Meandering into and out of Danger

Hummingbirds, Natural History, Nature

 

When Christiane finished breakfast and stepped outside our cottage at Buffalo Point this past week, she remarked, “This is what heaven should look like.” Sometimes she is very wise.

This day we woke up to a glorious day. Nothing special about that at the lake, but it sure was great.  First, the Hummingbirds were going crazy. They were chasing each other madly. That is what they do. Around humming bird feeders they spend much more time chasing each other away from the feeders than they do feeding. Even though they had 4 feeding troughs that could easily be shared, they would rather waste time and energy chasing competitors  away from what they want to hoard. Of course, as soon as the two hummingbirds flee, another flies to the feeder to take advantage of what the foolish birds left behind undefended.  And these were female birds, presumably the smarter sex. The males had already flown to warmer climates, it seemed.

When you think about it, hummingbirds are about as stupid as humans, who also spend a lot of time and energy defending their territory from perceived threats.  Isn’t that what gated communities are all about? Well, hummingbirds are probably not quite as stupid  as humans.

I spent much of the date sitting on the deck in the shade reading a fantastic book, The People v. Democracy by Yascha Mounk. I was drinking hot apple cider, chatting occasionally with my lovely wife Christiane, looking at the lake, watching the crazy birds and enjoying life as good as it get. In any event the day was deeply pleasant.

Near the end of the afternoon, I was sitting alone on the deck, when I was very surprised.  I looked up and saw a black bear walking right by mean on our front yard. He took only quizzical look at me and gave me a pass.  He was not interested in me. I was happy about that. Perhaps he did not see me as very tasty. That would not be surprising.

I have never been as close as that to a black bear. I doubt that it was 10 yards away. Even  closer.  I was holding a camera with a big zoom lens, to photograph tiny hummingbirds, so I had to turn it as far down as possible to get the big bear into focus. After dismissing me, the bear continued meandering towards a bird feeder filled with luscious sunflower seeds. He gave them a sniff but passed on them too. Why? I am not sure but I have a theory.

Black bears have thrived in North America since the arrival of white visitors. Grizzly bears and Polar bears not so much. Why is that?  My theory is that black bears are smart. They have figured out that humans are trouble.  They know we are dangerous.  Even though I was an old man who would have been defenceless to any attack, and I had nowhere to escape,  the bear ambled on.  Somehow it knew that if it mauled me the bear would get in trouble. More trouble than it wanted. There is food around that it is much safer to sample. And probably more tasty too.

 

White-throated Sparrow

Birds, Nature

 

 

Some people think sparrows are boring.  I think those people are boring.  They just don’t see it. Ot sometimes, they just don’t hear it.  For example, The song of the White-throated Sparrow is Oh sweet Canada, Canada.  This bird is a prairie gem. We are lucky to share this prairie with such a gem.

 

And guess what, they are beauties too.

“The Rebirth of ‘My Dad’

Right-wing Extremism

 

In the film The Brain Washing of my Dad, in the end the father of the producer Jen Senko had his brain deprogrammed. Things changed. He moved into a senior’s place with his wife and in the process his radio broke. No more talk radio. They bought a new TV and his wife programmed it. She eliminated Fox News from the cycle without telling her husband. She also unsubscribed him from some of the more extreme emails and posts. Instead, she subscribed him to more liberal and democratic posts. Surprisingly, he started reading some of them. He didn’t realize what was happening. Gradually, he quit listening to Rush Limbaugh and quit watching Fox News. Then he started to describe himself as “half-way between a Democrat and a Republican.” Wow! These were big changes.

 

Now some will say, his wife was brain-washing him too. She certainly was deceitful and tricky. He now accepts that gay men can marry each other. Why not?

 

Mr. Senko’s niece said a kindness had returned to his voice. He saw Obama on TV and said, “you know I kind of like him.” Jen says he is no longer argumentative. He is fun and they get along great.

 

Jen thought her father was reborn. A nice guy again. Is that possible?

Sometimes life is strange.

We can do better.

Doubt Free Zones

Critical thinking, reason, Right-wing Extremism, Skeptical Philosophy

 

Dr. Bryant Welch in his book State of Confusion said, “The sound and visual effects of Fox News are almost carnival-like, with multiple crawlers and a seemingly constant state of news crises created by ‘Fox News Alerts.”  I am aware that CNN bombards its viewers with “Breaking News,” but frankly they are much less effective. On Fox the graphics and images are vivid if not overwhelming. Americans obviously, love them. The colors are stunning. Viewers are stunned. The brain is stunned.

 

Moving images and beautiful women enlarge the distraction and confusion, but commentators, like Sean Hannity are there to give strong opinions that eliminate confusion. They make it very clear what viewers should think. Viewers know what they should think. There are no doubts on Fox. It is a doubt free zone. Nuance is an anathema on Fox. Their listeners want certainty, not doubt.

Such news shows are stimulating. Regular media looks dull in comparison. If you habitually watch Fox, every other news show seems boring. One unnamed critic said, in the film The Brain Washing of My Dad said this:

 

“This creates a mood that mesmerizes an audience and holds it captive. Then when they are captive and overwhelmed and a bit confused they have someone like Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity with their passion, and confidence and certitude tell the audience who they should blame for their confusion and uncertainty.”

 

That is a very effective strategy basically to excite and then calm the nerves.  The film really suggested it was the tool for brain washing.

 

Where there is no room for doubt there is no room for thinking.

 

Bullying and Shaming

Right-wing Extremism

 

I have repeatedly said fascism is the philosophy of the bully.  Nobody understands this better than Fox News.  They not only know it; they live it. They practice it. They are bullies. And they can be left wing or right wing,. It doesn’t matter.

 

As Jen Senko analyzed it in her film The Brainwashing of My Dad,

 

“The effect of bullying is simple. It works on two levels:

 

  1. It shuts the guest up, if they’re making a point that the bully doesn’t want to hear.

  2. Fake outrage makes the bully look justified as they try to shame their frustrated guest into silence.”

 

Rush Limbaugh on the radio was one of the best bullies.Tucker Carlson was an expert at this, so was Sean Hannity, but probably all Fox hosts use this tactic, because their viewer like to see.  People hanker to see bullies beat up (metaphorically at least) on their foes. Senko’s father used to be “a nice guy,” but he got to like the Fox hosts attack a guest or someone they were just talking about. Then he wasn’t such a nice guy any more.

 

Bullies enjoy presenting themselves “in your face.”  They like to look strong.  They love to shame others. They use verbal overkill. They are not wishy-washy or namby-pamby like other TV shows. Liberals are much too circumspect for them.

 

The primary media outlet for the right in America is Fox News. Fox News is ubiquitous. And their viewers are loyal. Loyalty on steroids. Those listeners love the outrage. And they love to see liberals squirm on camera. It gives them a. high. And Fox knows how to deliver.

 

This is unlike Liberals in America who view an array of sources. As Pew Research found in 2024, 15% watch CNN, 12% watch MSNBC,13% NPR, and 10% read the NYT. 47% of “consistent conservatives” watch Fox News.

 

97% of American talk radio is conservative and 3% progressive according to Streaming Guidelines.

 

Rush Limbaugh was showed on military bases. Is it surprising so many of the military men are strongly right-wing? They are paid to be bullies and find the position of the bully very congenial.

 

Fear and Rage on Fox

guns, Right-wing Extremism

 

In the film The Brainwashing of My Dad, there was a lot to be said about Fox News, because it played a big role in his brainwashing, according to Jen Senko.

 

Fox News is built on fear and rage. Much of it generated by Fox to amplify engagement and make more money. As Dr. Cynthia Boaz pointed out in the film, “the idea is to terrify and terrorize the audience during every waking moment…when people are afraid, they don’t think rationally. And when they can’t think rationally, they’ll believe anything.”

 

I don’t claim to be a reliable watcher of Fox News. I try my best to watch it to get the ‘other side of the story.’  I must admit that in the case of Fox I just can’t watch much of it. I have asked friends for suggestions about more sane conservative view point but have not got many suggestions.

 

Eric Boehlert said, “Fox News is built on this formula of just getting people to get really angry. It’s phony outrage…They really are acting about how outraged they are.”  For example when Sean Hannity shouts at his readers, “Obama attacks America.”  Or another example, when Judge Jeanine Pirro Judy says to her listeners, “I told you that you need to be afraid, because they are coming for you,” and points her finger at you watching on the screen. Or when David Michael Lynch says, “ISIS is coming in to America. I would bet my life on the fact. They are already here. I’ve caught these people before and I’ve seen Qur’ans, prayer rugs, you name it.”  And we should always remember this basic principle: Phony outrage=Lies.

 

As a result of all of this one young man from Cedar Rapids Iowa spoke in the film about how his father, a Fox News regular viewer was convinced that Obama would deliberately trigger a civil war. As a result, he went to the local store to fill up on ammo before the government took it all.

 

That is a common reaction in the United States to many problems.  I remember when I lived in Arizona for 3 months for about 10 years and they had problems on the news. Almost any kind of problems.  The first thing people id was to head to store to buy ammunition.

There is no monopoly on shenanigans

American Fascism, Critical thinking, Fascism, Freedom, Right-wing Extremism

Language is never neutral. Or at least it is very difficult to be neutral. In 1994 Newt Gingrich on behalf of Tea Party, the radical right wing of the Republican party at the time, hired Frank Luntz, considered by many to be a genius of a wordsmith. For example, he persuaded Republicans to refer to estate tax as death tax. It sounded more ominous.  One thing is clear, Frank Luntz is sharp. Luntz professionalized framing language to get a desired message across.

 

Thanks to work like Luntz’s, and others with his skills, conservatives talked about “energy exploration” rather than “drilling for oil.” Instead of talking about poor people they talk about “the takers.” Or even “parasites.” Or “enhanced interrogation techniques” instead of “torture.” Instead of “rich people” say “the job creators.”

 

Words are important. So is spin. And of course, both the left and the right do this. There is no monopoly on shenanigans.

 

George Orwell, that brilliant political thinker and writer said, in his book 1984, “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”  I think he was being ironical, for who would say that? Another brilliant and more modern writer, Robert Macfarlane said that words are critically important to our ability to understand the world. No words, no thinking. Macfarlane feared that if we no longer knew the exact words for plants or animals we would not be able to find spaces for them in our imaginations. As Carol Off recounted in her wonderful book At a Loss for Words, he told her in an interview that “to name something is to know it a little more clearly. And maybe to care for it a little more.”

 

As a life long seeker for truth about things in the natural world, particularly wild flowers and wild birds, I must say I disagree entirely.  Therefore, I don’t really like spin doctors like Luntz. Political operatives like him, whether of the left or the right, are trying to mesmerize us in order to manipulate us into supporting those who are paying him for that manipulation.

 

Off said in politics “we keep the word, but the idea it represents is lost.” I think the best current example of that is the word “freedom.”  I think people like truckers in the Convoy movement of Canada have lost the meaning of the word completely.  They mean the freedom of themselves to do anything they want, no matter what effect that has on others. That means freedom all right, for them, and misery for the rest of us. Freedom for wolves; not so much for sheep.

 

As Orwell might have said, abuse of language is the beginning of fascism.

 

Brand and Label

Death of Truth, Right-wing Extremism

 

Jen Senko in the film the Brainwashing of My Dad, described another technique used by conservatives to promulgate their propaganda. She called it “Brand and Label.” As she explained,

 

 “Branding is about creating an image that will stick in the mind. Whether that image is accurate or not doesn’t matter. Democrats, liberals, and progressives are branded as big government spenders, dishonest American hating elitists, who are all atheists who hate Christmas and are soft on crime and weak on defence.”     

 

More modern propaganda adds that those nasty liberals love “they/them and hate you” and are allowing America to be overrun by rapists and criminals at the southern border.  This is not to deny that liberals don’t sell stereotypes either but of late have been much less effective at it.

 

Another catch phrase that is commonly used on the right is the expression “liberal media.”  Or even the “lying liberal media.” According to Jeff Cohen a professor journalism, who spoke in the film  said,

 

“If you analyze news coverage, as Fair (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) has done, you will find that media tilts a little to the right. It’s sort of centre right. Republicans usually outnumber democrats it’s just pure math. And then people say why do so many people believe the liberal media myth? If you keep handing opinion shaping power to right-wingers who don’t have evidence to yell about all the liberals, the liberals, the liberals, it’s going to have some traction.”

 

Now Cohen who was interviewed for the documentary almost 10 years ago and I don’t know if the data would as clearly support that claim today. I just don’t know. I realize there is a lot of so-called left-wing media.  I would like to point out that much of this so-called left-wing media if it was in Canada would be called right-wing media or at least centrist media. However, the fact is that most American conservatives don’t get their news or opinions from media anyway, except with the one very large exception of Fox News, most of them get their information or disinformation online from social media which seems to me to be largely right-wing. So I think Cohen’s point still holds.

 

Many people—such as Senkow’s father, believe that Fox News supplies he stories the liberal media don’t want to show. Other like me say, perhaps, but at least the liberal media does not make stuff up like Fox News has admittedly done. They admitted this is what they did after the 2020 presidential election which Donald Trump lost because they were scared of losing viewers to more firmly Trump media. They admitted this by agreeing to settle lawsuits against them by election workers and others that added up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

Fox News does more than make mistakes. Fox News lies.