It is right there in our blog title: Connect! Unite! Act!
And it is of planetary importance that the Democratic Party remain united up to and beyond the November midterm elections. I believe there’s an excellent chance we will do so, in part because Trump and his GOP enablers are so glaringly horrendous and dangerous. Anybody, virtually anywhere on the progressive spectrum (and even many conservatives) can see that failure by Democrats to retake at least the House of Representatives might literally result in the death of the country as we know it.
Right now, we should be extra-careful not to get lured into stories designed to divide us on the Internet. I’m talking about “news” disseminated online by “social media manipulation services” — see Cambridge Analytica, Russia’s Internet Research Agency, and most recently, Joel Zamel’s Psy-Group and Wikistrat. Oh, and let’s not forget Emerdata (likely the reconfigured Cambridge Analytica).
Many of these manipulation efforts start in the form of what I would call ‘anecdotal’ news stories. By anecdotal, I mean something shocking happening to a single random person somewhere, things like:
Guy in Confederate Flag T-shirt helps change tire for Black family
or
NYC lawyer screams racist slurs at people speaking Spanish in Restaurant
or
Kent State woman brings semi-automatic assault rifle to her graduation ceremony
Those are actual, recent headlines I can remember just off the top of my head. They almost always have a hot-button issue component to them — racism, anti-immigration, anti-gay, gun control, etc. I’m not saying they’re always fake news, but please consider that the story might be maliciously engineered to fire neurons in your lizard brain.
I would recommend focusing only on stories that come from reputable news organizations, not anecdotal outrages that erupt on Facebook and Twitter.
The People,
United,
Will Never be Defeated!
What do you want to talk about today?
RSVPS
1. bleeding blue, organizer (kosmail him to connect)
2. rb137
3. Tbone Apollo
4. ptressel
5. SninkyPoo
6. FlamingoGrrl
7. Gemina13
8.
MAYBEES :
Kitsap River and Charles
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RSVPS
1. ChrisLove, organizer (kosmail him to connect)
2. Smoh (meet-up in honor of...)
3. htowngenie
4. Mary
5. Alan
6.
MAYBEES :
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Netroots Nation 2018