We’ve described how fake news-sharing is the way many people signal their partisan identities. For them it is commonplace to claim they know, even when they don’t. For contemporary Americans, ultimately this comes down to public courage to say “I don’t know” in situations where one is merely a believer. Ultra-conservatives in a recent Princeton study […]
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America is stuck. We’re tied down by partisan ideology. Fake news is a huge part of America’s paralysis. A Princeton University study finds that ultra-conservatives and many senior citizens “push” fake news at alarming rates, compared with the general population. Only 1 person in 12 shared bogus information during the 2016 survey year including Donald […]
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America is stuck. We’re tied down by partisan ideology. Our situation is not unlike Gulliver. We’ve become like the giant, fallen asleep and then awakened by mini-people dancing on our collective selves, making outrageous demands. The strings controlling Gulliver are not unlike the strings of tribal partisanship. While the pragmatic majority slumbers, America’s forward path […]
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I’m a moral philosopher, cut from similar cloth with First Economist Adam Smith, to use a maxim from long ago. Smith might have saluted French President Emmanuel Macron at the 100th commemoration of the armistice ending World War I. Nationalism is betrayal of patriotism, said Macron in stern rebuke to the tribalism of President Donald […]
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