Social trust in a time of fake news

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Much has been written about the climate of “lies, fake news and coverups” (e.g., Joe Camilleri in The Conversation). I could find a dozen examples but will limit myself to Camilleri’s because it provides an excellent overview of the problem. This is not to dispute or try to correct Camilleri, but simply to add another perspective. Towards the end of the article, as he is wrapping it up, Camilleri says: Lies, “fake news” and cover-ups are not, of course, the preserve of politicians. They have become commonplace in so many of our institutions. He then mentions the Australian Banking Royal Commission and revelations of the cover-up of long-term sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Having previously run through the gamut of international political tendencies, from Trump to Brexit, the rise of the populist government in Italy, and the revolving door prime ministership of Australia, he says: These various public and private arenas, where truth is regularly concealed, denied or obscured, have had a profoundly corrosive...
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Love in a Time of Coronavirus

Love in a Time of Coronavirus

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In this week’s news are reports that Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister, has been hospitalised with Covid-19. Comments about this in my news feed are, as usual, rife with schadenfreude and hopes that he should die in one of his underfunded hospitals. There’s nothing surprising about this, but it saddens me. Don’t get me wrong – I have no respect for BoJo; I despise his policies, and his cuts to the National Health Service. His party and fellow ideologues are responsible for the UK health system being unprepared for this global pandemic. I sympathise with those who are outraged by these cuts, and fully understand the schadenfreude. But this is no time to be wishing harm to anyone. While speaking to a loved one in the US this morning, I was explaining that, unlike most contagious diseases, this time the hotspots are concentrated among the wealthy, when she replied “Good, maybe it will kill some of the millionaires and billionaires.” Again,...
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On Obama

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On Obama  Things are moving so fast these days that there are tonnes of things to write about, an thousands of people around at the moment who have very interesting things to say about them. Here are a couple of links to thought provoking and insightful articles I’ve read in the past few days which contribute to a discourse that might be summed up with this image:. Painful Beauty of the Corona Haze, by Bex Tyrer (~15 mins) The Coronation, by Charles Eisenstein (~30 mins) It's not too early to start thinking about Australia after the crisis, by Jim Chalmers Among many other things, Chalmers reminds us that during World War II, Australia’s political leaders began planning for “victory in peace” in a country which becomes “a mighty fellowship in which the happiness of each will be assured by the effort of all”, which is pertinent to the discussion below. Before I can engage with any of the ideas they discuss, though, I want to follow up on my last post, On Trump. One of my readers suggested that...
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On Trump

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30 March 2020 A couple of days ago on Facebook I shared an article by Richard Wolfe in The Guardian, titled “No Greater Love Hath Trump than to Lay Down Your Life for his Re-election” (you don’t need to read it to follow this discussion), to which one of my Australian friends commented: "Can you explain please why Trumps’ approval rating is at an all time high? Are Americans totally mad?" Which got this reaction from a loved one in the USA: "because we the people think President Trump is the first one in years that gives a damn about us and not about making himself richer at our expense. I don’t know why the Australian people have such a dislike of President Trump and thought President Obama was the best President the United States of America ever had. So, perhaps while we are boggling y’all’s minds y’all are boggling ours. Just saying." There were two follow-ups expressing agreement and gratitude for these observations. One of them then posted this: "HOW...
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