History

The “lizard people” conspiracy theory is one of the more fantastical narratives that have found a niche within modern conspiracy culture. This theory suggests that shape-shifting reptilian aliens have infiltrated human society to gain power and control. They are often depicted as occupying high positions in government, finance, and industry, manipulating global events to serve their sinister agenda.

Origins and evolution

The roots of the reptilian conspiracy theory can be traced back to a mix of earlier science fiction, mythological tales, and conspiracy theories. However, it was British author David Icke who, in the 1990s, catapulted the idea into the mainstream of conspiracy culture. Icke’s theory combines elements of New Age philosophy, Vedic texts, and a wide array of conspiracy theories, proposing that these reptilian beings are part of a secret brotherhood that has controlled humanity for millennia — a variation on the global cabal conspiracy theory framework that shows up in a lot of places.

The Lizard People conspiracy theory, as illustrated by Midjourney

Icke’s initial ideas were presented in his book “The Biggest Secret” (1999), where he posits that these entities are from the Alpha Draconis star system, now hiding in underground bases and are capable of morphing their appearance to mimic human form. His theories incorporate a broad range of historical, religious, and cultural references, reinterpreting them to fit the narrative of reptilian manipulation.

Persistence and appeal

The persistence of the lizard people conspiracy can be attributed to several factors. First, it offers a simplistic explanation for the complexities and injustices of the world. By attributing the world’s evils to a single identifiable source, it provides a narrative that is emotionally satisfying for some, despite its utter lack of evidence.

Second, the theory thrives on the human tendency to distrust authority and the status quo. In times of social and economic upheaval, conspiracy theories offer a form of counter-narrative that challenges perceived power structures.

The Lizard People are bankers too

Third, the advent of the internet and social media has provided a fertile ground for the spread of such ideas. Online platforms allow for the rapid dissemination of conspiracy theories, connecting individuals across the globe who share these beliefs, thus reinforcing their validity within these communities.

Understanding the Ecosystem: How lizard people theories function in online conspiracy culture

While the origins and cultural impact of David Icke’s reptilian conspiracy theory reveal much about modern conspiracy thinking, a deeper examination of how these ideas actually function within online communities exposes far more complex dynamics than simple belief and propagation. The video below explores the surprising reality of conspiracy forum culture, where the lizard people theory serves not just as a belief system, but as a weapon used by conspiracy theorists themselves to police the boundaries of their own community. Rather than existing in echo chambers of uniform agreement, these spaces operate more like battlegrounds where believers, skeptics, and those who engage purely for intellectual play constantly clash over what constitutes “legitimate” conspiracy thinking.

The 7-minute video below also delves into the science behind combating such misinformation and disinformation, examining cutting-edge research on “inoculation theory” and other evidence-based strategies for building cognitive resistance to false narratives. From David Icke’s dramatic fall from BBC respectability to the sophisticated psychological techniques now being deployed to counter conspiracy thinking, this analysis reveals how the seemingly absurd world of shape-shifting reptilians has become a crucial case study for understanding the broader challenges of truth, belief, and information warfare in the digital age.

Lizard people in modern culture and society

In modern culture, the lizard people conspiracy theory occupies a peculiar niche. On one hand, it is often the subject of satire and parody, seen as an example of the most outlandish fringe beliefs. Shows, memes, and popular media references sometimes use the imagery of reptilian overlords as a humorous nod to the world of conspiracy theories.

On the other hand, the theory has been absorbed into the larger tapestry of global conspiracy culture, intersecting with other narratives about global elites, alien intervention, and secret societies. This blending of theories creates a complex and ever-evolving mythology that can be adapted to fit various personal and political agendas.

Despite its presence in the digital and cultural landscape, the reptilian conspiracy is widely discredited and rejected by mainstream society and experts. It’s critiqued for its lack of credible evidence, its reliance on anti-Semitic tropes (echoing age-old myths about blood libel and other global Jewish conspiracies), and its potential to fuel mistrust and paranoia.

Current status and impact

Today, the reptilian conspiracy theory exists on the fringes of conspiracy communities. While it has been somewhat overshadowed by newer and more politically charged conspiracies, it remains a staple within the conspiracy theory ecosystem. Its endurance can be seen as a testament to the human penchant for storytelling and the need to find meaning in an often chaotic world.

The impact of such theories is a double-edged sword. While they can foster a sense of community among believers, they can also lead to social alienation and the erosion of trust in institutions. The spread of such unfounded theories poses challenges for societies, emphasizing the need for critical thinking and media literacy in navigating the complex landscape of modern information.

The lizard people conspiracy theory is a fascinating study in the power of narrative, belief, and the human desire to make sense of the unseen forces shaping our world. While it holds little sway in academic or scientific circles, its evolution and persistence in popular culture underscore the enduring allure of the mysterious and the unexplained.

Recent pop culture and media references

The lizard people conspiracy theory continues to captivate the public imagination, finding its way into various forms of media and popular culture. Recent years have seen a surge in references to this outlandish theory, demonstrating its persistent influence on contemporary discourse.

Television and streaming

Netflix’s animated series “Inside Job” (2021) prominently features lizard people as part of its satirical take on conspiracy theories. The show depicts various celebrities and political figures, including Taylor Swift, Judge Judy, and even Queen Elizabeth II, revealing their “true” reptilian forms. This humorous approach both mocks and acknowledges the pervasiveness of the lizard people myth in popular consciousness.

Numerous other shows, from People of Earth (2016-17) and Secret Invasion (2023) to parodies and satire in The Simpsons, Rick & Morty, and Gravity Falls have echoed and amplified the conspiracy in media.

Even before Icke’s book, the original NBC miniseries “V” in 1983 portrayed carnivorous reptilians masquerading as human-looking “Visitors,” seeking to dominate the planet. The show was a Cold War allegory that some modern-day conspiracy theorists misquote as “proof.”

Social media trends

TikTok has become a hotbed for conspiracy theory content, including discussions about lizard people. A study analyzing 1.5 million TikTok videos shared in the US over three years found that approximately 0.1% of all videos contained content related to conspiracy theories. While this percentage may seem small, it represents a significant number of videos given TikTok’s massive user base.

Podcasts and online content

The enduring fascination with the lizard people conspiracy is evident in the existence of dedicated podcasts like “Lizard People,” which explores various conspiracy theories, including the reptilian elite. Such content creators often blend humor with pseudo-investigation, further embedding the concept in internet culture.

The Lizard People, young dapper and woke crowd, by Midjourney

Video games and interactive media

While not necessarily directly referencing lizard people, a number of video games have incorporated reptilian humanoids or shape-shifting aliens as antagonists, potentially drawing inspiration from or alluding to the conspiracy theory. Some of the more notable examples include Deus Ex (2000), which includes references to various real-world conspiracy theories, with one of its factions, Majestic 12, connecting to theories about reptilian control.

The Mass Effect series includes the Salarians, a reptilian race highly influential in galactic politics. And in 2013’s Saints Row IV, there’s a direct satirical nod to the lizard people conspiracy theory in one of its mission plot lines that involves fighting against shape-shifting aliens infiltrating the government.

Public figure mentions

Although direct endorsements of the lizard people theory by mainstream public figures are rare, occasional references or jokes about the concept by celebrities or politicians can reignite public interest and discussion. However, it’s crucial to approach such mentions critically and verify their context and intent.

The persistence of the lizard people conspiracy in various media forms underscores its role as a cultural touchstone. Whether treated as satire, serious speculation, or a subject of mockery, the theory continues to evolve and adapt to new platforms and audiences — reflecting broader societal anxieties and the enduring human fascination with and craving for the unknown and the extraordinary.

key milestones in the lizard people conspiracy theory

Books about conspiracy theories

Conspiracy Theory Books

More conspiracy theories

Global cabal
Deep state
What is QAnon?
PizzaGate
9/11 conspiracy theories
The Illuminati
Read more

national debt of the united states

In fact, not only are we going further into debt for no good reason, but we’re going further into debt for a bad one — actually, two very bad ones.

The same fiscal hawks that yelled histrionically about refusing to take on debt — even in times of crisis — let the GOP budget bill for FY2026 sail through without a peep despite it adding a debt burden of almost $4 trillion over the next 10 years.

And for what? The first terrible reason is so that a gaggle of wealthy donors can get even wealthier, have more lavish weddings, build ever more elaborate doomsday bunkers, recreate company towns from The Jungle, cavalierly flit off to space, and so on. Never could I have imagined Gilded Age 2.0 would be so dumb.

After screaming bloody murder for literal decades and lecturing Democrats about reckless spending and balanced budgets, the Republicans simply let this gigantic albatross sail right through without so much as a debate. It’s as if the national debt were suddenly the Epstein files — something you should weirdly be ashamed of still caring about after being whipped into a frenzy about it for years (including being cajoled to the Capitol to break the law on behalf of someone who is above the law).

“Reckless spending” is fine when my team does it, seems to be GOP orthodoxy. Future generations be damned — we only think about them under Democratic Presidents. Suddenly, it has become desirable to saddle the nation with more debt for no good reason.

Establishment of a police state

The second terrible rationale for taking the US further into debt is to create a police state in America, with literal concentration camps. Despite campaigning on deporting the alleged set of violent criminals within the undocumented immigrant demographic, Trump and his slavering goon squad have been picking up fathers, landscapers, students who posted things they don’t like on social media, random South Koreans, and anyone Tom Homan thinks looks a little bit too brown. In other words, the government is spending billions and billions of your tax dollars to get rid of hardworking taxpayers — a hateful Dunning-Kruger approach that is toxic both politically and economically.

This GOP tax and spending bill will also empower the federal government to take over Democratic cities — despite the fact that red states have more crime. And to deploy America’s federal law enforcement staff away from national and international crimes like sex trafficking and fraud, and turning them towards’ providing photo ops in DC. Because appearances are all that matter to this particular president and his regime.

All this to create the kind of police state with standing army that the Founders would have laughed out of the room — because they had just fought a bloody war to defeat that kind of autocratic nonsense. With its cash infusion of an eye-popping $171 billion across federal agencies and other new border security and detention facility funding, ICE is poised to become the 4th largest branch of the military — but deployed on home soil, increasingly against Americans.

The GOP Budget Bill in 7 Minutes

Ask the Bill: An HR1 NotebookLM

But you don’t have to take my word for it — here you can talk directly to the bill in natural language, in NotebookLM:

the HR1 GOP tax and spending budget bill for fiscal year 2026, in an interactive NotebookLM

GOP budget bill winners

See a full table of the winners and the new lay of the land and the immense growth of the administrative state that the GOP claims it is trying to eradicate:

Continue reading The GOP budget bill takes the US further into debt for no good reason
Read more

Alexei Navalny, anti-corruption crusader in Russia against Vladimir PUtin

That’s a paraphrase. But it’s descriptive — Alexei Navalny skewered Putin’s Russia for its corruption. And paid a price with his life — because that’s what authoritarian regimes demand: your loyalty or your life. Yet a Russian-style mafia state is the end goal of Trump and his cronies.

Navalny — like the U.S. Founding Fathers did before him — believed in human rights and the dignity of all souls equally before God and rational thought. But Putin — like the Confederates and Nazis before him — believed that some men were better than others, and that people like him should rule over all the rest. They wanted a return to essentially monarchy — but with the modern power and technology of the state of the 21st century, making it an authoritarian political philosophy.

These two ideologies are battling it out in today’s geopolitical landscape. The rise of nationalist and right-wing parties of all stripes across the globe has been unsettling yet unmistakable over these past number of years. Upset victories and near misses have dotted the landscape, as left-wing parties still are (perhaps rightfully) reeling over the idea that anyone could abandon the conviction that societies thrive best when the laws are applied equally, or that it’s probably a bad thing to concentrate too much power into one person’s hands, or that concentration camps are wrong — to name but a few.

Alexei Navalny, anti-corruption crusader in Russia against Vladimir

The right-wing moral universe seems to see the vague suggestion that Hunter Biden once tried (and failed) to broker a meeting with his VP dad as an impeachable offense while Trump hawking his own line of egregiously priced perfumes from the White House, or shilling Teslas on the lawn, or inking multi-billion dollar deals with Saudi Arabia while in office is just business as usual. Nothing to see here.

That’s how the system works — they normalize corruption and bad behavior when it’s a Republican doing it, and criminalize it if a Democrat does. Selective enforcement of the law means there really is no law anymore — it’s just the President’s whim that day. Or should I say, the King’s.

Alexei Navalny: Human rights is the goal of politics

This is the stuff they don’t want anybody to see. This is the very basic demands of a civilized society that we ought to expect — ideas so powerful that men like Vladimir Putin have to kill him in a desperate attempt to make the dangerous idea of self-worth more widely known. They really do not want you to have rights — and this is how far they are willing to go:

Read more

Reagonomics as illustrated by Ronald Reagan sitting atop a huge pile of money

Trickle down economics is known by a number of names: supply side economics, Reaganomics, the Laffer Curve, voodoo economics, deregulation, Libertarianism, Mudsill Theory, Two Santa Claus theory, horse and sparrow theory, and the Trump tax cuts, to name a few. It has been espoused by everyone from Ayn Rand to Milton Friedman to Alan Greenspan to Gordon Gecko.

Trickle down economics involves focusing the brunt of government effort on helping the wealthy, at the expense of the middle class and the poor. The theory says that the wealthy elites of the country have proven themselves capable patricians for stewarding the lives of the masses through myth and fairytale in the name of patriotic duty. The “supply” in supply side are the rich, who will create companies that sell products to people who didn’t even realize they needed them. If we give enough of our collective tax pool to them, they say, they’ll create jobs and prosperity for everyone else.

The problem for trickle down economics is that that isn’t true at all. It simply doesn’t happen. Time and time again over the past approximately 200 years, the ideology of rewarding the wealthy for being wealthy has proven its premises to be completely false. Deregulation and starving the government don’t produce a prosperous utopia — they produce recessions and depressions. They produce conglomerates too big to fail, that get rewarded for their brazenly irresponsible speculation with Main Street’s money, and flaunt their ability to simply capture government in our collective faces.

Trickle down economics since the 1970s

In its most recent incarnation as trickle-down, supply-side, or Reagonomics, tax cuts are pitched as paying for themselves when they have in actual fact succeeded in blowing up the deficit and the national debt. The work of Arthur Laffer and Jude Wanniski at a fateful meeting with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in 1974, trickle-down economic theory was put into practice during the Reagan years and has been failing to produce the promised results of paying down the debt for almost half a century.

Jude Wanniski’s “Two Santa Claus” strategy laid the political groundwork for what would soon be branded as supply-side, or trickle-down, economics. Observing in the 1970s that Democrats played “Santa” by expanding popular social programs, Wanniski warned Republicans that positioning themselves as the party of spending cuts cast them as the “anti-Santa.” His fix was simple but potent: become a second Santa by promising sweeping tax cuts. Republicans, he argued, could shower voters with fiscal “gifts” while leaving beloved programs intact, sidestepping the backlash that traditionally followed austerity talk.

This tactical reframing meshed perfectly with the emerging supply-side creed. By asserting that lower taxes on corporations and high earners spur investment, production, and ultimately broad prosperity, Republicans could claim that their giveaways weren’t merely political theater—they were an economic necessity. The brilliance (and cynicism) of the scheme was its indifference to short-term deficits: ballooning red ink would corner future Democratic administrations into either raising taxes or cutting spending, both politically toxic options.

In practice, the Two Santa Claus playbook flipped classical, demand-driven thinking on its head. Rather than boosting middle-class wages to stoke consumption, it poured resources into the top of the income ladder and trusted prosperity to “trickle down.” The approach reached full throttle in the Reagan era—taxes slashed, spending still high—and its legacy endures: chronic deficits, rising inequality, and an ongoing partisan tug-of-war over who pays the bill.

increasing national debt ratio thanks to trickle down economics scam

The Big, Beautiful, Debt-Ballooning Bill

Look no further than the monstrosity of a bill the Republicans are trying to jam through the reconciliation process. Expected to make the 2017 Trump tax cuts a permanent welfare handout to the wealthiest billionaires on the planet, the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” is also slated to add $4 trillion to the national debt.

We can’t keep going on this way.

It’s long past time we undertake the difficult work of educating the population more broadly about this GOP economics scam that’s been running for the past 50 years and running up the till while nurturing a truly nasty partisan political divide as insult to injury.

Trickle down doesn’t work. Tax cuts to billionaires doesn’t work — at least, not for anyone other than the billionaires and political elite class. We need an economic system that works broadly for everyone, otherwise sooner or later it all comes crashing down and we are in for a (literal) world of hurt.

Related concepts:

Read more

Christian nationalism illustration

The term Christian nationalists brings together a number of radical religious sects seeking to overthrow the democratic republic of the United States and installing a strict theocracy, from dominionists to orthodox Catholics to Evangelicals and many more. Christian nationalist organizations work to increase the influence of religion on politics, under the invented mythology that the largely Deist founders meant to establish a Christian state.

Who are the Christian nationalists? They are people, groups, and congregations who tend to believe in Strict Father Morality, and Christian nationalist leaders desire to establish some sort of Christian fascist theocratic state in America. Nevermind that religious freedom and the ability to worship as one pleases was precisely one of the major founding ideals of the United States, as we know from the many, many outside writings of the founders at that time — these folks consider that context “irrelevant” to the literal text of the founding documents.

Getting “separation of state” backwards

Prominent Christian nationalist David Barton re-interprets the famous 1802 Thomas Jefferson letter to the Danbury Baptists to allege support for a “one-way wall” between church and state. Barton contends that Jefferson’s metaphor of a “wall of separation” was intended to protect religious institutions from government interference rather than ensuring the government’s secular nature. By advocating for this one-directional barrier, Barton seeks to justify the integration of religious principles into public policy and government actions — improbably, given the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Barton and his fellow Christian nationalists are either intentionally or unfathomably not taking the logical next step in the chain of power and authority: if the government is informed, infused, or even consumed by religious dogma and doctrine, then is that government not by definition infringing on the rights of any citizens that happens not to believe in that code or creed?

The answer, as we well know from the colonization of America itself, is YES. We left the Church of England in large part to worship of our own accord — and to make money, of course. Madison, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, and Washington were especially concerned about religious liberty and the neutrality of government in religious matters.

Thus, in large part, the ideas of the Christian nationalists are misinterpretations at best, and willful invention at worst. In some it is clearly a naked power grab and not much more — think of Trump holding an upside-down Bible in Lafayette Square. In general, Christian nationalism doesn’t actually seem very Christian at all.

Whether they are True Believers or Opportunistic Cynics, the Christian nationalist organizations and right wing groups on this list — as well as a number of prominent individuals within these organizations — represent a threat to democracy as we know it — especially with Project 2025 so close to coming to fruition in a second Trump administration. Best we get a look at who they are.

Christian nationalists abstract
Continue reading Christian Nationalist Organizations and Groups
Read more

What is RT.com? If you’ve been following international news in recent years, you’ve likely encountered content from RT — the state-owned Russian news service formerly known as Russia Today. But what exactly is this network, and why does it matter in our global information landscape?

The Birth of a Propaganda Powerhouse

RT didn’t emerge out of nowhere. Back in 2005, the Russian government launched “Russia Today” with a substantial $30 million in state funding. The official mission? To counter what the Kremlin perceived as Western media dominance and improve Russia’s global image.

What’s fascinating is how they approached this mission. Margarita Simonyan, appointed as editor-in-chief at just 25 years old, strategically recruited foreign journalists to give the network an air of international credibility. By 2009, they rebranded to the sleeker “RT” — a deliberate move to distance themselves from their obvious Russian state origins.

While RT initially focused on cultural diplomacy (showcasing Russian culture and perspectives), its mission shifted dramatically after the 2008 Russia-Georgia war. The network increasingly pivoted toward anti-Western narratives — a strategy that continues to this day.

How RT Spreads Disinformation

RT’s playbook is both sophisticated and concerning. The network regularly promotes conspiracy theories about everything from COVID-19 origins to U.S. election fraud. It strategically amplifies divisive issues in Western societies, particularly racial tensions in America.

The coverage of the Ukraine war offers a perfect case study in RT’s propaganda techniques. Their reporting consistently and erroneously:

  • Blames NATO for the conflict
  • Denies Russian war crimes (despite Hague warrant for Putin’s arrest)
  • Frames the invasion as a “special operation” to “denazify” Ukraine (led by a Jewish president)

What makes RT particularly effective is its tailored regional messaging. In Africa, they operate “African Stream,” a covert platform promoting pro-Russian sentiment. In the Balkans, RT Balkan (based in Serbia) helps circumvent EU sanctions while spreading Kremlin-aligned content. Meanwhile, their Spanish-language expansion targets Latin American audiences with anti-Western narratives.

Beyond Media: Covert Operations

Perhaps most concerning is evidence suggesting RT extends far beyond conventional media operations. U.S. officials have alleged that RT funneled $10 million to pro-Trump influencers ahead of the 2024 election, leading to Department of Justice indictments of RT staff.

The network reportedly recruits social media influencers under fake accounts to obscure Russian involvement. More alarmingly, RT-associated platforms allegedly supply equipment (including drones, radios, and body armor) to Russian forces in Ukraine, with some materials sourced from China.

According to U.S. intelligence assessments, RT hosts a clandestine unit focused on global influence operations — blurring the line between media and intelligence work.

Money and Organization

As with any major operation, following the money tells an important story. RT’s annual funding has grown exponentially — from $30 million at its founding to $400 million by 2015. For the 2022-2024 period, the Russian government allocated a staggering 82 billion rubles.

The network’s organizational structure is deliberately complex. RT operates under ANO TV-Novosti (a nonprofit founded by RIA Novosti) and Rossiya Segodnya (a state media conglomerate established in 2013). Its subsidiaries include Ruptly (a video agency), Redfish, and Maffick (digital media platforms).

Staying One Step Ahead of Sanctions

Despite being banned in the EU and U.S. following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, RT continues to expand its reach in Africa, Latin America, and Serbia. The network has proven remarkably adaptable at circumventing restrictions — using proxy outlets like “Red” in Germany and RT Balkan in Serbia to bypass sanctions.

The international response has been significant but inconsistent. The U.S. designated RT a foreign agent in 2017, the EU banned it in 2022, and Meta removed RT from its platforms in 2024. The U.S. has also launched campaigns to expose RT’s ties to Russian intelligence and limit its global operations.

Why This Matters

RT exemplifies modern hybrid warfare — blending traditional state media with covert influence operations and intelligence activities to advance Kremlin interests globally. Despite sanctions and increasing awareness of its true nature, RT’s adaptability and substantial funding ensure its continued reach.

For those of us concerned about information integrity and democratic resilience, understanding RT’s operations isn’t just academic — it’s essential for navigating our increasingly complex media landscape.

Read more

Historian Heather Cox Richardson speaks at Boston's Old North Church on the 250th anniversary of the lighting of the lanterns

One of my favorite historians, Professor Richardson is a kind of north star to train your eyes on in making sense of this peculiarly unsettling moment in time. While any Heather Cox Richardson speech is worth your time, this one at Boston’s Old North Church — in commemoration of the anniversary of the lighting of the lanterns there in 1775 — deserves special mention for its sweeping yet intimate detail view of revolutionary sentiment in the colonies under waning British rule.

Professor Richardson has a true gift for both making centuries’-old history seem strikingly relevant today, as well as for analyzing today’s news through the lens of the long-term, clarifying its causes, and tempering it with context. A question we thought settled long ago — whether we are to be ruled by an all-powerful king whose power is unchecked by any force — has disturbingly resurfaced as Donald Trump convincingly play-acts (or perhaps naturally embodies) the role of mad king. Here she weaves the tale of revolutionaries in the late 18th century throwing off the mad king of their time, as an inspiration to those of us inexplicably confronting this same problem again in 2025.

Heather Cox Richardson speech summary

I would encourage everybody to watch or read the speech in full (as well as check out HCR’s other brilliant books) as it’s well worth your time — but for those short on the irreplaceable stuff, here’s a summary:

Continue reading One if by land, two if by sea: this Heather Cox Richardson speech reminds us of revolutionary people power
Read more

What’s the difference between conservatives and reactionaries?

In short:

A conservative wants to preserve the status quo (or change it slowly).
A reactionary wants to reverse progress and return to a previous order — often an idealized or mythologized past.

The Core Difference:

ConservativeReactionary
Wants to conserve existing institutions, traditions, and social order.Wants to restore a past order — often rejecting modernity altogether.
Accepts some gradual change if necessary to preserve stability.Sees recent changes (modernization, liberalization) as corruptions that must be undone.
May negotiate with progress or adapt slowly.Opposes progress on principle — progress is the problem.

Historical Example:

Conservative:

→ Edmund Burke opposed the French Revolution, but didn’t want to destroy parliamentary government. He wanted to preserve traditions and institutions to prevent chaos.

Reactionary:

→ Joseph de Maistre welcomed authoritarian monarchy and theocracy after the French Revolution, believing divine right rule was the only cure for societal decay.

In Modern Terms:

  • A conservative in America might say: “We shouldn’t rush into sweeping changes — we need to preserve family values, religious freedom, and limited government.”
  • A reactionary might say: “Modern society is degenerate. We need to abolish democracy, bring back monarchy or biblical law, and return to the way things were before feminism, secularism, or civil rights.”

Where It Gets Tricky:

Many reactionaries call themselves conservatives — especially in American politics — because “reactionary” is usually a pejorative term today.

But ideologically:

  • Conservatives = cautious, incremental, defensive of the present order.
  • Reactionaries = revanchist, nostalgic, hostile to modernity.

In Summary:

All reactionaries are right-wing extremists, but not all conservatives are reactionaries.

Conservatives defend the status quo.
Reactionaries want to roll back history.

Spectrum of Political Attitudes Towards Change

Position Attitude Toward Change View of the Past View of the Future Examples
Radical / Revolutionary Overthrow existing system Irrelevant or oppressive past Build something entirely new Anarchists, Communists, Revolutionaries
Progressive / Liberal Reform existing system Learn from past mistakes Improve society incrementally Social Democrats, Democratic Socialists, Liberals
Conservative Preserve system as-is or allow very slow change Respect traditions Stability is more important than change Traditional Conservatives, Libertarians (sometimes)
Reactionary Undo modern changes, return to past order The past was better / pure Restore lost greatness Christian Nationalists, Monarchists, Theocrats, Fascists
Read more

From history’s heroes to today’s cartoonish villains, it’s important to understand who is behind the events we revere or revile. Although I don’t subscribe to the Great Man Theory — the idea that only exceptional people largely shape the course of events — I do believe in celebrating (or vilifying!) the individuals who are known for doing important things in the world.

Right-Wing Players

I also have a growing body of research on the interconnections and networks amongst key figures in the right-wing ecosystem, but in present day and decades past. Explore the people and connections in my Kumu mind map.

my Kumu mind map of right-wing people and connections
Read more

Logical fallacies are errors in reasoning that occur when arguments are constructed or evaluated. They are deceptive and misleading, often leading to false or weak conclusions. Recognizing and avoiding logical fallacies is essential for critical thinking and effective communication.

These flaws in rhetorical logic can be observed aplenty in modern political and civil discourse. They are among the easiest types of argument to dispel, because their basic type has been discredited and compiled together with other discarded forms of rational persuasion, to make sure that ensuing generations don’t fall for the same tired old unethical ideas.

By understanding and identifying these common logical fallacies, individuals can sharpen their critical thinking skills and engage in more productive, rational discussions. Recognizing fallacies also helps avoid being swayed by deceptive or unsound arguments — which abound in increasing volume thanks to the prevalence of misinformation, disinformation, and disingenuous forms of motivated reasoning.

In an age of information overload, critical thinking has never been more essential. Whether you’re analyzing a news story, debating with friends, or writing a persuasive essay, your ability to recognize and avoid faulty reasoning can be the difference between clarity and confusion, persuasion and propaganda. At the heart of this effort lies this powerful concept of logical fallacies.

Types of logical fallacies

Logical fallacies fall into one of two main clusters:

Formal Fallacies

Formal fallacies occur when there’s a flaw in the logical structure of an argument, rendering the conclusion invalid—even if the premises are true. Think of formal fallacies as broken logic circuits: they don’t connect, even if the parts look sound.

Example:

If it’s raining, the ground is wet. The ground is wet, therefore it must be raining.
(This is a classic fallacy known as affirming the consequent.)

Informal Fallacies

Informal fallacies, on the other hand, relate to the content of the argument rather than its structure. These occur when the premises don’t adequately support the conclusion, even if the structure appears valid.

These informal logical fallacies are more common in everyday conversation and rhetoric. Informal fallacies usually stem from misused language, assumptions, or appeals to emotion rather than flawed logic alone. They’re trickier to spot because they often feel intuitive or persuasive.

Example:

  • Everyone’s doing it, so it must be right.
    (This is the bandwagon fallacy—popular doesn’t mean correct.)

Within each of these two clusters is a number of different logical fallacies, each with its own pitfalls. Here are a few examples:

The Straw Man argument, illustrated
  1. Ad Hominem: This fallacy attacks the person making the argument rather than the argument itself. For instance, dismissing someone’s opinion on climate change because they’re not a scientist is an ad hominem fallacy.
  2. Straw Man: This involves misrepresenting an opponent’s argument to make it easier to attack. If someone argues for better healthcare and is accused of wanting “socialized medicine,” that’s a straw man.
  3. Appeal to Authority: This fallacy relies on the opinion of an “expert” who may not actually be qualified in the relevant field. Just because a celebrity endorses a product doesn’t mean it’s effective.
  4. False Dichotomy: This fallacy presents only two options when, in fact, more exist. For example, stating that “you’re either with us or against us” oversimplifies complex issues.
  5. Slippery Slope: This fallacy argues that a single action will inevitably lead to a series of negative events, without providing evidence for such a chain reaction.
  6. Circular Reasoning: In this fallacy, the conclusion is used as a premise, creating a loop that lacks substantive proof. Saying “I’m trustworthy because I say I am” is an example.
  7. Hasty Generalization: This involves making a broad claim based on insufficient evidence. For instance, meeting two rude people from a city and concluding that everyone from that city is rude is a hasty generalization.

Understanding logical fallacies equips you to dissect arguments critically, making you a more informed participant in discussions. It’s a skill that’s invaluable in both professional and personal settings. Arm yourself with knowledge about this list of logical fallacies:

FallacyDefinitionExample
Ad HominemAttacking the person instead of addressing their argument“You can’t trust his economic policy ideas. He’s been divorced three times!”
Appeal to AuthorityUsing an authority’s opinion as definitive proof without addressing the argument itself“Dr. Smith has a PhD, so her view on climate change must be correct.”
Appeal to EmotionManipulating emotions instead of using valid reasoning“Think of the children who will suffer if you don’t support this policy!”
Appeal to NatureArguing that because something is natural, it is good, valid, or justified“Herbal supplements are better than medication because they’re natural.”
Appeal to TraditionArguing that something is right because it’s been done that way for a long time“We’ve always had this company policy, so we shouldn’t change it.”
Bandwagon FallacyAppealing to popularity as evidence of truth“Everyone is buying this product, so it must be good.”
Begging the QuestionCircular reasoning where the conclusion is included in the premise“The Bible is true because it’s the word of God, and we know it’s the word of God because the Bible says so.”
Black-and-White FallacyPresenting only two options when more exist“Either we cut the entire program, or we’ll go bankrupt.”
Cherry PickingSelectively using data that supports your position while ignoring contradictory evidence“Global warming can’t be real because it snowed last winter.”
Correlation vs. CausationAssuming that because two events occur together, one caused the other“Ice cream sales and drowning deaths both increase in summer, so ice cream causes drowning.”
EquivocationUsing a word with more than one meaning in a misleading way“Evolution is just a theory, so it shouldn’t be taught as fact.” (Equivocating between scientific theory and casual speculation)
Fallacy of CompositionInferring that something is true of the whole because it’s true of a part“This cell is invisible to the naked eye, so the whole animal must be invisible too.”
Fallacy of DivisionInferring that something is true of the parts because it’s true of the whole“The university has an excellent reputation, so every professor there must be excellent.”
Genetic FallacyEvaluating an argument based on its origins rather than its merits“That idea came from a socialist country, so it must be bad.”
Hasty GeneralizationDrawing a general conclusion from a sample that is too small or biased“I had two bad meals at restaurants in Italy, so Italian cuisine is terrible.”
Middle Ground FallacyAssuming that a compromise between two extremes must be correct“Some people say the Earth is flat, others say it’s round. The truth must be that it’s somewhat flat and somewhat round.”
No True ScotsmanRedefining terms to exclude counterexamples“No true environmentalist would drive an SUV.” When shown an environmentalist who drives an SUV: “Well, they’re not a true environmentalist then.”
Post Hoc Ergo Propter HocAssuming that because B followed A, A caused B“I wore my lucky socks and we won the game, so my socks caused our victory.”
Red HerringIntroducing an irrelevant topic to divert attention from the original issue“Why worry about environmental problems when there are so many people who can’t find jobs?”
Slippery SlopeArguing that a small first step will inevitably lead to extreme consequences“If we allow same-sex marriage, next people will want to marry their pets!”
Straw ManMisrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack“Vegetarians say we should eat no meat at all and let farmers go out of business.” (When they actually argue for reduced meat consumption)
Texas SharpshooterCherry-picking data clusters to fit a pattern“Look at these cancer cases clustered in this neighborhood – it must be caused by the power lines!” (While ignoring similar neighborhoods with power lines but no cancer clusters)
Tu QuoqueAvoiding criticism by turning it back on the accuser“You say I should quit smoking, but you used to smoke too!”
Burden of ProofClaiming something is true while putting the burden to disprove it on others“I believe in ghosts. Prove to me that they don’t exist.”

How to identify logical fallacies

Spotting fallacies takes practice, but these tips can help sharpen your skills:

  • Slow down and dissect the argument. Look at the premises and conclusion—do they logically connect?
  • Watch for emotional appeals. If an argument relies more on stirring feelings than presenting evidence, be cautious.
  • Ask: what’s being left out? Many fallacies omit key context or alternate explanations.
  • Compare to real-world examples. Would the logic hold up elsewhere?

Everyday example:
“If we allow students to redo assignments, next they’ll expect to retake tests, and eventually no deadlines will matter at all.”
— This is a slippery slope fallacy. One action doesn’t necessarily lead to an extreme outcome.

Why avoiding logical fallacies matters

Logical fallacies don’t just weaken arguments—they erode trust, obscure truth, and inflame discourse. Here’s why learning to avoid them is critical:

  • In personal arguments: Fallacies can escalate tension and derail meaningful conversation.
  • In academic writing: Sound reasoning is the backbone of scholarship; fallacies undermine credibility.
  • In public discourse and media: Propaganda and misinformation often rely on fallacious reasoning to manipulate opinion. Recognizing these tactics is key to resisting them.

In a world where bad actors exploit fallacies for influence and profit, being fallacy-literate is a form of intellectual self-defense.

Logical fallacies quiz

Want to see if you know your logical fallacies? Just take our handy quiz and get them on lock as part of your foundational knowledge and model thinking library.

Logical Fallacies Quiz
Logical Fallacies Quiz

Test your knowledge of logical fallacies! Choose a quiz mode:

Score: 0/0
Definitions Mode
Return to Menu
Definition:
Which logical fallacy is this?
(Currently showing: Definition)
Example:
Which logical fallacy is demonstrated in this example?
(Currently showing: Example)

Read more related to logical fallacies:

30 Common Psychological Biases ↗

These systematic errors in our thinking and logic affect our everyday choices, behaviors, and evaluations of others.

28 Cognitive Distortions ↗

Cognitive distortions are bad mental habits. They’re patterns of thinking that tend to be negatively slanted, inaccurate, and often repetitive.

Think Better with Mental Models ↗

Mental models are a kind of strategic building blocks we can use to make sense of the world around us.

Read more

Vera Rubin, astronomer, smiling in her lab

Vera Rubin: The Woman Who Proved Dark Matter Exists

In the pantheon of revolutionary astronomers who fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe, Vera Rubin stands as a towering figure whose work revealed that the cosmos is vastly different than we had imagined. Her meticulous observations and brilliant analysis led to one of the most profound discoveries in modern astronomy: the existence of dark matter. This invisible substance, which makes up approximately 85% of all matter in the universe, has reshaped our understanding of cosmology and continues to be one of science‘s greatest mysteries.

Early Life and Education

Born on July 23, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Vera Florence Cooper showed an early fascination with the night sky. As a young girl, she would watch the stars from her bedroom window, tracking their movements and developing a passion that would guide her life’s work. Her father, an electrical engineer, encouraged her scientific curiosity and helped her build a simple telescope when she was just a teenager.

Despite societal expectations that often steered women away from science in the mid-20th century, Vera pursued her astronomical dreams with determination. In 1948, she graduated from Vassar College as the only astronomy major in her class. Her academic journey continued at Cornell University, where she earned her master’s degree in 1951 while studying under renowned physicists, including quantum mechanics pioneer Hans Bethe.

When applying to Princeton for doctoral studies, Rubin faced her first significant barrier—the university didn’t accept women into its astronomy program at that time. Undeterred, she enrolled at Georgetown University, balancing her studies with raising children and commuting long distances. In 1954, she completed her Ph.D. with a dissertation on galaxy motions that challenged existing theories about how galaxies are distributed in space.

Early Career and Challenges

The road for female scientists in the 1950s and 1960s was fraught with obstacles. When Rubin presented her research at scientific meetings, she often faced skepticism not because of her data or methods, but because of her gender. At one astronomical conference, she was forced to present her paper in her husband’s name. On another occasion, after giving a talk at the prestigious Palomar Observatory, she was informed that women weren’t allowed to use the facility’s telescope—there wasn’t even a women’s restroom in the building.

Despite these challenges and the deep-seated sexism of her day, Rubin’s scientific acumen couldn’t be denied. While at Cornell, she conducted important research on galaxy motions and proposed the existence of a supergalactic plane—a concept that was initially dismissed but later confirmed. After a stint teaching at Georgetown, she joined the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in 1965, beginning what would become her most productive scientific period.

Groundbreaking Work on Dark Matter

At Carnegie, Rubin began a fruitful collaboration with instrument maker Kent Ford, whose spectrograph allowed for precise measurements of galactic rotation. Their partnership would lead to one of astronomy’s most significant discoveries.

In 1968, Rubin and Ford turned their attention to the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way. According to established Newtonian physics and what astronomers understood about gravity, stars at the outer edges of spiral galaxies should orbit more slowly than those near the center—just as planets farther from the sun move more slowly in their orbits. But what Rubin and Ford observed defied these expectations.

Their measurements revealed something astonishing: stars in the outer regions of Andromeda were rotating at the same speed as those near the galactic center. This “flat rotation curve” was a profound anomaly that couldn’t be explained by the visible matter in the galaxy. To account for this unexpected motion, Rubin concluded that galaxies must contain vast amounts of invisible mass—what we now call dark matter—extending far beyond their visible boundaries.

Further studies of dozens, and eventually hundreds, of spiral galaxies confirmed this pattern wasn’t unique to Andromeda. Rubin’s calculations suggested that over 90% of galaxy mass must be composed of this invisible substance. The universe, it seemed, was primarily made of something we couldn’t see.

Impact and Recognition

Rubin’s discovery provided the first convincing observational evidence for dark matter, a concept that had been theoretically proposed but never definitively observed. This revelation fundamentally changed our understanding of the cosmos, forcing astronomers to reckon with the fact that the vast majority of the universe’s mass is composed of something entirely different from the stars, planets, and galaxies we can see.

For her groundbreaking work, Rubin received numerous accolades, including the National Medal of Science (1993)—the highest scientific honor in the United States—and the Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal (1996), an award previously given to Einstein and Hawking. However, despite her revolutionary contributions, she was never awarded the Nobel Prize, an omission many in the scientific community consider one of the prize committee’s greatest oversights.

Astronomer Vera Rubin who discovered dark matter

Legacy

Beyond her scientific achievements, Vera Rubin was a passionate advocate for women in science. Throughout her career, she mentored aspiring female astronomers and fought against the gender discrimination she had faced. She once wrote, “I live and work with three basic assumptions: 1) There is no problem in science that can be solved by a man that cannot be solved by a woman; 2) Worldwide, half of all brains are in women; 3) We all need permission to do science, but, for reasons that are deeply ingrained in history, this permission is more often given to men than to women.”

Her advocacy bore fruit; by the time of her later career, she had helped pave the way for a new generation of female astronomers who faced fewer barriers than she had.

Rubin continued her research until late in life, publishing her last scientific paper at age 88, just months before her death on December 25, 2016. Her legacy lives on not only in her scientific discoveries but also in the institutions and projects that bear her name. Most notably, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction in Chile and set to begin observations in 2025, will conduct an unprecedented survey of the universe, continuing her work of unraveling cosmic mysteries.

The story of Vera Rubin is one of scientific brilliance, perseverance, and the courage to challenge established thinking. Her work revealed that our understanding of the universe was fundamentally incomplete, opening new frontiers in cosmology that scientists continue to explore today. The dark matter she discovered remains one of science’s great unsolved mysteries, ensuring that her influence on astronomy will endure for generations to come.

As she once said, “Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions.” Few scientists have altered our preconceptions as profoundly as Vera Rubin.

Read more

A Comprehensive Timeline of Russian Electoral Interference: From Imperial Russia to the Digital Age

Russian election interference around the globe has a much longer history than most people realize, extending back centuries rather than decades. This interference has evolved alongside Russia‘s own political transformations, from imperial ambitions to Soviet ideology to modern geopolitical objectives under Vladimir Putin. Recent actions, particularly during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, represent not an anomaly but the continuation and evolution of long-established patterns of behavior designed to shape foreign politics to Russian advantage.

The Imperial Russian Roots of Electoral Interference

Russia’s involvement in foreign electoral politics dates back to the early 18th century. Following a period when Poland had been the dominant power that once occupied Moscow, the tables turned as Russia grew in strength. Under Peter the Great and his successors, Russia began systematically meddling in Poland’s electoral politics by bribing Polish nobles to vote against attempts to strengthen the Polish central government and national army. This early form of interference was aimed at keeping a neighboring power weak and malleable to Russian interests.

This pattern culminated at the end of the 18th century when Russia, alongside Austria and Prussia, partitioned the Polish state among themselves, effectively erasing Poland from the map. Poland would remain part of the Russian Empire until World War I when it finally regained independence. This early example established a precedent that would continue in various forms through subsequent Russian regimes.

The Birth of Soviet Electoral Interference

After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet approach to electoral interference took on an ideological dimension. In 1919, Vladimir Lenin founded the Communist International (Comintern), an organization designed to unite communist parties worldwide and foment revolution abroad. The Comintern distributed funding and supported propaganda operations in various countries to help communist parties compete more effectively in elections, with the ultimate goal of having these parties assume power and eventually abolish national borders.

While Lenin’s vision of global communist revolution was not realized, the Comintern’s activities generated significant paranoia in Western democracies like the United States and United Kingdom, where fears of Soviet manipulation of democratic processes took root. This marked the beginning of a more systematic approach to electoral interference that would be refined during the Soviet era.

Post-World War II: Aggressive Soviet Electoral Manipulation

After World War II, the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin aggressively interfered in elections across Eastern Europe, particularly in countries like East Germany, Hungary, and Poland. These operations foreshadowed many tactics that would later be employed by Putin’s Russia. The Soviet Union manipulated voter rolls, falsified vote counts, and distributed massive amounts of propaganda through posters, pamphlets, and leaflets to influence public opinion.

These elections were effectively rigged, resulting in communist parties coming to power across Eastern Europe and subsequently ending competitive elections in these nations. This period represents one of the most successful campaigns of electoral interference in modern history, as it resulted in the establishment of Soviet-aligned governments throughout the Eastern Bloc.

Continue reading Russian Election Interference Timeline: 18th century to present
Read more

Fake News, illustrated to accompany Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

A Summary and Review of Neil Postman’s Prophetic Analysis

Neil Postman’s 1985 masterpiece, “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” stands as one of the most prescient cultural critiques of our time. Though written specifically about television’s impact on American public discourse, its insights have only gained relevance in today’s internet-dominated world. This book offers an essential framework for understanding how entertainment values have infiltrated and transformed our political landscape.

Book Summary

Postman’s Central Argument

At its core, Postman’s thesis is elegantly simple yet profound: the medium through which we communicate fundamentally shapes what we communicate. The form of our discourse defines its content and limits what ideas can be effectively expressed. In Postman’s analysis, television—with its emphasis on visual stimulation, fragmentation, and entertainment—inevitably transforms all content into entertainment, regardless of its significance or purpose.

Postman begins by establishing a crucial distinction between two dystopian visions: George Orwell’s 1984 with its authoritarian Newspeak and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Where Orwell feared those who would ban books and restrict information, Huxley feared that we would become a trivial culture, where there would be no reason to ban books because no one would want to read them. Postman argues that Huxley’s fear, not Orwell’s, was prophetic—we are being undone not by oppression but by our appetite for distraction.

The Transition from Typography to Television

A significant portion of the book is devoted to contrasting America’s earlier print-based culture with its television-dominated present. Postman characterizes the 18th and 19th centuries as the “Age of Exposition,” where rational, linear, complex arguments could flourish. By contrast, the late 20th century represented the “Age of Show Business,” where entertainment values reign supreme.

In the typographic age, Postman argues, public discourse was coherent, serious, and rational. He points to the Lincoln-Douglas debates, where audiences would listen attentively to hours of complex argumentation, as emblematic of this era. The written word, by its nature, encourages abstract and critical thinking, logical organization, and sustained attention.

Television, by contrast, communicates primarily through images that appeal to emotions rather than reason. Its content is necessarily fragmented, decontextualized, and designed to entertain rather than inform. Postman coins the phrase “peek-a-boo world” to describe how television presents disconnected snippets of information without context or coherence. The medium’s “Now…This” approach to news presentation—where a serious story about war might be followed immediately by a commercial or light-hearted feature—creates a world where everything is presented with equal weight and significance.

The Consequences for Public Discourse

According to Postman, television’s transformation of discourse into entertainment has profound consequences for how we understand and engage with politics, religion, education, and other serious domains of public life.

In politics, substance gives way to image; complex policy discussions are replaced by personality contests and emotional appeals. Campaigns become marketing exercises rather than forums for substantive debate. Politicians are judged not by their ideas but by their ability to entertain and create compelling visual narratives.

In education, the emphasis shifts from developing critical thinking to making learning “fun” and visually stimulating. Serious engagement with ideas becomes secondary to keeping students entertained and engaged through spectacle.

Even religion, when adapted to television, becomes a form of entertainment—with telegenic preachers, emotional music, and simplified messaging replacing theological depth and contemplative practice.

Amusing Ourselves to Death looks at how TV turns even serious news into sheer entertainment

Relevance to the Internet Age

Though written before the rise of the internet, social media, and smartphones, Postman’s analysis has proven remarkably applicable to our current media landscape. If anything, the trends he identified have accelerated and intensified in the digital age.

Amplification of Television’s Effects

The internet has magnified many of television’s problematic aspects. Information is even more fragmented, attention spans shorter, and the line between news and entertainment increasingly blurred. Social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook prioritize emotional engagement and entertainment value over informational substance or accuracy.

The smartphone has brought this entertainment-centered approach to communication into every moment of our lives. We now carry the means of constant distraction in our pockets, available at any moment when serious thought or engagement becomes uncomfortable.

New Challenges in the Digital Era

The internet age has also introduced new dimensions that Postman couldn’t have fully anticipated. Unlike television, which created passive consumers of content, social media has transformed us into active “prosumers” who both consume and produce content. This has democratized media creation but also accelerated the spread of disinformation and misinformation and further blurred the line between fact and fiction.

The algorithmic nature of content delivery has created filter bubbles where users primarily encounter information that confirms their existing beliefs. This has contributed to political polarization and the fragmentation of shared reality that Postman warned about.

The constant stream of notifications, updates, and new content has further diminished our capacity for sustained attention and deep engagement with complex ideas. We increasingly consume information in bite-sized chunks optimized for maximum emotional impact rather than intellectual substance.

Political Implications

Nowhere are Postman’s insights more relevant than in the realm of politics. The rise of political figures who excel at entertainment but lack substantive policy knowledge illustrates his core thesis. Political discourse increasingly resembles reality television, with emphasis on conflict, personality, and emotional appeals rather than thoughtful policy debate.

The proliferation of conspiracy theories and misinformation highlights another consequence of entertainment-driven discourse: when emotional resonance matters more than factual accuracy, truth itself becomes relative and subject to entertainment value. We can no longer tell fact from fiction or truth from lying — which is incredibly problematic for a democracy fueled by good decision-making.

Critical Analysis

Strengths of Postman’s Arguments

Postman’s greatest strength lies in his ability to connect the structural properties of media with their cultural effects. Rather than simply lamenting the content of television programming, he demonstrates how the medium itself shapes what can be communicated through it. This media ecology approach provides a powerful framework for understanding not just television but all forms of communication technology.

His recognition that we face a Huxleyan rather than Orwellian threat has proven extraordinarily prescient. The greatest danger to democracy is not censorship but the voluntary surrender of our capacity for critical thinking in exchange for endless entertainment.

Postman’s clear, engaging prose makes complex media theory accessible without sacrificing intellectual rigor. He practices what he preaches by presenting his arguments in a linear, logical fashion that demands and rewards careful reading.

Limitations and Counterarguments

Despite his prescience, Postman occasionally romanticizes the age of print, overlooking the ways in which books and newspapers could also distort or trivialize important issues. The “golden age” of rational discourse he describes had significant limitations in terms of who could participate and what perspectives were represented.

Some critics argue that Postman underestimates people’s ability to engage critically with visual media. Television and internet content are not inherently incapable of conveying complex ideas, though they may make it more difficult.

Postman’s focus on the negative aspects of electronic media also leads him to downplay potential benefits, such as increased access to information, the ability to witness distant events firsthand, and new forms of community building. The digital age has enabled important social movements and given voice to previously marginalized perspectives in ways that merit acknowledgment.

Personal Reflection: The Allure of Political Entertainment

What makes Postman’s analysis so valuable today is its ability to explain the phenomenon of political entertainment. The transformation of politics into a branch of the entertainment industry has profoundly altered how we select and evaluate our leaders.

Political campaigns increasingly resemble reality television competitions, complete with dramatic confrontations, personality-based narratives, and emotionally charged moments designed to go viral. Policy discussions, when they occur at all, are simplified to sound bites and slogans rather than substantive analysis.

The result is a political culture where entertainment value often trumps competence, where the ability to capture attention matters more than the ability to govern effectively. This helps explain why political figures with backgrounds in entertainment have gained prominence, and why traditional politicians increasingly adopt the tactics of entertainers.

Perhaps most concerning is how this entertainment-driven approach to politics has eroded our shared foundation of facts. When politics becomes primarily about emotional engagement rather than problem-solving, truth becomes secondary to narrative appeal. We increasingly select our facts based on their compatibility with our preferred political story rather than evaluating political stories based on their compatibility with facts.

Postman’s analysis helps us recognize these trends not as random developments but as the logical consequences of our media environment. Understanding this connection is the first step toward reclaiming a more substantive approach to political discourse.

Conclusion

“Amusing Ourselves to Death” remains essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the transformation of public discourse in the digital age. Postman’s insights help us recognize how our media shape not just what we think about, but how we think.

The challenge Postman presents is not to abandon new media forms but to approach them with awareness of their biases and limitations. We must develop the media literacy to recognize when we are being entertained rather than informed, and the discipline to seek out forms of communication that encourage deeper engagement with ideas.

In an age where entertainment values increasingly dominate every aspect of public life, Postman’s warning remains urgent: a society that allows its capacity for serious discourse to atrophy may indeed amuse itself to death. The greatest tribute we can pay to Postman’s work is to heed this warning by cultivating forms of communication that nurture our capacity for reason, empathy, and thoughtful civic engagement.

Read more

Meme Wars: How Digital Culture Became a Weapon Against Democracy

In their groundbreaking book “Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America,” researchers Joan Donovan, Emily Dreyfuss, and Brian Friedberg offer a chilling examination of how internet culture has been weaponized to undermine democratic institutions. Far from being a distant academic analysis, this book serves as an urgent warning about the very real dangers facing our democracy in the digital age.

When Internet Jokes Become Political Weapons

Remember when memes were just harmless internet jokes? Those days are long gone. “Meme Wars” meticulously documents how these seemingly innocent cultural artifacts have evolved into powerful weapons in a coordinated assault on American democracy — a form of information warfare that tears at our very ability to detect fantasy from reality at all, something that Hannah Arendt once warned of as a key tool of authoritarian regimes.

What makes this transformation particularly insidious is how easy it is to dismiss. After all, how could crudely drawn frogs and joke images possibly be a threat to democracy? Yet the authors convincingly demonstrate that this dismissive attitude is precisely what has allowed far-right operatives to wield memes so effectively.

The book reveals how figures like Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Nick Fuentes, and Roger Stone have mastered the art of meme warfare. These digital provocateurs understand something that traditional political institutions have been slow to grasp: in today’s media environment, viral content can bypass established gatekeepers and directly shape public opinion at scale.

Meme Wars by Joan Donovan et al

The Digital Radicalization Pipeline

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of “Meme Wars” is its detailed examination of what the authors call the “redpill right” and their techniques for radicalizing ordinary Americans. The process begins innocuously enough—a provocative meme shared by a friend, a YouTube video recommended by an algorithm—but can quickly lead vulnerable individuals down increasingly extreme ideological paths.

This digital radicalization operates through sophisticated emotional manipulation. Content is carefully crafted to trigger outrage, fear, or a sense of belonging to an in-group that possesses hidden truths. Over time, these digital breadcrumbs lead users into alternative information ecosystems that gradually reshape their perception of political reality.

From Online Conspiracy to Capitol Insurrection

“Meme Wars” provides what may be the most comprehensive account to date of how online conspiracy theories materialized into physical violence on January 6th, 2021. The authors trace the evolution of the “Stop the Steal” movement from fringe online forums to mainstream platforms, showing how digital organizing translated into real-world action.

The book presents the Capitol insurrection as the logical culmination of years of digital warfare. Participants like “Elizabeth from Knoxville” exemplify this new reality—simultaneously acting as insurrectionists and content creators, live-streaming their participation for online audiences even as they engaged in an attempt to overthrow democratic processes.

This fusion of digital performance and physical violence represents something genuinely new and dangerous in American politics. The insurrectionists weren’t just attacking the Capitol; they were creating content designed to inspire others to join their cause.

Inside the Digital War Rooms

What sets “Meme Wars” apart from other analyses of digital extremism is the unprecedented access the authors gained to the online spaces where anti-establishment actors develop their strategies. These digital war rooms function as laboratories where messaging is crafted, tested, and refined before being deployed more broadly.

The authors document how these spaces identify potential recruits, gradually expose them to increasingly extreme content, and eventually mobilize them toward political action. This sophisticated recruitment pipeline has proven remarkably effective at growing extremist movements and providing them with dedicated foot soldiers.

The Existential Threat to Democracy

At its core, “Meme Wars” is a book about the fundamental challenge digital manipulation poses to democratic governance. By deliberately stirring strong emotions and deepening partisan divides, meme warfare undermines the rational discourse and shared reality necessary for democratic deliberation.

The authors make a compelling case that these tactics represent an existential threat to American democracy. What’s more, the digital warfare techniques developed in American contexts are already being exported globally, representing a worldwide challenge to democratic institutions.

Confronting the Challenge

Perhaps the most important contribution of “Meme Wars” is its insistence that we recognize digital threats as real-world dangers. For too long, online extremism has been dismissed as merely virtual—something separate from “real” politics. The events of January 6th definitively shattered that illusion.

While the book doesn’t offer easy solutions, it makes clear that protecting democracy in the digital age will require new approaches from institutions, platforms, and citizens alike. We need digital literacy that goes beyond spotting fake news to understanding how emotional manipulation operates online. We need platforms that prioritize democratic values over engagement metrics. And we need institutions that can effectively counter extremist narratives without amplifying them.

A Must-Read for Democracy’s Defenders

“Meme Wars” is not just a political thriller, though it certainly reads like one at times. It is a rigorously researched warning about how extremist movements are reshaping American culture and politics through digital means. For anyone concerned with the preservation of democratic institutions, it should be considered essential reading.

The authors — including Joan Donovan, widely known and respected as a foremost scholar on disinformation — have performed a valuable service by illuminating the hidden mechanics of digital manipulation. Now it’s up to all of us to heed their warning and work to build democratic resilience in the digital age. The future of our democracy may depend on it.

Read more

Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky is dejected in his Oval Office meeting with Donald Trump

A Diplomatic Travesty in the Oval Office: Zelensky, Trump, and JD Vance’s Foreign Policy Ambush

The Oval Office has seen its share of tense diplomatic moments, but the recent clash between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and former U.S. President Donald Trump—joined by Ohio Senator JD Vance—marks a new low in international decorum. What was expected to be a high-stakes discussion on Ukraine’s future and continued U.S. support instead devolved into a heated, profanity-laced exchange, described by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock as ushering in a “new era of profanity.”

In a tense and extraordinary meeting in front of the cameras, President Trump and Vice President Vance confronted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in what appeared to be a carefully orchestrated diplomatic ambush. With Russian state media present while major American outlets were excluded, Trump and Vance pressured Zelensky to accept terms highly favorable to Russia – including a ceasefire that would effectively cede Ukrainian territory and sign over rights to valuable rare-earth minerals without firm security guarantees in return. Zelensky pointed out that Putin had broken ceasefire agreements 25 times already — so what was his incentive to find this one credible, particularly without any concrete guarantees?

In response to a reporter’s question about the US’s sudden shift away from its staunch Cold War stance to embracing Russia, Trump complained that Zelensky showed “such hate” towards Putin, who — he alleged — has suffered very badly (hatred being more impactful than military invasion, I guess?). When Zelensky remained composed and warned that the United States might “feel problems” due to its shifting alliance toward Russia, Trump grew visibly agitated, repeatedly insisting Americans would “feel very good and very strong” instead, while Vance accused the Ukrainian leader of being ungrateful for American support — as someone insecure and in need of praise would do.

Ukraine PResident Volodomyr Zelensky is skeptical of Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office with Trump

The situation escalated when Zelensky calmly but firmly stated that Trump and Vance would “feel influenced” by Russia, triggering an extended, angry tirade from Trump that veered into his grievances about Russian election interference investigations, criticisms of former Presidents Biden and Obama, and rhetoric that closely mirrored Putin’s talking points and invented conspiracy theories on Ukraine.

Continue reading The German Foreign Minister doesn’t mince words following Zelensky-Trump row in the Oval Office
Read more