trying to make sense of it all

[mellowtigger]

During the last week, I have completely ruined my online tracking data. I couldn't even guess what data algorithms now conclude about me from my behavior. I've watched video material from the far right and left, trying to make some sense of what's going on during these turbulent times. I've searched text that is problematic.

Most of what's out there is awful, low-data, conspiracy-related, emotionally-manipulative triviality. There are a few rare nuggets of appreciated perspectives, from sources that I never would have visited, absent our current point in history. In that vein, I wanted to record a handful of things that I was glad I watched, despite how uncomfortable some of it is. There was:

• insightful observation from a professional USA-trained sniper (1 (contains some blood in still-frame images) and 2 (follow-up with some corrections)),
• moving comments from black pastors (1 and 2), and one of those videos includes a pastor saying they were called by the federal government to ask what they would say during their first sermon after the shooting,
• which connects too obviously to the disturbing warnings about coordination and manipulation that this historian explains happened with churches and other institutions in the past,
• potential manipulation on the ABC news network of judicial video covering the accused assassin (watch 5 minutes starting here),
• very powerful words from a black woman, Joy Reid, offered here by an old white guy, which is important because sometimes words from an ally can pierce mental resistance against issues presented by whichever minority uses the same words, and
• uplifting encouragement here from a journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

I'm sure that I've never heard the phrase "spicy whites" before, but I think I kind of like it. I wouldn't have heard it during the last week either, except that I was deliberately exploring outside my usual territory and arrived someplace new where I heard Joy Reid speaking.

Part of the danger of my most recent adventure is that I would get suckered by false information... and I was. I found a particular YouTube video very moving and politically significant. While I was writing this post, I tried to source the supposed speech quotations. I eventually realized that the whole thing was fictional. No such speech. Inspiration crushed with the false attribution. I dislike this modern age of digital falsehoods.

Comments

[rebeccmeister]

I dislike this modern age of digital falsehoods.

I agree with you. It shatters trust and right now it is unclear what needs to happen to reestablish any sort of trust.

[mellowtigger]

And, even worse, I maybe did it again. ARGH! Hank Green, whom I originally saw on SciShow long ago, posted this video arguing that new UFO missile hit discussed in Congressional testimony was really just a weather balloon that got torn by the hellfire missile. It's just drifting along at wind speed, before and after impact, which is why the pieces don't drift significantly apart. It still leaves questions in my mind, but it's obviously an undramatic possibility as an explanation.