Don't trust the bullshit pedlars
There's a lot to wade through, just keep your head out of the torrent.
There’s a lot of news. It happens all the time and it travels very very fast. There are a lot of headlines, all competing savagely for our attention.
Consuming anything other than a tiny percentage of it, is impossible. There’s so much material being produced.
The colossal sewer pipe of breaking news, live podcasts, group messaging, notifications and social media updates is running far beyond its designed capacity.
It’s an ultra high pressure torrent of raging information that explodes endlessly into our lives, like a thousand out of control firehoses and it’s battering our ability focus on anything.
How does anyone know what to pay attention to? How do we cope?
We try to ignore most of it. It’s the only way to survive, but this lack of focus, means it’s possible to get away with saying almost anything at all.
Like this.
Here’s an announcement from the US President from sometime around February this year, 2025:
I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to “go get” the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration. They have been waiting for many months on @Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!
and here’s a reply from Elon Musk:
The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.
These statements stuck in my mind and I’ve thought about them easily a dozen times over the last six or so months. I was shocked to hear that a country had ditched its astronauts in space, so I looked into it a little.
The statements it turns out, are propaganda. That was my conclusion in February and it remains the same today. There were times I wondered whether they were just political spin but no matter how they are analysed, they are not.
Spin, is when you frame an event in the most favourable light possible. There’s a careful choice of language, you use positive words and phrases. You’re selective with the facts you present. Spin is gloss, it’s selective storytelling.
Something becomes propaganda when it’s designed to manipulate. You appeal to emotions rather than reason and you can exaggerate and even misinform.
There is overlap as you can see, but the key feature of propaganda is that it tends to promote a different reality - mostly a false one.
Let’s look at the facts about this subject
5th June 2024 - Two astronauts set off in a Boeing Starliner capsule to the ISS. They are meant to be staying for 8 days.
5/6th June 2024 - There are technical problems. The Boeing Starliner still docks with ISS on second attempt. NASA and Boeing begin work on the problems. Neither know when the Starliner will be safe enough to allow the astronauts to return to earth.
September 2024 - No crew-safe solution can be found. Boeings Starliner capsule is sent back to earth without crew. Those astronauts have no immediate ride home and begin a longer term deployment, alongside colleagues already on the ISS. The sort of thing they prepare and are all trained for.
28th September - A planned SpaceX missioned called ‘Crew 9’ sends two new astronauts rather than four to the ISS onboard its “Freedom” capsule. It docks with two spare seats, ready for the next crew-swap “Crew 10” due in February 25.
January 2025 - Donald Trump becomes president
February 2025 - “Crew 10” mission delayed due to a Space X problem on the ground. Donald Trump and Elon Musk post their messages.
14th March 2025 - “Crew 10” mission sends 4 new astronauts to the ISS onboard its “endurance” capsule.
18th March 2025 - The “Crew 9” mission returns onboard “freedom”. They use the two spare seats to bring back the two astronauts that came up on the faulty Boeing in June 24.
That’s it. The astronauts were never abandoned. The solution to bring them home was planned before Trump got into office.
It was always being done by SpaceX. Elon isn’t going to the ISS. The astronauts and NASA are completely prepared and are dealing with the situation. It is not ‘terrible’ by any definition.
Propaganda presents narratives that contain only one simple truth. Usually something tangentially related, difficult to disagree with and posed in a way that discourages any questioning.
We know already, there are no simple answers to complex problems and that we should be very wary of people who say otherwise on almost any topic.
The subject matter in this case isn’t the important thing. This example I’ve chosen to highlight from the US president could be from a number of politicians or leaders.
What is important is that we recognise when someone is peddling not just propaganda, but pure bullshit. These are careless people.
We have leaders, wannabe leaders and high profile people that know you’re drowning in news and events. They take advantage of that distraction to say whatever they want and to avoid being held accountable for anything.
The only people who benefit from those two February statements are the people that made them.
We need higher quality people managing our countries. More inclusive, eyes on the longer term, better qualified, more appropriate experience. Greater maturity. Smart people, with an appreciation that they might not be the smartest in a particular room.
We know that our democracies are capable of more and of doing better, we know there is waste and that there are things we must change.
Please don’t let the desire for change overrule what you already know in your gut; bullshitters are only ever in it for themselves.
Don’t lend them anything, especially not your vote.