Thomas Van Zuiden’s Post

A Turkish journalist made a very insightful point yesterday He said that while the US elite / deep state never cared about the suffering of people it caused, in different countries. But in earlier years, it was careful to create a false impression of being a caring society , for the long term implications. So as not to create an obstacle for further exploitation, in the long term. For the last 3-4 years, however, the US deep state does not care any longer. It is bare-faced about suffering and destruction it causes . The elite / deep state is no longer bothered about creating a false impression of being caring and benign : Why ? He interpreted this to mean, that the elite in the US know something that we do not know. And in their eyes, the current years are not the last decades of US as a declining superpower, but the last few years . Grab what you can, before the deluge. Insightful. And disturbing too. _______________________________________________ The transfer of #1 power in the world, is normally accompanied by conflict, devastation and turmoil. Looks like we are closer to the war and turmoil period, that I thought

Last week the Henry Jackson Society put out a report by Andrew Fox that savages the Gaza death toll statistics of the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) and chastises the media for credulous reporting on the Gaza death toll. Here is my reply written with Gabriel Epstein of Israel Policy Forum. The Fox report can serve as a valuable teaching tool for how bad actors try to trick people with statistics. To take just one example, Fox finds some cases of Men misclassified as women on MoH lists of the dead and screams that the MoH has manipulated the numbers to inflate the number of women to make the IDF look bad. But these are just a handful of cases that don't move the needle on the percentage of women and there are roughly an equal number of cases of women misclassified as men. So it's just random error, inevitable in a huge database built under the most challenging circumstances imaginable, not intentional manipulation. Of course, MoH figures are not sacrosanct and it is appropriate to scrutinize them. But Fox doesn't identify any important flaws, just trivia. Sadly some parts of the media gleefully jumped all over this report, e.g., The Telegraph and the Times of Israel. I'm afraid that this report won't go away. But nobody should take it seriously. https://lnkd.in/eC7izmpV

Misinformation is a huge problem. But how can we tackle it? On the 30th July this year, violence erupted in the Merseyside town of Southport after mis- and disinformation rapidly spread online claiming the perpetrator of a local stabbing was a Muslim asylum seeker. Rioters were heard chanting Islamophobic abuse and went on to attack a local mosque as a result. The following morning, Impress decided that we should make a statement on the violence, given its roots lay in the spread of mis- and disinformation, including by news publishers and journalists. The statement addressed the events that led to the violence and called on politicians to work collaboratively with media organisations and community groups to find solutions to the problem. There are many socio-cultural, political and behavioural factors that drive mis- and disinformation, but it is no coincidence that the loss of high-quality ethical news providers, and decline in that news provision, has been matched by the rise of mis- and disinformation – in fact I believe they are directly correlated. The public’s need and demand for information has always remained constant. But if the only meaningful alternative for communities left behind in news and information deserts are the shock jocks, bots, and conspiracy theorists, it’s no wonder we are seeing unprecedented polarisation, social discord, community breakdown and the ensuing violence, as they are forced to choose those sources for their news. Read Impress CEO Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana's full thoughts in our Impress Insights newsletter! 👉 https://bit.ly/4eoedRb Sign up to receive future editions straight to your inbox! 👉 https://bit.ly/3rLdDtX #Newsletter #Misinformation #Solutions #Analysis #Insight

It's crucial to critically evaluate the mainstream media's portrayal of global events. Over the past year, there's been a noticeable bias in the representation of Hamas and Israel. As professionals, we must strive for balanced and unbiased reporting. #MediaBias #CriticalThinking

Excerpt from the article: “Mainstream news media’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas War and the politics around it has been abysmal. Most newspapers have built their reporting on a series of accepted, but false, premises and lies. The poor reporting is a cocktail of laziness, ignorance, willful misrepresentation, and racism. Historical knowledge is important not because it matters who was right or wrong 75 years ago, but because it allows us to spot the false premises and lies that much reporting is built on. It takes courage for a journalist to think and report differently than their peers. Every reporter wants to provide their own take, but without straying too far from the consensus narrative, in case they look silly. Newsroom culture rewards reporters who get scoops, or get the story that everybody is chasing, first. There is no equivalent kudos attached to the quality and accuracy of reporting. Fact-based reporting requires more work. Even the few remaining mastheads that follow the endangered journalistic norms of non-biased reporting have been publishing nonsense. Governments even concoct their foreign policies on these fictions. Here are the common false premises, how they fail basic logic tests, and their impact on accurate reporting.” #Israel #Palestine #Journalism #MSM https://lnkd.in/ed5pGx3W

Quite an eye-opening read on how 🇷🇺 and 🇧🇾 proxies are stepping up their #disinformation game to undermine civil society. They are twisting facts, spreading misleading stories, and using state media to prop up the government while discrediting independent voices. Worth remembering, it’s not just happening in Belarus - these tactics are popping up across the region to weaken NGOs and civil society groups. Understanding these info ops is crucial if we want to push back and protect the #truth. The article details the DISARM methodology, which is a good-enough tool for spotting and analyzing these disinformation efforts. For those investing in #democracy and the civil society, this is a must-read. #Disinformation #CivilSociety #Russia #Belarus #InfoOps

How can the Western media be led – and lead others – astray so often? At the root of this persistent problem are the dual myths that Israel is the aggressor in this conflict and that it is the role of the press to bring it to heel. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. Israel is fighting a just war to eliminate a barbaric enemy hiding behind a population that supports it. This is a heavy and even tragic burden; one Israel doesn’t take lightly. That’s why its civilian-combatant casualty ratio is historically impressive even when you use Hamas’ juiced-up numbers. Moreover, the press’s allegiance should be only to the truth, not misguided activism. The failure of the press to understand its role and resist that temptation has blinded journalists to the moral truths underpinning conditions on the ground. And those moral misconceptions have resulted – time and again – in the media amplifying treacherous lies.

Where co-intelligence and wise democracy came from https://lnkd.in/gEZqSmT5

💫 Wondering how #darkpatterns trick all of us? Watch this video, which was shown during the OECD - OCDE ministerial meeting👇 This event "consumers at the center of digital and green transitions" on 8-9 October is gathering ministers and high-level representatives from over 50 countries. 💯 https://lnkd.in/eUKVr5-8 One of the key focuses is how to protect and empower consumers in the digital realm, when they're daily faced with #manipulativeonlinedesign, #pervasivetracking, manipulation of #behavioralbiases, which all create significant individual and structural harms. https://lnkd.in/eY3MatCV 🌟 It’s an incredible honor to bring this important message to a global audience. What did we do? a short video that illustrates how everyday online actions often come loaded with dark patterns that mislead consumers at every step. 👾 What does it show? We chose to depict the common experience of buying a plane ticket, a scenario so many of us have encountered. What will you learn? 🧐 - How deceptive design is present every step of the way - Which behavioral biases are being manipulated - How massive are the corresponding damages and overspending What about you? Remember the last time you've been tricked or trapped online? 💫 Regain your freedom online. Many thanks to Emanuel Alijaj Nicholas McSpedden-Brown and Natalie Lagorce for reaching out! And thanks to our "partner in non-crime", a.k.a Senior Advisor Harry Brignull for his help. 🙏