Christian Christensen at Common Dreams writes—From Greta Thunberg to Parkland: Young Activists and the Right-Wing Smear Industry:
I recently hit the age of 50, but let me tell you one thing I don’t think as I enter the second half-century of my life: that younger citizens around me are lazy, apathetic, entitled snowflakes, ensconced in cocoons of political correctness. Younger citizens—and, yes, they are citizens even though they can’t vote—must navigate a social universe of public-ness, information overload and surveillance unthinkable to those of us who grew up in the pre-Internet, pre-social media era. And, they must do this while dealing with all of the usual things that can make the pre-teen and teen years hard: school, family, friends, bullying, and status.
It is for this reason that there are few things as cynical, cowardly and fundamentally damaging to the long-term prospects for democracy than adults who smear and denigrate young citizens engaging in activism and civic engagement. We call kids lazy and disconnected. Yet, when those same kids dare to engage with the adult world, many grown-ups respond with arrogance and disdain. It is a dissonant message.
As a case in point, a report was spread recently in a number of European publications and on social media that the mother of the famous Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg—who this week appears on the cover of TIME magazine—had claimed her daughter was able to "see” carbon dioxide. Predictably, this “claim” was used by opponents as evidence of 16-year old Greta’s cult-like status. The report, of course,was nonsense (yes, her mother said she could "see" carbon dioxide...but only in the sense that she could “see” the problem with carbon dioxide) rooted in a combination of bad translations, lazy journalism and a whirlpool of social media bullshit. [...]
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“We decided that the Indian people were more important to us than jail terms.”
--Carter Camp, The Road to Wounded Knee (1974)
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BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2003—Color coding scheme a joke:
For those of you who suspected that the Department of Homeland Defense's color-coding scheme was a farce, reader Karen P sends in confirmation:
- • 9.11.01: WTC And Pentagon Attacks (3,044 dead)
- • 3.12.02: DHS's Homeland Security Advisory System established, alert set to Elevated
- • 9.10.02: Alert changed to High
- • 9.24.02: Alert changed to Elevated
- • 4.11.02: Tunisian Synagogue Truck Bomb (20 dead)
- • 5.8.02: Karachi Suicide Bomber (15 dead)
- • 6.14.02: Karachi Car Bombing (11 dead)
- • 10.6.02: French Tanker Bombing (1 dead)
- • 10.12.02: Bali Bombing (185 dead)
- • 11.28.02: Mombasa Bombing (15+ dead)
- • 2.7.03: Alert changed to High
- • 2.27.03: Alert changed to Elevated
- • 3.17.03: Alert changed to High
- • 4.16.03: Alert changed to Elevated
- • 5.12.03: Riyadh Bombing (29+ dead)
- • 5.16.03: Casablanca Bombing (41 dead)
- • 5.20.03: Alert changed to High
In other words, the color-coding system is a crapshoot. Not even, because even a crapshoot gets it right occasionally.
Terrorists can strike when we're least prepared, that much is clear. So scrap this stupid "scare the people" gimmick once and for all. It's not doing anyone any good.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Greg Dworkin rounds up headlines. First GOPer reads Mueller report, gets all impeachy. Dems ponder Fox News spots. Deutsche Bank flagged Trump for money laundering. When not raking forests, Finns teach themselves to spot Russian fake news.