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Donald Trump: Why publishing fake news works for the US president

~ Michael Stevenson ~ 2 Comments

Donald Trump has a habit of publishing clearly fake news, particularly on his Twitter account. Here’s why he won’t stop: because it works.

Fake news works

It is an unfortunate fact of modern political life that the truth, quite simply, does not really matter anymore. It does for some people, of course, but for a large number how they perceive the world is a lot more important than cold hard facts.

Within this sort of world, it becomes easy for politicians to spread disinformation which both makes them appear to be doing a better job than they actually are or, better yet, distract entirely from the job they’re doing.

Donald Trump probably had this in mind when he shared a doctored video claiming to show a CNN news report about a ‘racist’ white baby chasing away a black child.

The chyron, which was poorly created on Photoshop and contains misspellings, stated that the white baby was ‘probably a Trump supporter’.

This video was quickly found to be fake, due to the fact that it in fact a video from last year showing two toddler friends greeting each other on the footpath before running off together.

But that doesn’t matter, because if you support Trump you like it, and if you don’t, he’s still got you talking about something other than the fact that he is leading the country with the highest number of Covid-19 deaths.

Source: Donald Trump: Why publishing fake news works for the US president | JOE.co.uk

AC Grayling: What can philosophy teach us about the global pandemic?

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

JOE speaks to philosopher AC Grayling about the coronavirus pandemic, and what philosophy may be able to teach us about it.

What matters more?

The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for the United Kingdom, as it has been for much of the world. Thousands are dying and with the country in lockdown, many more are either losing their jobs or being placed on furlough.

The continued fallout of the pandemic has forced us to confront a balance between the now: protecting the elderly and the sick, and the future, indebting the young and the productive.

AC Grayling is a philosopher, author and Master of the New College of the Humanities in London.

JOE spoke to him about the ethics surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, the question facing us all regarding where we face our values when confronted with this balance, and herd immunity.

Source: AC Grayling: What can philosophy teach us about the global pandemic? | JOE.co.uk