As Emerson said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” People who cannot admit that they were wrong, turn their minds to stone, turn their brains off, and turn themselves into functional idiots. The intelligent response to a conflict or discrepancy between new evidence and our pre-existing beliefs,
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Scripturient: A Quick Word for the Internet Trolls
For the social media trolls and whingers who never take the time to read, or listen, or check facts before spewing out their bile, here are a dozen points to consider before you bloviate further (yes, I realize the chance that the hard-of-thinking will actually read this is slim, but
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Is Facebook killing people?
President Joe Biden missed his goal of 70 percent of Americans vaccinated against Covid by July 4th. Some cities are now urging even vaccinated residents to resume mask-wearing, and in states such as Missouri and Utah, where large swaths of the population remain unvaccinated, health officials are warning of hospitals
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Reclaiming Democracy In Canada – And Around The World
In the 1960s, there was a cultural awakening which spread rapidly around the world, and Chomsky is right in calling it both a cultural awakening, and also, an outbreak of democracy. The civil rights movement, the women’s rights movement, the gay rights movement, the native rights movement, the anti-war and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Grace Blakeley discusses how corporate handouts represent a major contributor to the concentration of wealth by the richest few. And CNN reports on the new billionaires created by the public development of COVID-19 vaccines. – Rachelle Younglai points out that generational wealth transfers
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A Twitterer’s tale: Kenney scores an own goal with tweet that ‘reads like a Beaverton headline’
At 4:02 o’clock on the afternoon of Sunday, May 23, 2021, somebody pressed the “tweet” button on Jason Kenney’s Twitter account, sending an enigmatic message about the government’s response to COVID-19 whizzing into cyberspace. Perhaps it was Mr. Kenney himself who clicked the click. Perhaps, since he is the premier
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Mass Digital Addiction vs Reading
Remember, as Thoreau said, “Read the best books first, otherwise you might never read them at all.” And in this age of pandemic digital addiction, media overload and mass information glut, when most people’s lives are far too “busy” – meaning, they have lost all sense of priorities and spend
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Censorship, Big Tech & The Closing Down of Society
Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and the MAGATs – Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon and Twitter – are all now embedded and engaged in censorship, data mining, privacy invasion, the new global surveillance and police state, and/or state-corporate propaganda, and manipulation of elections and the public mind (ie: the Facebook and Cambridge
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Big Exodus from Big Tech
Time for the exodus to begin in earnest from the now confirmed to be fascist and deeply Orwellian Big Tech giants. At the least, we need to begin the migration and the shift, by supporting and using the alternative social media, search engines, email, browsers, etc., which do not data
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: “Conspiracy Theory”
Remember what Chomsky said, summing it up perfectly: “The term “conspiracy theory” is used to poo-poo institutional analysis.” Exactly. And what does that mean? It means the phrase was coined by the FBI in the 1960’s to discredit the theory that the Deep State, the military industrial
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Platitudes or new plan? Education minister schedules news conference this morning on back-to-school plan
With the clock ticking down to a “near normal” mid-pandemic school reopening next month for three quarters of a million Alberta students, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange plans to provide an update this morning “on public health measures being taken for a safe return to school.” So, is the Kenney Government
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Good TV?!
Favourite tv shows, anyone? Post your favourites below. I do hate tv, but I love documentaries and history shows, and I make an exception for certain things, like Star Trek, hockey playoffs, world cup soccer, the Olympics… In no particular order, I’d say my favourite tv shows (originals only; most
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: GGconversations: The Difference Between Being Partisan And Being Political
Governor General Julie Payette has launched a video series where Her Excellency discusses different issues related to the current pandemic. It is always good to see Her Majesty’s representatives taking the initiative in performing their role. The video series began in May and has covered science, art, entrepreneurship, and other topics. Some of the videos go into topics
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: AGAINST ALL ODDS – Blending Research and Disability Parenting
It is my pleasure to host this guest post today from Queen’s University doctoral candidate, Lorraine (Read more…). I was amazed by Lorraine’s story of perseverance and her research question about how we as parents of adult children with disabilities use social media for support. This is an international study,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Guest Post by John Ashton: New approaches essential to counter Jason Kenney’s planned war on labour
John Ashton has served as a staff member on 26 NDP campaigns. He is co-author with former Alberta NDP leader Ray Martin of “Made in Alberta: The Ray Martin Story.” In this guest post published while your blogger is at a conference, Mr. Ashton argues the report on Alberta’s fiscal
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Inauthentic activity’ on social media, abuse of progressive women in politics … is there a common thread here?
Is there a common thread running between reports Friday that a spike in “inauthentic activity” on social media just before the Alberta provincial election came from unidentified backers of the United Conservative Party and news stories Saturday about harassment of federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna? It would
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Trump’s “Go Home” Tweet
Ms Soapbox found herself organizing the sock drawer this morning. She blames this burst of domesticity on Donald Trump. She’ll explain how this ties back to Alberta politics in a moment, but first a quick recap of the most recent Trump blowout. The Tweet Last week Mr Trump tweeted
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If it seems as if Canada’s Conservatives have lost it, guess again: They’ve just adopted the Trump playbook in its entirety
“Huge pothole on #StAlbert Trail right now! This is a preview of Canada’s future if Justin Trudeau is re-elected as prime minister, as he continues to implement his terrible anti-automobile agenda.” Were I to take to Twitter and say such a thing, dear readers, presumably many of you would conclude
Continue readingAlberta Politics: How will Alberta politicians respond now that groups like Canada’s nurses are demanding action on climate change?
FREDERICTON – On the last day of their national convention in New Brunswick’s capital city today, the approximately 900 delegates of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on Canadian governments to recognize climate change is a global crisis and a health emergency, and to act
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: Testifying at Parliament on Social Media Oversight
My address to the House of Commons Committee on Justice and Human Rights, on how government can or should combat the spread of hatred on social media platforms. Democracy’s most sacrosanct principles collide in this debate.
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