The Short-Circuiting of the American Mind (Part 3: The OCDN Doom Loop)
“Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening” – Donald Trump If we accept the premise that American society has intentionally damaged its ability to make decisions, we can return to John Boyd’s OODA framework to see exactly how various political, cultural, and technological forces …
Lexi-Conflict: Harris vs Pence
Another fun debate! Since I already had the methodology in place from my evaluation of the Trump v Biden debates, it seemed like a logical step to tackle the vice-presidential debate as well. The same basics apply here: transcript from the The Rev and the text inspector tool from the …
Lexi-Conflict: Trump vs Biden
The political circus surrounding the U.S. election has already moved on to something more interesting but I wanted to take a look at last week’s presidential debates from a lexicological standpoint. Full disclosure: I didn’t actually watch the entire debate in real time because I value my sanity. However, I …
The Short-Circuiting of the American Mind (Part 2: Generation Q)
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” – Thomas Jefferson In many ways, the current circumstances in the U.S. mirror those of the old Soviet Union. Political leadership is stale and ineffective, public trust …
The Short-Circuiting of the American Mind (Part 1: The Propaganda Trap)
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid.” – Valery Legasov ( From the HBO serial “Chernobyl”) The collapse of Soviet Union in 1991 is usually attributed to a combination of factors, including the war in Afghanistan, Chernobyl, civic unrest, low …
Data Points: January 2019
A roundup of random thoughts on data, information and design for the New Year. Diversity in the 116th U.S. Congress There has been a lot of discussion this week about the racial, ethnic and gender makeup of the incoming class of congress, including celebrations of firsts on the Democratic side …
Donald Trump and the Truth Bubble
“Wherever the people are well-informed they can be trusted with their own government.” — Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, 1789 Thomas Jefferson’s support of a free press and education for the common people — including entry to the highest levels of instruction (i.e. a college or university) — was based …