Monthly Archives: July 2018

Review of Douglas Kellner’s: American Nightmare. Donald Trump, Media Spectacle, and Authoritarian Populism

Book Reviews - Politics, Media


© Darrell Arnold Ph.D.– (Reprinted with Permission)

Donald Trump developed skills in marketing and show business, as a savvy self-marketer and a reality TV star, able to exploit new media — to plaster his name on the side of buildings, on boxes of steaks, and on a fake university. He’s something of a 21st-century version of P.T. Barnum, able to garner popular attention, but with new media unavailable to the 19th-century showman/con-artist. Continue reading Review of Douglas Kellner’s: American Nightmare. Donald Trump, Media Spectacle, and Authoritarian Populism →

Why Do Conservatives Tolerate Trump?

Politics - Trump & Republicans


German soldiers parading through Lübeck in the days leading up to World War I.

© Darrell Arnold– (Reprinted with Permission)
http://darrellarnold.com/2018/07/25/the-morally-upside-down-world-of-the-trump-base/

Oh, the times they have a’ changed, but not for the good. As Jonathon Freedland has noted in an opinion piece in the Guardian, the recording released in late July by Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, speaking to Trump about the need to pay hush money to Karen McDougal, would have likely been enough to undo any recent presidency, including Clinton’s. It implicates the president not only in the sordid affair but in possible campaign finance breeches. Continue reading Why Do Conservatives Tolerate Trump? →

Review of Timothy Snyder’s, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Book Reviews - Politics, Politics - Tyranny


© Darrell Arnold– (Reprinted with Permission)
http://darrellarnold.com/2018/07/16/on-tyranny/

In bite-sized chunks of two to eight (short) pages Timothy Snyder, the Levin Professor of History at Yale University, offers a practical guide to understanding and possibly averting tyranny. [In his new book, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.] Continue reading Review of Timothy Snyder’s, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century →

Fox News: An Information Ecosystem For Fallicious Reasoning

Critical Thinking, Politics - Truth

Fox News Channel logo.svg
© Darrell Arnold, Ph.D. – (Reprinted with Permission)  http://darrellarnold.com/2018/07/16/fox-news-an-information-ecosystem-for-fallacious-reasoning/

Fox news has long functioned in the service of America’s conservative movement. What is particularly concerning is their willingness to do so even if it undermines truth and sound reasoning. One way that it regularly undermines truth and clear reasoning is through subtext in the framing of their stories. Another is through editorial decisions on what stories to feature — not the framing of their stories but their framing of their news environment. This creates a kind of informational ecosystem that facilitates fallacious reasoning for ideological purposes. Continue reading Fox News: An Information Ecosystem For Fallicious Reasoning →

Finding Work That You Love

Work

Steve Jobs, in his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, argued that we should do the work we love. Here is an excerpt of his main idea:

You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. Continue reading Finding Work That You Love →