Share this page!

Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Twitter logo
Oct 12 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
A thing that @PeteButtigieg said at TribFest has made me think a bunch over the past few weeks: what if we have seen the summit of protections for individual rights & freedoms and it's now passed? What if that was it and things only get worse from here? 😨
And it reminds me of this thread, now more than ever: #ProtectOurFreedoms
This is so great:
American democracy, 1965-2022.

I know y'all vote, but please make sure your friends do too.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Jennifer Mercieca

Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @jenmercieca

Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Oct 12
Who gives Leonard Leo all that cash? (unlocked) Dark money is not speech and rich people shouldn't get to buy power. We have no idea who (from where?) is influencing American politics: nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/…
They would like for you to believe that money is speech, but that's just a thing that rich people say to get more power. Read more here: citizen.org/wp-content/upl…
more here: brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
Read 4 tweets
Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Oct 12
Communicate irresponsibly and find out Alex. 🤡📢
May more irresponsible communicators be brought to justice.
Alex Jones turned American politics into the infowars. He showed rightwing extremists how to pollute the public sphere with conspiracy & lies for profit. He told Trump what to say in 2016 (literally), including Stop the Steal. He uses communication as a weapon.
Read 6 tweets
Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Oct 10
Anti-democratic communication is "treason to the democratic way of life" (John Dewey, 1939). Propaganda is communication for warfare, using communication as a weapon. It is anti-democratic communication. #amwriting
There are two important propaganda models: 1) manufacture consent: keep public docile via messages that support status quo/elite leadership; 2) manufacture dissent: keep public engaged and outraged via messages that spread distrust, polarization, and frustration.
Most of us are "tune-outs" who don't pay attention to political news & aren't highly engaged in politics, but for those of us who are highly engaged in politics the manufacture dissent model enlists us as propagandists too, turning us into what Orwell called "screaming lunatics."
Read 8 tweets
Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Oct 8
Media researchers have noticed this pattern for a long time: people's perception of high crime comes from media portrayals of high crime. Like, crime reports in the news and tv shows that focus on crime. Media scholars call it "cultivation theory"--media cultivates reality.
Just look at all of those crime shows! What do you think watching them does to folks?
And here is a helpful explainer on why the negativity bias can be a cognitive weakness: thedecisionlab.com/biases/negativ…
Read 11 tweets
Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Oct 8
Classic example of how politicians can hide behind a appeal to authority to claim legitimacy for their preferred policy. Typically the argument that there are dueling experts allows politicians to claim they get to choose which one to believe. Stewart does fantastic work here.
Not only does he expose the appeal to authority game, but he deploys a very useful parallel case (why follow those same experts on cancer, but not gender care) that further undermines the credibility of the appeal to authority. Really great work.
I don't know if journalists are supposed to be debaters or interviewers or what, but this is excellent debate cross x.
Read 5 tweets
Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Oct 7
Good news! No, really, a whole newsletter of nothing but good news about climate change, inequality, and health around the world: 🫶futurecrunch.com/good-news-us-c…
"We're amazed at the bravery of the protestors in Iran at the moment. Have you heard Baraye yet? It's the anthem of the movement, a song that reached 40 million views in two days before being taken down by the authorities." Wow >>
What a compelling long train of abuses and usurpations and beautiful song.
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Send Email!

Email the whole thread instead of just a link!

Separate emails with commas

:(