.

Of course, the economic disparity from the other book we read should also be worked on.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

Sandra Craft

I'm about half-way thu (really going to try to finish on time for once) and enjoying it, it's been very stimulating for my blood pressure.  Which is to say that, yes, I've been having the confirmation bias problem again too, tho this time it seems a bit worse since the main thing I think is being confirmed is that people are stupid largely because they like being stupid.  That's the sort of thing I'd like to be shown wrong about.

There were two bits I wanted to quote because I really got a kick out of reading them:

Quote. . . Project Steve, a list of scientists who accept evolution with the names Steve, Stephen, Stephanie, or a related name.  There are almost 12,000 members of Project Steve  as of this writing -- more than twice the number of  scientists that the creationists claim on their side.

For some reason I want to search that list for Étiennes.

Quote"Some workers are even documenting pairs of species  -- symbiotic insects and plants -- that have recently found each other , and observing the pairs as they drift off into their own world together like lovers in a novel by D. H. Lawrence."

That bit was quoted by Prothero from something written by Jonathan Weiner, and is one of the loveliest word pictures I've ever read.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany