I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is . . . to tell the truth.
—Howard Zinn
Find yourself a good source of real news.
Support the press while keeping yourself informed.
President Trump frequently calls the press the “enemy of the American people.” It’s hard to overstate how crazy that is. For our country’s president to declare the entire profession that is supposed to be the watchdog protecting our civil rights our enemy is the kind of announcement you’d expect from a conspiracy-addled crackpot or a dictator, but when it comes from the president, it must be understood as an attempt to undermine truth itself, and our country’s ability to navigate truth. Tyrants always attack journalists, newspapers, and the truth; it is the most surefire sign that we are dealing with a would-be tyrant. On February 14, 2017, in a private conversation, Trump urged James Comey, the FBI director, to throw journalists in jail. As of this writing that has not taken place, but that doesn’t mean we’re safe. He would do it if he thought he could get away with it.
We have all seen how this president is hell-bent on creating an alternate reality for himself and his followers; it is part of his bullshit spell. The antidote begins with you: make sure that you yourself are well informed of the facts. As with all the tactics and strategies in this book, we must start with ourselves. This principle of activism is based on the simple but profound idea of Mahatma Gandhi, that we must as individuals be the change we wish to see in the world.
If there is a canary in the coal mine that alerts people to tyranny, it is the president’s war against the media. Any fact or opinion that he does not like he declares “fake news.” His counselors speak “alternative facts.” This is an assault on logic, on reason, on facts, and on truth. Without truth we are lost. As historian Timothy Snyder has written, “Post-Truth is pre-fascism.”
Trump declaring war on the press was the first step in his campaign to bully and weaken the media in America. He wants the American public to believe what he says, not what the facts are. For many Americans, giving up their own ability to track complicated news and issues, and trust instead in the posturing lies of a leader who is always right no matter what, is seductive. In the world of authoritarianism, there is no questioning, there is no doubt; the fearless leader is always correct. Things are simpler that way. The complexity of the world can be reduced to a mindless faith in the strongman leader. The authoritarian leader is only safe when, no matter what crazy bullshit he says, he is believed. Kim Jong-un tells his nation that he does not poop, and they believe him. Also, Kim Jong-un could drive at age three and his dad invented hamburgers.
Like North Korea’s dictator, Trump’s specialty is to lie continuously, at such a rapid pace that fact-checkers just can’t keep up. For years Trump kept a book of Hitler’s speeches next to his bed; it seems he learned a big lesson from Hitler, who wrote: “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”
Saying that those who disagree with them are unpatriotic is another card tyrants love to play. Dissent is dangerous. Under Stalin, the state controlled what people read in a very simple manner: books and articles disagreeing with what the government sanctioned as “true” were banned. Any writers who insisted on voicing disagreement were punished by being thrown in jail.
Today, that kind of censorship no longer works quite as well (yet). The modern difference being the Internet. It is harder to ban blogs and websites than it was to ban books. Which makes the repeal of net neutrality all the more ominous. As the media has evolved, the tactics that an oppressive regime uses to silence dissent have also evolved. In Putin’s Russia, the media is controlled by the Kremlin. Not only are journalists who dare report the truth harassed, threatened, and jailed, the modern authoritarian strategy also involves muddying the media waters with disinformation. Ultimately it is also quite possible for a modern authoritarian government to censor the Internet, which is what they do in China.
With the Internet, we now have a larger quantity of information, but the quality is pretty hit-or-miss. In fact a lot of it is garbage. Sadly, many people who can’t tell the difference between real and fake news lack media literacy. The long-term strategy to defend against this muddying of the waters is to promote media literacy in schools. Ideally, every high school grad should be able to tell the difference between a factually based article and a steaming heap of mistruth from Breitbart, etc.
We can fix this problem in two ways. We can make people smarter at figuring out what is real and what is fake news. Or we make real fake news easier to spot—by requiring entertainment and opinion to be labeled as such. The best solution is to use both of these strategies. Those are the long-term strategies. The specific tactic of this book is to start with yourself, and make sure you are getting a regular dose of actual, factual news from diverse sources.
The most dangerous thing to a fortress of lies is an army of people who know the facts. We need smart, savvy, well-informed, media-literate citizens. Support journalism. An easy way to do that is to buy a newspaper. But don’t stop there! I encourage you to go deeper, there are a lot of great sources of news that go beyond the basic media diet of the front page. Many of the resources listed below exist as websites that you can support by signing up for a membership. Here are a dozen places you should check out to diversify your info diet.
The New York Times, the Washington Post, etc. are good places to start. In the media food pyramid think of this as one of the basic building blocks of a healthy diet and then branch out.
An award-winning nonprofit magazine that covers politics and the environment from a perspective that is more aggressive and critical of corruption than mainstream newspapers generally are. In an age when news media is often owned by a corporation that has a vested interest in what gets printed, nonprofit news organizations matter more than ever.
The oldest and most widely read weekly progressive magazine in the US, the Nation is one place where you can get the news from journalists who don’t have to report under the constraint of nonpartisanship, which normalizes the insanity of having a petulant baby-man like Trump as our president.
Proudly radical and socialist commentary on the news. This is democratic socialism with a modern and accessible style. Noam Chomsky calls this magazine “a bright light in dark times.”
A British daily newspaper, very useful for getting an international perspective on what is going on in the USA. It has won multiple accolades, including ranking first on openness and accountability in a study on global news outlets.
A nonprofit newsroom that’s dedicated to journalism in the public interest. They state their mission as “to expose abuses of power.” In other words, news not just as a source of entertainment but that’s meant to help us make better decisions as a society.
Savvy news analysis that goes beyond the front page. If you want a better understanding of what is going on, from a decidedly liberal perspective that never feels ham-fisted or melodramatic, I recommend TPM as a frequent stop on your Internet travels.
If you are someone who prefers to watch the news, this is a nightly television show (also available as a radio program and podcast) with a liberal take on the news that is as wonky and in-depth as it is cheeky and entertaining.
An hour-long alternative radio show (check your local listings) that examines current affairs from the perspective of social change. This show has plenty of die-hard fans. In Portland, Oregon, this is often what’s on the radio in informed people’s kitchens in the afternoons.
Speaking of other news formats, here is somebody that is well worth following on Facebook. Robert Reich offers a daily Resistance Report that consists of a short video analyzing the news. As a former cabinet member of Bill Clinton and an early supporter of Bernie Sanders he has his own take on the resistance that is clear-eyed but also hopeful. He has been stalwart in warning people of the dangers of Donald Trump and sharing important ways people can push back.
There are a lot of great podcasts out there. The guys behind Pod Save America bust down the latest dumb sh!t from Trump-land with plenty of swearing, humor, and insight. The foul-mouthed hosts are former political aides to Barack Obama so they have plenty of insight into the inside baseball of politics.
There is no reason you can’t laugh while staying informed. The satire found on these shows is way funnier than anything that right-wing media will ever come up with and we should celebrate that. Pick whichever one makes you laugh the most. Lord knows we need it. Check out shows like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
This is going to vary from town to town, but most decentsized cities have a bookstore that is knowledgeable and committed to sharing ideas, news, and information beyond the front-page news cycle. Figure out what is close to you and connect with them. Yes, talking to informed people in real life is a great way to stay informed! Who knows where it might lead?