Items in: Public Discourse

Items here center on how we talk publicly about societal issues, and specifically how the language we use, the assumptions we make, and the integrity of our intent. These determine whether our contributions to public conversation honestly seek to build a better society or are merely aiming to force our preferences on others.

I have long had mixed feelings about songs that celebrate my country, and so here I offer alternate lyrics to USA’s national anthem. Although still quite rough, I could wait no longer; I wanted to share it now, on USA’s Independence Day. Here’s the thing: The songs I know are all laud and glory, yet over USA’s gestation and lifetime, there have most certainly been numerous cases in which our […]

Back Side Star-Spangled Banner

Diversity & Exclusion
I have long had mixed feelings about songs that celebrate this country I love, and so here I offer alternate lyrics to USA's national anthem. The USA story is not all laud and glory, but neither is it disdainful at the level some shout and spout. USA's reality is a complicated mix of these two extremes.
Context and summary Toward the end of February, 2021, a major US-national media entity published a short interview of a US senator (fewer than 1500 words). Interviews can be news done well, and there were good parts of the interview in question, yet it stumbled into three major errors that fail as news: The interviewer, whom I’ll refer to as J, failed to take the interview where J — and even […]

Real Fake News, No. 1

Public Discourse
As one style of Real Fake News, "use the interviewee as a prop" offers several ways for media folk to make it seem the interviewee is saying things that they're not, to push an agenda, and to avoid real issues by introducing off-topic, vague, and sensational content. Here we break down a recent media report.
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“This is the time to heal in America,” Joe Biden said in his election victory speech. I thought it was an obvious sort of “who could disagree with that?” kind of statement, but it was fawned over by commentators nonetheless. (Actually, there are some that might well disagree about healing because they think the USA needs a cultural revolution of a sort, but that’s a conversation for another day.) He […]

Post-Election Healing: Get Your Heart Transplant Now

Public Discourse
National healing requires much more than vague ideas to "be nice." The depth of pain caused by both sides demands a greater weight of action for relational reconciliation. Here are ideas for how to start, based on the principles behind Truth and Reconciliation commissions.
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Science, when sincere, principled, and dispassionate, is a beautiful tool. And it’s beautiful whether the conclusions are right or wrong; that’s part of the process. But how science is used in political discourse can turn it ugly. A little while back, I wrote about a politician’s fallacious appeal to science while advocating a particular COVID-19 response. In a tweet, the politician did what I call “playing the science card” — […]

They said “Science” — Did You Not Hear That?

Society & Politics
Science is a beautiful tool, but well-meaning societal concern does not justify political advocacy masquerading as science.
I must open this piece by clarifying three things off the top: I agree that strict measures were needed in an attempt to stem the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. Further, action or not, there are many intricate concerns about how to equitably distribute the pain of the pandemic. Even more, there are deeply difficult questions about how alternative courses of action may trade off lives lost to coronavirus against […]

De-Weapon­izing “Prepared by Science”

Society & Politics
The image is a tweet dated 23 Mar 2020 @ 4:11am. The tweeter is blurred and the text is cropped and partially blurred. What we can see reads: "Good morning, Texas...prepared by science...move as a state from...#StaySafeStayHome...430,000 deaths"
If good science supports it, indeed we should believe it. But weaponized appeals to authority don't make for good science or healthy society.