The 29th Block: Dodging dog-whistling
Wow, it's exhausting! How have you been coping? My stress-induced bruxism caused cavities, I had to see the dentist.
Is it a sign?
Not to be a meanie to the Meanie, but I did laugh a lot at this screen shot of the 2020 APEC Summit hosted virtually by Malaysia where Donald Trump made an appearance – but his screen was blocked by the national news station’s sign language interpreter. However, had that been any other leader, it would have be a very different reaction, wouldn’t it?
As we near the end of 2020, what have we learned about political, scientific and news communication? I took a break from my work on misinformation this week, but on the topic of communication, let’s look at sign language in politics and the news, Joe Biden’s name in ASL, and whatever the deal is with Tiktok.
The first ASL interpreter at White House COVID briefing
An extract from WJLA:
“Last Friday something historic happened at the White House, but you likely missed it. For the first time ever, an American Sign Language interpreter was there for the coronavirus briefing. It took a landmark lawsuit to make that happen.”
In September, the US court ordered the White House to provide sign language interpreters at any COVID-19 briefings. Has it really been two months since the last pandemic briefing by the White House? Is it surprising that this story isn’t covered widely?
Biden has a new moniker in ASL. Some say it looks like a gang sign
From the current White House occupant to the next. What would Joe Biden’s name in ASL look like? Sonja Sharp for LA Times:
“We BIPOC completely disagree with that [sign],” American Sign Language influencer and TikTok star Nakia Smith signed in a video on Monday, using the acronym for Black, Indigenous and people of color. "[The sign] feels so unsafe for us.”
The contested sign — one of a handful under consideration — is meant to evoke the President-elect’s signature Ray-Ban sunglasses. But Smith and others say it resembles a “C” sign used by members of the Crips gang in some American cities and could be dangerous for signers of colour and embarrassing to the the incoming administration.
Trump administration to delay enforcement of TikTok ban
And speaking of Tiktok, Kari Paul and agencies for The Guardian:
The news came as the US justice department said it had appealed against a judge’s October order that blocked the restrictions. The app is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
Donald Trump’s administration contends that TikTok poses national security concerns as personal data collected on 100 million Americans who use the app could be obtained by China’s government. TikTok denies the allegations.
The popular video-sharing app has said its future is in limbo ever since Trump tried to shut it down earlier this fall.
In the words of Charles Arthur: “So predictable, really. We were told it was a national security matter. Now it doesn’t matter. The whims of a child who lost interest.”
Information overload helps fake news spread, and social media knows it
Filippo Menczer and Thomas Hills argue that understanding how algorithm manipulators exploit our cognitive vulnerabilities empowers us to fight back. An excerpt from Scientific American:
Most of us do not believe we follow the herd. But our confirmation bias leads us to follow others who are like us, a dynamic that is sometimes referred to as homophily—a tendency for like-minded people to connect with one another. Social media amplifies homophily by allowing users to alter their social network structures through following, unfriending, and so on. The result is that people become segregated into large, dense and increasingly misinformed communities commonly described as echo chambers.
[…]
Social media can also increase our negativity. In a recent laboratory study, Robert Jagiello, also at [University of] Warwick, found that socially shared information not only bolsters our biases but also becomes more resilient to correction. He investigated how information is passed from person to person in a so-called social diffusion chain. In the experiment, the first person in the chain read a set of articles about either nuclear power or food additives. The articles were designed to be balanced, containing as much positive information (for example, about less carbon pollution or longer-lasting food) as negative information (such as risk of meltdown or possible harm to health).
While I don’t disagree with their arguments, I find it a lost cause to rationalise with conspiracy theorists. How do you use logic to get someone out of a belief that they didn’t use logic to get into? Yes, I understand the irony of this statement, given the preceding paragraph.
What I read, watch and listen to…
I’m reading about how we might discover a way out of populist dysfunction by Mick Fealty.
I’m watching how soy sauce is made. I have at least three different types of soy sauce in my kitchen at all time. Is this the same for everyone who cooks?
Chart of the week
This is a very old one shared by Matt Binder in 2014, but it was International Men’s Day last week on November 19th, which is also World Toilet Day. 🙃
Ps. Matt Binder is also a journalist who runs a newsletter that debunks “conspiracies and misinformation and criticising the people and media that spread it.”