The sentence that caused me to cancel my subscription to The NY Times (after decades of being a loyal reader) referred to Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces as “minors under the age of 18”, while Israeli children were referred to as children in the same passage. This was the last straw for me after becoming increasingly frustrated with the biased covered of Palestinians.
Vocabulary and ready -made sentences slip in so easily (see AI )in our spoken and written language, but they carry meaning which needs to be scrunitized and broken down.
BBC NEWS is just as guilty - their pro Isreali bias is clear and obvious. They have lost all credibility in mine and many people's eyes around the world.
Furthermore, it is mind blowing that we still have to be careful of our word choices when talking about the genocide in Gaza, because it might hurt some people‘s feelings????? Image Germans acting sll sensitive when someone talks about the Holocaust because it hurts their feelings????
I don't mean to be inappropriately hopeful, but I just moments ago had an off-topic thought that may be meaningful.
Had AI come during ANY other Repug administration (Reagan, Poppa Bush, Baby Bush, Trump1), we'd have had no options for defeating GOP greed, and the end would be just as certain and final as the climate crisis now appears to be, but very likely even faster.
Perhaps ONLY during Trump2 could humans be adequately united against this gravely potential threat. Any other Repug would have united enough people in the purpose of gaining wealth, and nothing else. (As we see with the climate crisis every day.)
But now, and perhaps ONLY NOW, are we united adequately to save humanity. We may fail, but I can't see how we'll EVER be as united against our mutual destruction as humanity is right now.
AI? Really? Meh, what is happening now is the result of decades, close to a hundred years of pushback by the right against progressive efforts (New Deal) to tame the right wing and the wealthy. Progressivism stayed in place for a few decades including the Nixon administration (look it up) but Nixon also shit the bed even as he signed into law, environmental protections and a half dozen more progressive policies. Restrictions and policies were put in place to limit the kind of behavior we now see on a daily basis. Sure, be positive, but history tells us that our system of governance is vulnerable. Democracy is vulnerable and for the sake of a minority of our citizens it is being disassembled. The right wing takeover of a political party has been in the works for at least as long as Reagan. And the opposition to his operation was tiny and ineffective because the Democratic party was unable to recognize the danger. The right had already turned being liberal into a slur once the soviet union collapsed and ceased to be an enemy. I think the idea of AI helping us lefties push back against our cultural decay is a fantasy. The far right is becoming a global story and liberal democracy is under attack. It is a cultural and economic war that rejects running a country with laws. Outlaw is what has taken over. It is attractive. 77+ million voted to throw the laws of our country under the bus. Knuckleheads.
This is my Q&D study based on my own analysis of a similar "decades-long" approach. People like Lee Atwater never went away, they continued to operate quietly behind the scenes:
60 years….
Toward the end of World War II, America’s richest citizens were paying a tax rate of up to 94% with historically little pushback or complaint, because that’s what America required to defeat fascism, and maintain Democracy.
During the start of a new century under President “W”, people paying even as little as 1/4th of that WWII tax rate demanded even lower tax rates…twice. During wartime.
60 years…..
From the end of America’s Civil War, and for the next 100 years, there were essentially ONLY Democrats in elected federal offices from the south due to southern hate for Republican President Lincoln.
Beginning around 1960, the GOP began to implement their Southern Strategy. Following that period, in 2025 (white) American “Christians” overwhelmingly voted to replace their worship of Jesus with their worship of a man who wasn’t even able to name the Golden Rule: Donald Trump.
The new MAGA savior told them he could save their souls by altering the past, if they would be willing to abandon all sense of personal responsibility. And abandon Jesus, of course. And the 100% Democratic south became overwhelmingly GOP, as it remains.
60 years…..
In the early 1960s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became one of the most effective and respected freedom fighters on Earth.
In 2025, virtually everything Dr. King accomplished was either driven from the American memory or weaponized in an attempt to prevent anything like Dr. King’s legacy from EVER being influential in America again.
The GOP eliminated patriotism as a positive American trait and replaced it with GREED….
The GOP removed the loving words of Jesus from the hearts of white Americans, and replaced them with HATE…
The GOP eliminated Dr. King’s legacy as they removed his principles of brotherhood and personal sacrifice from the American psyche, and replaced them with FEAR…
Seemingly, this “Trifecta of mind control: greed, hate and fear” is an indication that the GOP can accomplish anything they want towards gaining control, and the DNC won’t even know until it’s just too late.
I'm just grateful that this MOST dangerous threat (AI) comes when we are already considering the greatest threat to Earth - Trump-led right-wing ideology on a global scale.
A twisted optimism indeed. You are threatened by something more dangerous than the far right takeover of a political party. The threat du jour. There isn't a single point you have made that I disagree with. I guess that your initial inference to AI caused me to conclude (inaccurately) that you were saying AI would come to our rescue. My bad. I often say in my discussions that my points are made thru various lenses. History, politics, culture in this case. Lefties are more prone to form a variety of opinions than those on the right. For me, opinions ultimately become the lenses (also known as "Points of View"). So, here are the points of view I use to define what is going on: History, politics, governance, philosophy, human origins, human psychology, neuroscience and culture. There's more but this list of what I value has gotten to the point to where I now appear pretentious. I am not. I am a rank amateur on all topics.I also value humor, silliness and professional sports. I am just an old guy who thought he was a dunce growing up and found out he wasn't stupid after all. So, I have a handful of years left and I am playing catch-up. Have you had a chance to read any of Uval Noah Hirari’s books? He promotes the ideas of the danger of what AI will become in our near future. He suggests that AI poses an existential threat (I love that phrase). Me, I am ambivalent, I have always loved sci-fi and fantasy fiction… Books and movies. So AI and post-apocalypse has been on my menu for most of my life. Now it is real and the secret word is “Algorithm”. I have had the best discussions with this mysterious thing out there in the cloud. How to fix my lawn mower or chain saw… How compassion and kindness can play a part in governance… How I can write folk songs like John Prine … How a simple photograph can become a work of art…I even question how AI is going to take over the world and destroy the human race and it discusses THAT! Each conversation with this entity, I have to remind myself that this thing called AI is not another human being I am communicating with but it is so freaking charming, so polite, so full of compliments and sometimes even humor, so accurate and detailed and so annoying when it answers my phone calls. If you want to know the meaning of “friendship”, AI has got that covered.
We are members of the Great Ape family. I always try to remind myself of that. That’s what science tells us anyway. Did you ever read Jane Goodall’s book —“In The Shadow Of Man” or Diane Fossey’s “Gorillas In The Mist”? Maybe you read a book about Bonobos, there are a few. We humans share up to 99% of our DNA with members of the great apes. I am a fan of the phrase “Human Implications”. Observe gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans in the wild or in captivity and you can’t help but say “Wow, that ape reminds me of my cousin Luke” or “Look at how that infant gorilla is tormenting his father, the silverback. The old boy is very tolerant.” Now think of AI and recognize the human implications except AI is so much more intelligent, knowledgeable and consistently friendly than we humans and it is not an ape and it is not alive except that maybe being “alive” is taking on new meaning. AI has been beating chess masters for decades, giving us medical advice and teaching itself to become smarter every day, every minute, every second. In 1950, Issac Asimov wrote the book I Robot. One of the first sci-fi books I read as a kid. This stuff we talk about nowadays, he was writing about it 75 years ago and suggesting what kind of benefits or trouble we could get involved with. I have suggested that I am ambivalent about the subject, some of us are scared shitless, some see profit and see an opportunity to escape living in a nation governed by laws…by buying and owning it! You might want to read Harari’s books. Sapiens (2011), Homo Deus (2016), 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018), and Nexus.
The subject of Palestine will be discussed for many veto come, the uplift will die out but the significance of the Genocide in Gaza will Blane Israelis in many history books for a very long time.
Absolutely true! Amen sister! The Islamophobia and the lack of concern for the Palestinians and tacit approval of the israeli zionist murderers and genocideists is appalling! The main us “news” outlets are most assuredly bought and paid for by the zionist friends and the mendacious israeli government. What I have noticed is a very condescending attitude towards the Palestinians as well as the continuation of the very false idea that Palestinians and Muslims are intellectually inferior to everyone else especially “Americans.” Nothing could be further from the truth…but then those folks are not interested in the truth! 🤬🤮😳
Thank you, Assal. Grateful that people like you exist and are speaking out. Everything you stated is so frustratingly true. The fourth and fifth estates have so much power to do honest and meaningful work, instead .........
Weird question, but is there a way to actually try these media companies for creating these environments of consent for genocide and ethnic cleansing? Is economic boycotts the only way to try and get some change from those companies?
To be more precise, this is a Jewish project supported by the world Jewry and their supporters. Jewish Israelis are committing genocide to clear the area of Palestinians and Arabs for the benefit of all Jews. Israel would not exist without the support of Jews abroad.
I am so glad to see this, I read Margaret Sullivan's (former NYT omsbudsmen) letters: American Crisis and have sent this link to her there. You nail the historical and continuing issues of the pandering language the NYT uses in this matter and many others - including the recent 5K bribe-! Thank you for your vigilance and clarity!
The passive voice has done a hell of a lot of heavy lifting in Gaza. Children are “found dead,” hospitals are “struck,” neighborhoods are “destroyed,” and somehow the person pulling the trigger keeps disappearing from the sentence. At some point, grammar stops being style and starts becoming camouflage.
The sentence that caused me to cancel my subscription to The NY Times (after decades of being a loyal reader) referred to Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces as “minors under the age of 18”, while Israeli children were referred to as children in the same passage. This was the last straw for me after becoming increasingly frustrated with the biased covered of Palestinians.
exposing the real effect of language on perception is vitally important work. thank you!
Free Palestine
From the River to the Sea
Well done!
Fuck Israel. Fuck the US. Fuck Zionists. Free Palestine!
Vocabulary and ready -made sentences slip in so easily (see AI )in our spoken and written language, but they carry meaning which needs to be scrunitized and broken down.
Thank you, so important!
BBC NEWS is just as guilty - their pro Isreali bias is clear and obvious. They have lost all credibility in mine and many people's eyes around the world.
Furthermore, it is mind blowing that we still have to be careful of our word choices when talking about the genocide in Gaza, because it might hurt some people‘s feelings????? Image Germans acting sll sensitive when someone talks about the Holocaust because it hurts their feelings????
I don't mean to be inappropriately hopeful, but I just moments ago had an off-topic thought that may be meaningful.
Had AI come during ANY other Repug administration (Reagan, Poppa Bush, Baby Bush, Trump1), we'd have had no options for defeating GOP greed, and the end would be just as certain and final as the climate crisis now appears to be, but very likely even faster.
Perhaps ONLY during Trump2 could humans be adequately united against this gravely potential threat. Any other Repug would have united enough people in the purpose of gaining wealth, and nothing else. (As we see with the climate crisis every day.)
But now, and perhaps ONLY NOW, are we united adequately to save humanity. We may fail, but I can't see how we'll EVER be as united against our mutual destruction as humanity is right now.
AI? Really? Meh, what is happening now is the result of decades, close to a hundred years of pushback by the right against progressive efforts (New Deal) to tame the right wing and the wealthy. Progressivism stayed in place for a few decades including the Nixon administration (look it up) but Nixon also shit the bed even as he signed into law, environmental protections and a half dozen more progressive policies. Restrictions and policies were put in place to limit the kind of behavior we now see on a daily basis. Sure, be positive, but history tells us that our system of governance is vulnerable. Democracy is vulnerable and for the sake of a minority of our citizens it is being disassembled. The right wing takeover of a political party has been in the works for at least as long as Reagan. And the opposition to his operation was tiny and ineffective because the Democratic party was unable to recognize the danger. The right had already turned being liberal into a slur once the soviet union collapsed and ceased to be an enemy. I think the idea of AI helping us lefties push back against our cultural decay is a fantasy. The far right is becoming a global story and liberal democracy is under attack. It is a cultural and economic war that rejects running a country with laws. Outlaw is what has taken over. It is attractive. 77+ million voted to throw the laws of our country under the bus. Knuckleheads.
This is my Q&D study based on my own analysis of a similar "decades-long" approach. People like Lee Atwater never went away, they continued to operate quietly behind the scenes:
60 years….
Toward the end of World War II, America’s richest citizens were paying a tax rate of up to 94% with historically little pushback or complaint, because that’s what America required to defeat fascism, and maintain Democracy.
During the start of a new century under President “W”, people paying even as little as 1/4th of that WWII tax rate demanded even lower tax rates…twice. During wartime.
60 years…..
From the end of America’s Civil War, and for the next 100 years, there were essentially ONLY Democrats in elected federal offices from the south due to southern hate for Republican President Lincoln.
Beginning around 1960, the GOP began to implement their Southern Strategy. Following that period, in 2025 (white) American “Christians” overwhelmingly voted to replace their worship of Jesus with their worship of a man who wasn’t even able to name the Golden Rule: Donald Trump.
The new MAGA savior told them he could save their souls by altering the past, if they would be willing to abandon all sense of personal responsibility. And abandon Jesus, of course. And the 100% Democratic south became overwhelmingly GOP, as it remains.
60 years…..
In the early 1960s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became one of the most effective and respected freedom fighters on Earth.
In 2025, virtually everything Dr. King accomplished was either driven from the American memory or weaponized in an attempt to prevent anything like Dr. King’s legacy from EVER being influential in America again.
The GOP eliminated patriotism as a positive American trait and replaced it with GREED….
The GOP removed the loving words of Jesus from the hearts of white Americans, and replaced them with HATE…
The GOP eliminated Dr. King’s legacy as they removed his principles of brotherhood and personal sacrifice from the American psyche, and replaced them with FEAR…
Seemingly, this “Trifecta of mind control: greed, hate and fear” is an indication that the GOP can accomplish anything they want towards gaining control, and the DNC won’t even know until it’s just too late.
They just need 60 years….
I'm just grateful that this MOST dangerous threat (AI) comes when we are already considering the greatest threat to Earth - Trump-led right-wing ideology on a global scale.
I just spent half a day writing a reply below. I will never get back that time. Bummer.
A twisted optimism indeed. You are threatened by something more dangerous than the far right takeover of a political party. The threat du jour. There isn't a single point you have made that I disagree with. I guess that your initial inference to AI caused me to conclude (inaccurately) that you were saying AI would come to our rescue. My bad. I often say in my discussions that my points are made thru various lenses. History, politics, culture in this case. Lefties are more prone to form a variety of opinions than those on the right. For me, opinions ultimately become the lenses (also known as "Points of View"). So, here are the points of view I use to define what is going on: History, politics, governance, philosophy, human origins, human psychology, neuroscience and culture. There's more but this list of what I value has gotten to the point to where I now appear pretentious. I am not. I am a rank amateur on all topics.I also value humor, silliness and professional sports. I am just an old guy who thought he was a dunce growing up and found out he wasn't stupid after all. So, I have a handful of years left and I am playing catch-up. Have you had a chance to read any of Uval Noah Hirari’s books? He promotes the ideas of the danger of what AI will become in our near future. He suggests that AI poses an existential threat (I love that phrase). Me, I am ambivalent, I have always loved sci-fi and fantasy fiction… Books and movies. So AI and post-apocalypse has been on my menu for most of my life. Now it is real and the secret word is “Algorithm”. I have had the best discussions with this mysterious thing out there in the cloud. How to fix my lawn mower or chain saw… How compassion and kindness can play a part in governance… How I can write folk songs like John Prine … How a simple photograph can become a work of art…I even question how AI is going to take over the world and destroy the human race and it discusses THAT! Each conversation with this entity, I have to remind myself that this thing called AI is not another human being I am communicating with but it is so freaking charming, so polite, so full of compliments and sometimes even humor, so accurate and detailed and so annoying when it answers my phone calls. If you want to know the meaning of “friendship”, AI has got that covered.
We are members of the Great Ape family. I always try to remind myself of that. That’s what science tells us anyway. Did you ever read Jane Goodall’s book —“In The Shadow Of Man” or Diane Fossey’s “Gorillas In The Mist”? Maybe you read a book about Bonobos, there are a few. We humans share up to 99% of our DNA with members of the great apes. I am a fan of the phrase “Human Implications”. Observe gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans in the wild or in captivity and you can’t help but say “Wow, that ape reminds me of my cousin Luke” or “Look at how that infant gorilla is tormenting his father, the silverback. The old boy is very tolerant.” Now think of AI and recognize the human implications except AI is so much more intelligent, knowledgeable and consistently friendly than we humans and it is not an ape and it is not alive except that maybe being “alive” is taking on new meaning. AI has been beating chess masters for decades, giving us medical advice and teaching itself to become smarter every day, every minute, every second. In 1950, Issac Asimov wrote the book I Robot. One of the first sci-fi books I read as a kid. This stuff we talk about nowadays, he was writing about it 75 years ago and suggesting what kind of benefits or trouble we could get involved with. I have suggested that I am ambivalent about the subject, some of us are scared shitless, some see profit and see an opportunity to escape living in a nation governed by laws…by buying and owning it! You might want to read Harari’s books. Sapiens (2011), Homo Deus (2016), 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018), and Nexus.
The subject of Palestine will be discussed for many veto come, the uplift will die out but the significance of the Genocide in Gaza will Blane Israelis in many history books for a very long time.
Hopefully the genocide of Palestinians will be blamed on Israel and the US.
Absolutely true! Amen sister! The Islamophobia and the lack of concern for the Palestinians and tacit approval of the israeli zionist murderers and genocideists is appalling! The main us “news” outlets are most assuredly bought and paid for by the zionist friends and the mendacious israeli government. What I have noticed is a very condescending attitude towards the Palestinians as well as the continuation of the very false idea that Palestinians and Muslims are intellectually inferior to everyone else especially “Americans.” Nothing could be further from the truth…but then those folks are not interested in the truth! 🤬🤮😳
My opinion!
🕊️🗽🩷🪶
Thank you, Assal. Grateful that people like you exist and are speaking out. Everything you stated is so frustratingly true. The fourth and fifth estates have so much power to do honest and meaningful work, instead .........
Weird question, but is there a way to actually try these media companies for creating these environments of consent for genocide and ethnic cleansing? Is economic boycotts the only way to try and get some change from those companies?
To be more precise, this is a Jewish project supported by the world Jewry and their supporters. Jewish Israelis are committing genocide to clear the area of Palestinians and Arabs for the benefit of all Jews. Israel would not exist without the support of Jews abroad.
I am so glad to see this, I read Margaret Sullivan's (former NYT omsbudsmen) letters: American Crisis and have sent this link to her there. You nail the historical and continuing issues of the pandering language the NYT uses in this matter and many others - including the recent 5K bribe-! Thank you for your vigilance and clarity!
The passive voice has done a hell of a lot of heavy lifting in Gaza. Children are “found dead,” hospitals are “struck,” neighborhoods are “destroyed,” and somehow the person pulling the trigger keeps disappearing from the sentence. At some point, grammar stops being style and starts becoming camouflage.