House Republicans seem to be attacking anything that disrupts their propaganda:
House Republicans launch investigation into news rating group NewsGuard
They are and have become the living embodiment of the Skinner “No they must be wrong “ meme
They are the living embodiment of fascism.
NEW fascism. Identical to the old fascism!
NEW fascism Now in orange flavor!
That these institutions, especially Columbia who is renowned for their journalism program, caved to pressure is as sad as it is pathetic.
I think you underestimate the damage Congress can cause if they want to. I want them to stand up as well but getting mad at academic institutions for not fighting the federal government is forgetting who the perpetrator is and putting the onus on the wrong party.
I find that excuse defeatist. If a wealthy, affluent, historical institution doesn’t stand up and prevent another institution from abusing power who can? It’s not like the media who were slowly neutered by their owners. They can and should do better.
Maybe a government grant via an EO can help with the legal costs?
From another comment: Again, I want them to stand up and push back, but we need to remember who is ultimately the source of the problem here and keep our anger/blame squarely directed at them.
I think you underestimate the damage Congress can cause if they want to.
But they really can’t though. The GOP can pass whatever they want in the house. It would be DOA in the senate and would never make it past Biden’s desk.
And yes, there’s the what-if if Trump wins the election, but they’d still have to gain control of the WH and both chambers of Congress for that to happen. And if the GOP sweeps in November, we have much bigger problems to worry about.
There’s really no reason why these colleges should be folding to pressure from the GOP.
What if they’re folding to pressure from their donors, who also are donors to the GOP?
Then that’s even more pathetic.
I disagree.
You can’t have any kind of moral high ground in a situation where not fighting will get people killed.
Refusing to rally against the disinformation increases the likelihood of it’s success.
Who’s going to get hurt if it succeeds?
-millions of women with pregnancy complications that will no longer be able to seek abortions to save their lives.
-millions of minorities at the hands of the state whenever Trump eventually institutes concentration camps.
-millions of LGBTQ+ people well also end up in those concentration camps.
-millions of people dependent on things like Medicare and Medicaid will lose health insurance and die from complications.
-millions of children will starve or experience malnutrition when food stamp programs like WIC are canceled.
Those things aren’t immediately obvious to the layman but they should be painfully obvious to institutions made up of people who understand the psychology enough to counter disinformation.
Anyone who understands the moral implications of letting the disinformation succeed and still chooses not to fight back against it with everything they have absolutely deserves to be shamed and blamed.Again, I want them to stand up and push back, but we need to remember who is ultimately the source of the problem here and keep our anger/blame squarely directed at them.
The GOP Congress is the source of the problem solely because people refuse to stand up to them.
If they would stand up and help eliminate the problem there wouldn’t be a problem to begin with.The GOP is the source of the problem solely because they choose to be one. You are completely missing the issue. Blaming perceived enablers is ridiculous.
I appreciate your patient contributions to this discussion. And I agree with you. This is another case of blaming the victim. When someone makes a threat threatens you the focus needs to be on those making the threat. How you handle the threat is only important if no one stops the aggressor.
Large parts of the GOP want to turn our country into a “what it used to be” that never existed. Destroying our educational system is a critical part of that mission. The lies at the base of their movement are not very effective against people with critical thinking skills, so they want to avoid letting anyone teach those.
These people are a genuine threat because we have allowed them into positions of genuine power. There will be no long-term solutions to the problems they are causing until we get them back out of power.
Appreciate your hearing me out. I think people really want to make this too binary. I do want Stanford and other schools to do the right thing, but we can’t act like this is their fault. It’s squarely the GOP’s and we need to support these universities and encourage them to push back without saying “this is your fault.”
Shame on Stanford for being weak in the face of opposition
Because corporate media (which to some extent includes social media) has enormous power. It’s why the companies sell for many billions of dollars. It has always been the case.
So what? Well, since the 70’s there have been attempts to regulate that power (i.e. limiting advertising to children) and almost all of them were defeated or gutted by republicans and corporatists who almost always say that media has no effect on people (usually qualified as “intelligent people”, “thinking people”, or most often “me”).
It has always been bullshit. It’s 50 years late to understand media corporations have to be tightly regulated. Not doing so thus far has given us homegrown fascism and climate destruction.
Stories like this prove it. And it’s been proven over, and over, and over again. Teach media literacy, regulate corporate media. It is an existential threat to continue not doing it.
Another private university exchanges spine for money.
Probably because they want to prevent this.
