Tag: propaganda

Doctors Who Fight the Extremists in Medical Practice

 

If you read Dr. Bastiat’s most recent post describing the bizarre symposium on transgender education, you might have found yourself shaking your head in disbelief at such an outrageous agenda. That an elite medical school like Emory is presenting such curricula is unimaginable. But they are. It’s tempting to think that the entire medical community has drunk the Kool-Aid (except for the doctors among us at Ricochet).

Latest DeSantis Attack on the Woke Agenda

 

When our kids and their education are at stake, Gov. Ron DeSantis is ruthless in going after the Woke agenda. And he’s upset a lot of people who are accustomed to having their way when it comes to the education curriculum and propaganda taught to children.

The latest kerfuffle has been that the Florida Department of Education has rejected 35% of the social studies textbooks submitted by publishers:

Quote of the Day: Propaganda

 

Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

As the rhetoric around elections has become more hyperbolic and offensive, I realized the information that is being tossed back and forth reminded me of Hannah Arendt’s work. Her definition of propaganda is precisely appropriate for our time: there is a contempt for facts, and the more powerful a person is, the more adept he will be at convincing others of his lies.

Is Our Country ‘Choosing to be Slaves in Egypt?’

 

Once again, I was blessed to spend Passover with the @iwe family this past week. And as always, I loved the experience. Of course, key to our celebration was embracing the Exodus from Egypt as if we had made the journey with the Jews when they escaped Pharaoh’s tyranny. As I contemplated the gift of freedom, I realized that we are struggling with the issues of freedom and enslavement in our own time.

Only instead of reveling in our joy of living in a land of freedom and opportunity, we are going backward.

We are returning to the bonds of our past.

Silent No More

 

If you were beaten and bullied as a child, if you lived for nine years in constant fear of being tortured or killed, if you and your family fled your home, losing everything, and were forced to live in a tent, would you call yourself ‘lucky’?

I used to be somewhat ambivalent about the “celebration” of Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27; in one sense, I felt it was important to remind the world that six million Jews and six million other folks were killed by the Nazis and their enablers. The phrase, “Never Forget” is embedded in my psyche. On the other hand, I wonder if this particular memorial day serves as a devastating reminder to many people—survivors and their families–who want to forget that horrific time. And ironically, I also wonder if it is an irritant to those people who experience resentment or even hatred toward the Jews, exacerbating their negative perspective.

Still, Abraham Pizam is the man described at the beginning of this post by a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel. Today he is the founding dean of UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. He survived the Holocaust and gave a presentation at the January 27 event about his own experience. It was the first time he had spoken publicly about the Holocaust. Here’s a report on part of what he shared:

Quote of the Day: Waging War on our Schools

 

“If the state-operated schools are now waging war on the nation’s moral, historical, philosophical, and religious foundations, then they would seem to have forfeited their legitimacy as the proper vehicle to carry out the mission with which the American People have charged them.”  — Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr

At first glance, we might not be willing to blame the state school administrators and unions for hijacking our schools so drastically and at so many levels. But, in fact, they have armed themselves with Leftist rhetoric, distortions of history, substituted an American philosophy with a racist ideology and regularly denigrated and undermined religion in multiple ways.

We tend to focus on the latest hot topic of school abuse: at the moment, Critical Race Theory is at the forefront. For many years this topic was taught without the parents or general public even knowing what children were being taught. Then some parents learned what was happening, most recently in Loudoun County in Virginia, and began protesting the brainwashing of their children with this propaganda. At first, the Left tried to explain what they were “actually” teaching; their explanations only inflamed parents. Then they denied they were teaching what parents insisted they were teaching. Now, they are trying to make believe that there’s nothing untoward going on; they are silent as protests continue. But their silence only validates their anti-American intentions.

Saving our Children

 

The resolve of the Woke community to propagandize and control our children has continued to steamroller ahead, especially in the area of transgenderism. The Left is targeting them on multiple levels and in numerous venues, and we seem to be helpless to stop them. A recent article reminded me that since the Left is so determined to “follow the science,” science is one area to focus on to make sure that our children’s wellbeing is not permanently destroyed. I’ve also identified other steps we can take to at least slow down the transgender movement; at this moment, it seems like an out-of-control speeding train. But if we want to have a generation that can carry on a future that is moral and productive and to protect this country we cherish, we must act. Now.

Medical Facts

Member Post

 

There’s a propaganda war on. It’s mostly (yes, mostly) one-sided. At Ricochet we’ve been over and over the Russia Collusion Hoax, one of the most outrageous, brazen, and destructive examples. Another example is George Floyd. This was hyped, exaggerated, and lied about immediately which led to unrest, destruction, and deaths. This despite the fact that […]

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Did You Know There’s a Propaganda War Going On?

 

Hearing so many in right-world harrumph in unison about the new propaganda war is heartening. I guess. From Jim Eagle laws in Georgia to pay-for-play in Florida to nothing-to-see-here in NY nursing homes, it’s clear that many on the right have decided that it’s time to think about getting out of bed to clean house a bit.

You see, the media has just started a 24/7 propaganda campaign acting as an arm of the progressive political movement. That’s right, this new development is suddenly more dangerous than the baseline of regular old bias we’ve been familiar with for so many decades. Because now a decidedly ordinary and non-racist voter reform law is being vilified unfairly to the tune of 30-some percent disapproval (more than enough, apparently to get major corporations to declare their fealty publicly and with their bottom lines on the line).

Fighting for “Consensual Reality”

 

Now there’s talk of de-platforming conservative cable news programs. Is anyone surprised? Former Facebook executive Alex Stamos spoke on CNN on Sunday, and is “fighting for the people” in protesting the right-wing programs:

And then we have to figure out the OANN and Newsmax problem that these companies have freedom of speech, but I’m not sure we need Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and such to be bringing them into tens of millions of homes. This is allowing people to seek out information if they really want to, but not pushing it into their faces I think is really where we’re going to have to go here.

I’m sorry to share a quotation that is slightly incoherent, but I think the gist of his comment is that he wants to respect freedom of speech, except he doesn’t. And he appears to want people to find information they are interested in, except that companies like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast shouldn’t be providing it.

Member Post

 

This SF novel from 1954 has uncomfortable relevance to our present era. It is set in the then-future year of 1990.  The United States is still nominally a democracy, but the real power lies with the social engineers…sophisticated advertising & PR men…who use psychological methods to persuade people that they really want what they are supposed […]

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Trapped in Fear

 

As I write this essay, I don’t even know if I’m going to post it. I only know my heart is aching and I can’t make the pain go away. It’s one thing to know that Americans are suffering due to their fear of Covid-19 and the propaganda that has been promoted throughout this country; it’s another to see a friend suffering from a fear that she is unwilling or unable to overcome.

I have known this woman for more than ten years. She is a Leftie. We learned a long time ago that there is no point in discussing politics. She is smart and sweet and is a down-to-earth person in so many ways. She developed a wonderful program to help children learn to read by bringing dogs into the learning process. And she’s been a good friend.

Member Post

 

Over recent years, I’ve notice that much political communication…ranging from formal statements by politicians down to off-the-cuff social media posts by individuals..has come to consist mostly of insulting one’s opponents. While there has always been a considerable amount of this, political insult has now become so prevalent as to drive out more rational forms of […]

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One Strategy for Saving our Country: Save our Schools

 

We have been debating private schools versus public schools in this country for years. Finally, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation shortly after he was elected called the Florida Empowerment Scholarship program. Even better, he offered up a new program that expands the original program, making vouchers available to 29,000 more students above the 18,000 offered last year. Perhaps the best part of this law is that although private and charter schools have to meet basic criteria for curriculum, the state and local school districts do not have the authority to oversee or control the curriculum or academic programs of private schools or home instruction programs.

Maybe we will begin to take back the curriculum of our schools.*

Before I delve into the curriculum question, let me address the resistance against establishing private and charter schools, in no particular order:

Member Post

 

A group of oncologists estimate that 60,000 people in the UK will die of cancer because they were unable to get adequate treatment due to COVID-19 restrictions. I am torn about what to think about this estimate. Why should one trust the prognostications of a group of oncologists any more than one trusts the prognostications […]

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Black Lives Matter Goes Mainstream?

 

Last week, Julie Pace of the Associated Press was on Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baer. She made a statement that stopped me in my tracks. (I seem to be doing a lot of that lately.) She said, “Black Lives Matter has gone mainstream.”

I asked myself what she could possibly have meant, and when I did a little research, I realized the insidious nature of her comment, and how we are in the process of making Black Lives Matter a mainstream movement.