The Sanity Project

Authoritarianism and the control of names

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged language Trump usage on by

Authoritarian regimes control language as a way to control thought. And let’s face it, the United States is well on its way to becoming an authoritarian regime. Congress is asleep. It’s not clear how much the courts can do in the long run. Trump has made it clear that he can rename things at a whim and punish those who don’t use the names he chooses.

He issued a decree that the Gulf of Mexico shall henceforth be called the Gulf of America. The USGS updated its data accordingly, and the change quickly flowed into Google Maps, DuckDuckGo, and other online information sources. More significantly, Trump has banished Associated Press from the Oval Office for not falling into line. AP has said, “As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences,” so it continues to use “Gulf of Mexico” as the primary name.
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Censoring networks by intimidation 1

This entry was posted in Censorship Commentary and tagged censorship Trump on by

Hardly a day goes by that Donald Trump doesn’t commit an impeachable offense. Among them is his attempt to intimidate broadcast networks into making their coverage of him more favorable and his opponents less favorable. He has filed a nonsense lawsuit against CBS, claiming that editing a Kamala Harris interview in a way he didn’t like constituted election interference. All the analysis I’ve read says the suit doesn’t stand a chance on its merits, but the government has the power to approve or block a merger CBS is seeking, and the implied threat to disallow it has CBS ready to fold. The FCC, under Trump appointee Brendan Carr, is also applying pressure. NPR says “CBS’ parent company appears to be inching toward capitulation, as its controlling owner wants to drag CBS out of the headlines and wrap up a corporate sale.”
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Video vs. text

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged literacy SanityProject video on by

At their best, videos are a great source of information. They let you see events and look at the faces of people advancing their aims. But when it comes to analyzing and evaluating an issue, they’re a poor substitute for text. With the decline in reading by Americans, this is a serious concern.

The shift from large screens and paper materials to phones helps to explain the popularity of videos. It’s hard to read text on a pocket-sized screen. People often listen to videos more than they watch them. Or they half-listen while doing other things. This isn’t good for developing informed opinions.
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Rewriting the news in place

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged fake news journalism on by

This weekend I was informed of a truly outrageous statement by Karoline Leavitt. At least it would have been truly outrageous if it were true, but it now looks like fake news. A response I got on Bluesky pointed at an article on the news aggregator Newsbreak, with the headline “Karoline Leavitt shocks as she tells press ‘Jesus didn’t have electricity either’.” This seemed outrageous even for the Trump team; it wouldn’t fit their line to admit that tariffs could result in privations. I checked for confirmation and found an MSN article with the same claim. This made me think it was reliable. I was wrong.
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