In his book, 'The Well-Tuned Brain: The Remedy For a Manic Society', author Peter Whybrow makes a cogent case for why we all need special brain conditioning, training. Especially surviving psychologically (if not physically) in the manic society that is Trump's America, besotted as it is on fake news and Trump's psychotic barking day and night, not to mention his blizzard of daily lies.
In general, according to the authors (Gary Marcius and Annie Duke) of a recent WSJ piece ('The Problem With Believing What We're Told', Sept. 1, p. C5) it is possible to determine if something is true or false if it fits into our own experience. One may also "take note of the credibility of the source and be prepared to reconsider if new information emerges".
Adding:
"In reality we are too often to busy and distracted to be that careful and in those cases, tend to assume that whatever we hear is true".
Of course, living in the current shitstorm that is Trump's America or "Trumpland" as I call it, that can be a most treacherous approach. One need only take as the most recent example, Trump's deranged presentation of what appears to be an official NOAA map of Hurricane Dorian's projected track, but which in fact features a confabulation by Trump: showing an outer ring (marked by a Sharpie) into Alabama. The impression created was that Alabama was also at risk for a possible strike, though this was quickly batted down by the National Hurricane Center. Let's hope most Americans had the sense to dismiss Trump's efforts at being a hurricane forecaster especially as he'd earlier claimed he "never heard of a category five storm". (This despite the fact four of those have occurred during his wretched, misbegotten reign.
For reference, Trump's bullshit map (including an official logo on it) is shown below:
If you look closely to the left side, you can see the fake Sharpie black circle which just covers the SE corner of Alabama. Isn't there a law that makes issuing fake hurricane warnings a felony? Ah yes:
18 USC 2074: - FALSE WEATHER REPORTS
"Whoever knowingly issues or publishes a counterfeit weather report or warning of weather conditions falsely representing such forecast....shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ninety days or both."
But of course Trump - as the illegitimate occupant of the White House - is able to claim "executive privilege". But that doesn't mean we have to believe anything he says or does. As I noted before, if he said a war with North Korea (or Iran) was set to begin - I'd believe aliens landed on the WH lawn before that codswallop.
As noted by Bloomberg News:
"During a briefing on the storm’s threat to the U.S. East Coast, the president held up an Aug. 29 map from the National Weather Service showing initial projections of Dorian’s track into Florida. But the map had been changed -- by the president -- with a black line that extended the storm’s path beyond Florida and into southern Alabama, according to people familiar with the matter."
The story goes on to note:
"Trump repeatedly claimed on Sunday that Alabama was in Dorian’s path -- he tweeted it, repeated it at the White House, and said it again during a visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But by then, the storm’s track had turned decidedly north and east.
The National Weather Service’s Birmingham office said in a tweet on Sunday that “no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama.” Trump nonetheless said his warning had been accurate."
Indeed, the belligerent traitor buffoon and terminal liar actually had the chutzpah to tweet:
And is still pushing back against the actual facts and reconstructing what he did as more elaborate lies. Why make a "big deal" out of it? As AP reporter Jonathan Lemire put it in a 'Morning Joe' appearance Tuesday:
"His words do matter. He is the president of the United States. Anything he says or tweets can move markets…. And in this case, even after being told he was incorrect, he wouldn’t back down from it.”
Given that for millions in the southeast U.S. there is an ongoing emergency situation with the hurricane and this dingbat is expelling total, misleading (i.e. FALSE) information, people need to take note and yeah - make a big deal out of it! We ought to also be punching back as he refuses to acknowledge responsibility for his shameless lies. Bloomberg, ibid.:
"Later Wednesday, Trump again defended his claim that projections had Alabama in the hurricane’s path. In a tweet, he posted a map with what appeared to be many possible tracks for the storm. Some of them stretched into Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, and one even was headed for Mexico."
Related to the preceding is the finding by an MIT team (WSJ, ibid.) - which compared the spread of fake news and real news on Twitter in a 2018 study (published in Science) - that "fake news stories were 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than real news stories," Oh, and "real news took about six times as long to reach a bench mark audience of 1,500 as fake news did,"
This means there's a good chance that Trump's fake "official" map and misleading hurricane path was believed by more people who saw his tweet than the actual news accounts. This is plausible given, as the authors note:
"Savvy propagandists have long exploited the tendency of the human brain to take shortcuts. Social networks make it far easier because they feed on a further human vulnerability: our need for approval, affection and positive feedback".
In other words, rather than be the rational "dud" who tosses the turd into the punch bowl of a Twitter storm fantasy, too many - needing approval - just retweet the insanity like robots. They thereby become part of the problem in spreading fake news instead of the solution. The authors again (ibid.)
"Combine human cognitive weakness with social networks and you have a recipe for chaos."
But it need not be so, IF citizens possess the necessary critical thinking skills which causes them to carefully examine claims - including those made recklessly by our lying leader - who everyday appears to be unraveling before our eyes (even more than before)
Thus we learn (ibid.) of a study published last November in the journal SSRN by Patricia Moravec of Indiana University e.g.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3271057
Which just asked participants to rate the truthfulness of assorted headlines. All it took was this tiny bit of critical reflection to provide their brains with a more sober, objective orientation which could also extend to other articles the subjects hadn't yet rated. Again, it is the intervention which requires self-reflection as opposed to simply retweeting without thought. The WSJ piece also notes that just asking kids to justify why they believe a claim can put their brains into a self-reflective pause and equip them to be more critical in assessing tweets and texts from friends.
As intelligent humans (most of us) there is the underlying assumption that we are confident of our brains to sort the world out, analyze most of its problems as well as deal with assorted conundrums that appear each day: from work dilemmas, to financial decisions. The truth is that the human brain, given its evolutionary underpinning, falls too far short of even optimal rational function most of the time. It is especially too ancient to deal with the flood of information in the current milieu which begs for brain training. Thus the need for books such as 'The Well-Tuned Brain: The Remedy For a Manic Society' to sustain a level of sanity in a society befouled by lies and manic, incessant tweets from its purported leader.
Our brains, indeed, desperately need a total neural "laxative" to expel all Trump's detritus accumulated over the past 2 1/2 years. That, alas, will have to wait until we get this orange fungal infection out of office. In the meantime we need to develop our critical thinking skills to the maximum so we're not snookered by either Trump or his numerous toadies and fellow liars, including Pence, Larry Kudlow, Stephen Miller and the other assorted congenital assholes and derelicts in his clown car.
See also:
And:
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