Addressing disinformation requires understanding the intersection of media, free speech, and malicious politics — After the January 6 insurrection, where pro-Trump rioters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol under the Big Lie that massive election fraud robbed Trump of re-election, Americans found themselves pondering once again a decades-long quandary: Why can’t we stop disinformation? The primary reason is that no one has truly framed the…

Revisiting Purnell’s Iron Law of Politics — With the rapid acceleration of America’s political and cultural divisions, there’s been growing chatter that adopting a multiparty system allows more voices to be heard, and gives voters more choices among their representatives. In my detailed response, “Should America Adopt a Multiparty System?,” I argue that America’s problems are not…

To understand our politics, you have to understand our cultural insanities — Anyone else remember this old map from the 1980s? It was a satirical commentary about Ronald Reagan’s worldview, who, for those of you too young to remember, was the last Republican president that modern Republicans would consider to be too liberal to vote for today.

Policy makers thought the “Information Superhighway” would open up and democratize speech. You see where this is going. — [This is part 3 of a multipart series exploring America’s political divide. Part 1 addresses whether America’s divisions are caused by our two-party system (they’re not), while part 2 explores the difference between how Americans themselves feel about actual issues versus that of their parties (very different). In both articles…

Arguments favoring a multiparty system are spurious — In the wake of the January 6 insurrection, many felt that America was edging closer to a new civil war due to the ever-widening gap between the Democrats and Republicans. This era of hyperpolarization and partisan politics have some observers asserting that the primary problem is our two-party political system…

Exclusive Pre-production video leaked! [ I got an exclusive!!! A friend of a friend knows a guy who drinks with a guy who’s a cameraman for a TV station, and that guy funneled a transcript from a video session all the way back to me. It was a joint PSA…

Read PurpleAir ratings and checking your air filters — often — Between August and September of 2020, those of us in the San Francisco Bay Area were trying to findN95 masks, as if our very lives depended on them. …

Most Americans don’t know what a lot of things are, but have an opinion about them anyway A story in AL.com, a news site dedicated to Alabama politics, ran a story with the headline, “Alabama lawmaker wants to ban critical race theory, so I asked him what it is.” The…

Bad Journalism Makes for Great Clickbait The headlines making the rounds throughout all of media — social and otherwise — is the one from Salon.com, “DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state.” Truth or Satire? Neither! It’s not true, nor is it intended to…