Propaganda 101: a book review

Propaganda 101: a book review

How do we parse out propaganda in our fast-paced, digitally dissolving, ‘post-truth’, fake-news world? Michelle Stiles’ ambitious and beautiful book can help. She began working on One Idea to Rule Them All in 2018, and her topic of choice has proved prescient. More than ever, now we must be able to identify propaganda and sift through stories for grains of truth…

How politics can destroy your soul – confessions of a former Tory candidate

How politics can destroy your soul – confessions of a former Tory candidate

Enoch Powell’s (quoted) words ring truer every day: ‘Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad’. Watching the Andrew Bridgen saga, it seems we have reached Biblical levels of sin. One man out of 650 in parliament is now able to speak the truth and he is shunned for it. Most have no idea how this kind of thing can happen…

Are 15-Minute Cities Smart?

Are 15-Minute Cities Smart?

As with the gas stove “debate,” any questioning of the latest coolest way to reorganize society is a sign of madness. This haughty reality-shifting attitude somehow pervades the elites despite the deserved devastation of the public’s trust in its institutions in the wake of the pandemic, the response to which involved lies, half-truths, spin, lies, mistakes, lies, the threat of force…

The climate scaremongers: Heatwave hysteria

The climate scaremongers: Heatwave hysteria

THE New York Intelligencer magazine called it the ‘Worldwide Heatwave’, which according to the UN has ‘engulfed the Northern Hemisphere’. It was of course nothing of the sort, simply the usual mix of hot and cold weather we see every year. Spot the difference, for instance, between this month and July 1998…

Propaganda Toolkit #1: Ad Hominem Attacks

Propaganda Toolkit #1: Ad Hominem Attacks

Commonly known as “name-calling,” an ad hominem attack “shoots the messenger” in order to deflect from the substance of an issue. It generally means that a criticism of one’s character has been made, rather than a criticism of the issue. Name calling, or the ad hominem attack, is perhaps the most well-known and easy to identify…

Misinformation and Censorship

Misinformation and Censorship

One cannot watch much media these days without seeing a pundit from an elite journalistic or academic institution claim that this or that is “misinformation” or “disinformation.” Claims of misinformation and disinformation have blown up over the past five years.  While such claims appear to have the noble goal of spreading only factual information, do they really do so?…

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