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You are here: Home / Archives for Organizing & Resistance / Don't Trip, Organize

Don't Trip, Organize

Weaponizing Bullshit, Chattering Classes Edition

by Tom Levenson|  April 21, 20207:53 pm| 84 Comments

This post is in: China, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Don't Trip, Organize, Information Warfare, Open Threads

A couple of weeks ago (a gazillion years in COVID time, I know), former intellectual Niall Ferguson published a piece in the Sunday Times, asserting that the Chinese government had allowed travel from Hubei province for international destinations after banning such trips to destinations within China, adding,

As far as I can tell from the available records, however, regular direct flights from Wuhan continued to run to London, Paris, Rome, New York and San Francisco throughout January and in some cases into February.

I’m not going to bother linking to the column itself–Murdoch clicks, and it’s behind a paywall;  I’ll connect this instead to the blog post from which I got the quote and information above, written by Daniel A. Bell, dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University, and a professor at Tsinghua U. (sometimes called China’s MIT, though I suspect the nicknaming may go the other direction soon).  As in, not a dummy, based in China, and with some expert ability to navigate knowledge in that setting. (H/t James Fallows for the link to the post, btw.)

Bell was, he wrote, “surprised by the allegation,” especially given the speed with which Ferguson’s assertion was picked up in the US and Canada by ready-to-otherize-China folks. So he asked Ferguson if he was sure. Ferguson replied:

 “I can assure you I wouldn’t write a sentence like that if I had not researched it rather thoroughly.” To support his claim, he sent me several pieces of evidence.

Weaponizing Bullshit, Fancy Pants Edition

The evidence was, I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn, bullshit–links to articles that did not support the incendiary claim in Ferguson’s article.

Ferguson also sent Bell flight records that the former historian of 19th century British banking believed confirmed that 31 flights had in fact left Wuhan for Europe after the domestic travel ban kicked in on January 23.

Did those records actually show that? Here’s Bell:

 I checked all the flights listed on the spreadsheet Professor Ferguson sent me. It turns out that none of the flights that supposedly left from Wuhan after 11:26 am on Jan. 23rd actually left from Wuhan. The flights listed as red on Ferguson’s spreadsheet were cancelled. The six listed as black left from Guangzhou and in normal times would do a stopover in Wuhan on the way to SFO but the stopover was cancelled. The app shows the actual flight paths of those flights as direct from Guangzhou, bypassing Wuhan.

Bell goes on, with all the receipts that show that Ferguson, most kindly, simply did not understand the records he was using.

Bell sent his results to Ferguson, by the way. With this result:

Ferguson continues to support his allegation even after I pointed out that the evidence he provided does not support it. That’s worrisome. Conspiracy theorizing of this sort deflects attention from what actually went wrong. And it fuels the demonization of the Chinese political system at the same time we need collaboration between China and the rest of the world to deal with an urgent global pandemic.

Ferguson was once a competent financial historian. He gave that up long before he gave up full time professoring, wandering into counterfactual historical fiction and an increasingly high profile as bully-boy defender of a revival of the glory days of Anglo-American imperialism and a kind of Boys Own conservative warmongering–with a sideline in always-wrong economic and financial punditry.  He’s still taken as a serious person, however, and, more troubling, as a rigorous one. He’s not. He’s a polemicist in support of terrible policy and worse people.

In this latest effusion, the consequences of those career choices are on display: what is either a lazy mistake or the willingness to trade in too-good-to-check conspiracy theories (leavened with a measure of anti-Chinese bigotry, perhaps) produced a column based on an elementary error in reading a slightly technical source, combined with a willful misreading of a couple of news stories.

This is what passes for the cream of conservative intellectual life these days.

TL:DR Niall Ferguson–and the prominence given to him by credulous editors–is one of the reasons we can’t have nice things. There are others who are more consequential, more harmful in their reckless disregard of evidence, and the obligation not to spew bullshit.

Mistakes are one thing–I’ve made plenty and will make more. It’s the contempt for the idea of even trying to get it right, to allow reality to confound your desired narrative that makes the contemporary radical right such an existential threat.

Fuck it. I’m tired. Whacking those who are wrong on the internet is an endless task–by design: the whole enterprise of illiberal authoritarianism turns on wearing out the opposition, as much as overtly crushing it.  But still–this is the kind of chickenshit up with which no civilized society should have to put.

Open thread.

Francisco de Goya, The Sleep of Reason Brings Forth Monsters, 1799.

Weaponizing Bullshit, Chattering Classes EditionPost + Comments (84)

Go vote early

by David Anderson|  October 19, 20184:00 pm| 99 Comments

This post is in: Don't Trip, Organize, Election 2018

I voted last night.  The Senior Center had a steady trickle of people coming in and out of the building.  Some were there to take the class on how to Flash Mob, but most were there to vote. I live in a district where there are no competitive legislative elections. I’m in a packed region of base liberal Democrats. The major questions where my vote might matter are North Carolina Supreme Court, six constitutional questions and an affordable housing bond issue that recognizes that the best way to deal with a housing shortage is to build more housing.

Early voting helps campaigns.  I am not a persuasion target.  I might be a mobilization target for campaigns as I am new to the area and my Pennsylvania history of being an unusually young super-voter has not transferred over to North Carolina data banks.  Demographically, I look like a potential mobilization target as I’m a recently registered Democrat with a short election history and my age indicates that I’m not a certain voter.  If I show up, I’m likely to vote liberal but my profile suggests that showing up might be a problem.  Campaigns will invest time, effort, energy and door knockers in getting their mobilization targets to the polls.

Early voting gives campaigns information to better target their marginal resources.  Now that I’ve voted, there is no longer a reason for a campaign to target me.  I can not be persuaded in any relevant manner and I can not be further mobilized for a vote.  If you think that you are a potential mobilization target (check out the e-mails that you’ve gotten and the phone calls made by campaigns to you — if you have gotten called more than once, you’re a target), go vote early.  Help the campaign by clearing their lists and giving them new information.

And if you think that Shelby County authorized shenanigans are likely on Election Day, vote early so that the polls won’t be as crowded.  If you vote in a precinct that routinely can see an hour long line at peak times, voting early and removing yourself from the line chops off a few seconds of the wait.

Go vote early if possible even if all you are doing is shifting your vote’s timing.  It helps.

 

 

Go vote earlyPost + Comments (99)

Comhghairdeas Éire! (Our Chance Comes In November)

by Tom Levenson|  May 26, 20181:01 pm| 63 Comments

This post is in: Don't Trip, Organize, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Women's Rights Are Human Rights, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Make The World A Better Place

Ireland has done what, as a not-much-younger-human I would have thought impossible in my lifetime: it has legalized abortion — and by an overwhelming margin.

In doing so, it has struck a blow that will resonate worldwide, and especially here, I think and hope.  Most important, it says to the forces of reaction that all people are people (even women!) and to hell with any doctrine, policy or party that says and does otherwise.

The Irish can have nice things.  So should we — and can if we mobilize the energy that is already here to say “not on our watch” this November.

We’ll be talking about that all summer, I’m sure.  For now, lets celebrate a huge win — for a small island and all its friends.

Image: John Duncan, The Riders of the Sidhe, 1911.

Comhghairdeas Éire! (Our Chance Comes In November)Post + Comments (63)

Good job Florida

by David Anderson|  February 13, 20187:46 pm| 105 Comments

This post is in: Don't Trip, Organize, Election 2018

DEMOCRATS WIN Trump +5% seat FL #HD72 by a 7% margin. Yet another special election where Democrats moved the needle by double digits.

— G. Elliott Morris??‍♂️ (@gelliottmorris) February 14, 2018

That is the third Red to Blue flip this year in special elections. The seat in a neutral environment leans Republican but will flip in this environment. This is the type of seat that will determine the majority in November. Democrats need to pick up a double handful of these types of seats assuming that they pick off most Republican-Clinton seats in November.

Given that it was a twelve point swing, this is useful information for November.

Good job FloridaPost + Comments (105)

Good news

by David Anderson|  January 3, 20188:18 pm| 104 Comments

This post is in: Don't Trip, Organize, Election 2018, Open Threads, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Fuck Yeah!, Nazis- I hate these guys

Flag: Trump has dissolved his Voter Fraud Commission, citing the refusal of states to provide relevant info. pic.twitter.com/EG4oQtQ1EH

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 3, 2018

Give a call to your state’s governors and secretaries of state tomorrow morning. For those who refused to share information with this voter suppression commission, thank them. For those that did share your information, give them a piece of your mind.

Open thread

Good newsPost + Comments (104)

GOTV for Health this weekend

by David Anderson|  November 4, 20176:57 am| 45 Comments

This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance, Don't Trip, Organize, Election 2017, Local Races 2018 and earlier

Maine is trying to expand Medicaid. There have been bi-partisan bills that have routinely passed both chambers of the Maine Legislature. Governor LePage (R-ME) has routinely vetoed these bills. That cycle may be broken next week as Maine has a ballot question on whether or not the state will accept Medicaid expansion.

Maine Medicaid expansion proposition is polling at 69% according to one poll. https://t.co/ycwIQCIDOY

— Emma Sandoe (@emma_sandoe) November 3, 2017

So if you are in Maine or New Hampshire and have some time this weekend, help with the GOTV and help your fellow Mainiacs.

GOTV for Health this weekendPost + Comments (45)

Time to call the Senate again

by David Anderson|  September 6, 20172:12 pm| 50 Comments

This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance, Don't Trip, Organize

Orange Alert

MCCAIN says he supports Graham Cassidy healthcare bill. Would vote for it

— Peter Sullivan (@PeterSullivan4) September 6, 2017

Graham-Cassidy would shift money from states that have successfully implemented the ACA to non-expansion states and then ratchet down the block grants.

Time to call the Senate again.

We need to run out the clock to 12:01 October 1, 2017 at which point the healthcare reconciliation instructions expire. Encourage Senate Democrats to submit bills to the CBO for scoring so that they are back-logged and can not rapidly score anything that needs to be scored for reconciliation. Call and encourage the Sanders budget team to go to town with the Parliamentarian. 24 days need to be burned.

Time to call the Senate againPost + Comments (50)

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