John McWhorter (Columbia University bio)

excerpts from the above (no paywall that I could see)

THE VICTORIANS HAD TO ACCEPT DARWIN. WE NEED TO ACCEPT THAT COPS KILL WHITE PEOPLE AS EASILY AS THEY KILL BLACK PEOPLE.

Otherwise, our conversation on race is deeply and perniciously fake

@ substack, April 16

[...] The problem is the sheer volume of the white cases. We just don’t hear about them. As I write, what about Hannah Williams? Or this hideous case? No, I’m not laboriously smoking these cases out when they are just weird exceptions to a general rule. They are the norm. It’s just that they don’t make national news. It really is that simple, and that sad, and that destructive to our national conversation about race.

Funny thing – nothing makes this clearer than the Washington Post database of cop murders. Just pour a cup of coffee and look at what it shows, month after month, year after year. As South Park’s Cartman would put it, “Just, like, just, just look at it. Just look at it.”

Yet, the enlightened take on the issue serenely sails along as if that database proves that cops ice black men regularly while white men only end up in their line of fire now and then by accident. The database reveals a serious problem with cops and murder, period, quite race-neutrally [....]

[....] true enlightenment, my friends, means opening yourself up to counterintuitive realities. I know – you may think that the counterintuitive reality we need to open up to is that black people are killed by cops because of their color. But that’s a little 1990 now. The cops are meaner to black people, no doubt. But not to the extent of casual murder. “Enlightened” America must open its mind, as “enlightened” Victorians opened up to Darwinism, to the simple fact that cops kill white people just as easily as they kill black people.

This is not conservative think-tank groupthink. This is truth, folks. If only smart Americans would open up to what is good news about black people’s condition. Black people do not need to walk around in fear that white cops will kill them because they are black. Yes, I meant that and will write it again. Black people do not need to walk around in fear that white cops will kill them because they are black.

“But, but … he just, he just …” NO! I “just” nothing. I say this because of the following simple fact:

Cops kill white people just as easily as they kill black people.

I know there’s a bit more we will hear.

But the disproportion … !

Yes, yes – but please see my post on Derek Chauvin on that issue, which in no way disproves anything I have written. Black people are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by cops, and exactly 2.5 times more likely to be poor, and data shows that poverty makes you more likely to encounter the cops, as even intuition confirms. This is why somewhat more black people are killed by cops than what our proportion in the population would predict.[....]

Reflect also: most people who take to the streets about cases like Daunte Wright are not thinking about the fact that black people are killed by cops 2.5 times more than their representation in the population would predict. They are protesting because all they see in the news is the black people killed, and have no way of imagining that whites are regularly killed in the same way and in much greater numbers.

* * *

Once more. Every time the media broadcasts the murder by cop of a black person, ask yourself if it’s really true that a cop wouldn’t have done it to a white person – and then go to, for example, the Washington Post database and see cops doing just that.

And upon that, we will settle upon an honest national conversation about the cops as murdering people in race-neutral fashion. Or at least we should.

also see these related tweets

a uniter not a divider, obviously trying to redirect to narratives that all Americans can share, like it or not:

edit to add, "1776 Unites" that McWhorter is referring to there  is "a Woodson Center Project" Woodson Center's mission is Transforming lives, schools, and troubled neighborhoods, from the inside out.https://woodsoncenter.org/. I don't honestly haven't spent the time checking them out enough to know whether they are just pushing a counter-narrative of their own or actually trying to deal with reality.

China's foreign ministry likes a lot of The Woke Narrative:

Just hit me looking at this detail picture of this old broadside how the elites did it during the Enlightenment - forthrightly but politely:

....a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires, that they should declare the causes, which impel them to the Separation....

A New York Post story about Kamala Harris triggered conservative outrage. Almost all of it was wrong. Now the reporter has resigned.

By Paul Farhi @ WashingtonPost.com, 

April 27, 2021 at 7:14 p.m. EDT

A longtime New York Post reporter said she has resigned after being “ordered” to write a false story that claimed undocumented minors were being welcomed to the United States with copies of a children’s book written by Vice President Harris.

“The Kamala Harris story — an incorrect story I was ordered to write and which I failed to push back hard enough against — was my breaking point,” Laura Italiano tweeted Tuesday afternoon, several hours after her viral article about the books had been deleted from the Post’s website and replaced with corrected versions.

Italiano, who has written for the Post since the 1990s, according to news archives, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Since the Post published the story on its front page Saturday, the conservative mediascape has been in an uproar over the supposed distribution of Harris’s 2019 book, “Superheroes Are Everywhere,” at migrant shelters. A slew of prominent Republicans expressed outrage over the possibility that taxpayers were funding the program. Even the White House press secretary was grilled about it.

And then on Tuesday, in a one-sentence note at the bottom of the original online article, the Post acknowledged that almost none of it was true.

“Editor’s note: The original version of this article said migrant kids were getting Harris’ book in a welcome kit, but has been updated to note that only one known copy of the book was given to a child,” it read in full.

In fact, it’s not even clear whether a child actually received that single copy of the book, which was photographed by Reuters on a vacant bed at a shelter in Long Beach, Calif., last week. It was one of many items, including toys and clothing, donated by residents in a citywide drive [....]

Hawley's setting up his own narrative:

Now here's "working to outlaw indoctrination of one narrative in public institutions":

When we say our algorithms are not for your kinda narratives, we mean it: Twitter Suspends Trump's New Account For Trying To Evade The Ban On His Old Account

By Tommy Baer @ Forbes.com, May 6

TOPLINE

 Twitter has suspended an account created to share posts from a website recently launched by former President Donald Trump, claiming the new handle is an attempt to bypass the suspension of his personal account, in the latest move by a major social media company limiting Trump's ability to spread his message.

KEY FACTS

The new site, "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump," went live Tuesday, as did its accompanying Twitter handle, @DJTDesk.    

By late Wednesday night, the account had been suspended. 

A Twitter spokesperson told Forbes: "As stated in our ban evasion policy, we'll take enforcement action on accounts whose apparent intent is to replace or promote content affiliated with a suspended account." [....]

Tribal narratives are the air that Identity Politics breathes:

The Nazis did it, why not everyone else, huh?

Not many profitable narratives to push today:

Rebekah Jones, the COVID Whistleblower Who Wasn’t (about Florida Covid data)

Found retweeted by Maggie Haberman; Ben Smith is NYTimes' media columnist

Edit to add Smith's second tweet:

"@zeynep" writes on Complex systems, wicked problems. Society, technology and more. @UNC professor. Word in @TheAtlantic & @NYTimes My newsletter is @insight : http://theinsight.org

Her full name is Zeynep Tufekci She is McColl Term Associate Professor, UNC School of Information and Library Science.

could be it's all wimmin's fault 

Personally I believe CNN & MSNBC does this too, especially in its nighttime programming. Including complaining about media not covering it, whatever it is. It's just different topics, of course.

Debunking a 1990's narrative, that far right extremists are all white racists (repeat of just posted on extremist news thread):

Just thinking how if FBI and CIA and other detective types fall for narratives and don't keep an open mind, stuff could happen like: lots of people could die.

On the victim olympics thing, which is not always about political agenda, often just a competition for the bottom spot, for the *most conspired against* crown, I guess:

then there's buying into a narrative for the demographic's $$$$$$$$:

Demi Lovato identifies as non-binary and changes pronouns to they/them

The singer announced the decision to use gender-neutral pronouns as "this best represents the fluidity I feel in my gender expression." They added, "I’m doing this for those out there that haven’t been able to share who they truly are with their loved ones."

This news is a Twitter "Event", gets it's own url to a page with lots of news stories and tweets.

I am curious as I suspect these "Events" are for sale.I suspect this is similar to the olden days where you have a P.R. agent you pay to get you in Variety or New York Post's Page Six. In the past they would often use a semi-sex-scandal story to show how sexy and desirable and news worthy you were, how interesting your persona was and how it would attract fans and haters, readers and debate. (The Donald used to try to pretend he was a P.R. agent to gossip media, pushing stories about himself.)

In any case, I am cynical , I think this shows Demi Lovato appealing to the demographic that would be interested in this and to be controversial enough to cause attention but not too controversial as to attract a lot of bad actors.

Jay Rosen on why the GOP narrative is what it is:

a hint that Omar Wasow is thinking along scholarly lines on this topic, which is absolutely fabulous:

he got only one person answering his tweet publicly so far, here's the discussion

Do they even have "Mass Comm" departments at most universities these days or are they called something else?

Trump shuts down blog! NO RATINGS!!! A LOSER!!!

Read it. 

He's 75 in a little over a month with tons of court cases to handle.

So what is Trumpism story from now on without Trump?

Those who are into the narrative he is, that the election was stolen are going to be forever tarnished by Jan. 6. activists who are also being prosecuted. That's going nowhere growth-wise, ratings-wise.

Those who loved him for the anti-political-correctness culture wars of his twitter feed and rally rants, they are still there. They've actually been a major part of the GOP base for quite some time.But without his daily shot of encouragement it's going to be different.

I would suspect in that case, it's important for the left not to feed the trolls on culture wars issues when they are raised, like by  Marjorie Greene, Ted Cruz or Matt Gaetz types? I do think nefarious non-U.S. actors will try to take advantage of doing that, though. Just asking, thinking. Trump fans will no doubt always be there, but without his daily encouragement it will be their memory of what Trump was like, not someone manipulating them daily.

He never really had a narrative that made any sense besides: Trump narcissist attacking the politically correct.

Now here's a group trying to refresh and invigorate their narrative but the result seems to be parody of themselves and the video is actually just entertaining in a video game or comic book sorta way:

oh lordy if it really became a hot thing:

Hamburgers, Fauci and election fraud: How Biden World combats disinformation

The White House has two dozen staffers working on it. And they’ve outsourced even more.

By NATASHA KORECKI @ Politico.com, 06/16/2021

[....] It’s a pervasive problem that Democrats believe they must aggressively confront in 2022 and 2024. And it’s one that the White House isn’t taking on alone. Outside, allied organizations have assumed different roles in monitoring and determining what content is consumed on social media.

Combating misinformation (falsehoods) and disinformation (intentional falsehoods) can be a massive undertaking that requires intense and meticulous social media tracking. It also means confronting social media platforms, which can create First Amendment issues for the White House, if it is viewed as trying to restrict content.

Building Back Together, an advocacy group closely aligned with Biden, has assumed the role of battling social media outfits, including Facebook, on behalf of the White House, in an ongoing effort to keep false election narratives off the platform. The DNC has taken on more of the hand-to-hand combat in defense of Biden and other Democrats, as well as keeping track of emerging themes it has identified as building momentum on the right.

One such focal point is critical race theory. The academic concept of civil rights scholars was barely a blip on social media in 2020. But since January, there have been 25 million interactions involving critical race theory on Facebook, according to a DNC analysis. Discussions about transgender sports, too, have dominated conservative sites, said Durigan, aimed at stoking fears that an executive order Biden signed protecting transgender people from discrimination would “destroy women’s sports.”

BBT is monitoring social media companies and recently called on Facebook to launch a comprehensive review of the role its platform played in the run-up to the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building. A BBT senior adviser described the group’s role as holding platforms like Facebook accountable as Democrats move into the midterms and 2024. That has meant discussing Facebook’s response to its complaints that it isn’t moving quickly enough to take down false information.

BBT regularly updates the White House officials on the group’s latest data, according to the adviser, including how the narrative of fraudulent elections is evolving. The adviser stressed that while there are political ties between the group and the White House, it does not act as an arm of the White House.

Bob Bauer, the attorney who is heading up the voting rights program for BBT, said the group considered the most dangerous false narrative on social media to be the claim that “the electoral process is corrupt.”  [....]

The Biden White House strategy is not unlike that of the Biden campaign: let conspiracies or extreme falsehoods live in the dark corners of the Internet, with the belief that addressing such claims head-on will only prop them up.

That doesn’t mean a hand’s off approach though. The White House’s Office of Digital Strategy employs about two dozen staffers who work to monitor and, if needed, combat disinformation, including encouraging different sites to fact-check false content. In most cases, their mandate is to fend off falsehoods by ensuring a steady stream of factual and positive information flows onto social media platforms [....]

it's horrible really to use a tragedy this way! and he's not that sorry about doing so:

oy yeah I totally agree that collective guilt narratives of all kind are rampant in media and all levels of education now and I do think they are very perverse and very harmful to society:

Worse than ever, worse than when this was said (especially worse because people are actually into promoting themselves fitting into stereotyped groups against "the other" stereotypes!)

And so we must say to every American: Look beyond the stereotypes that blind us. We need each other. All of us -- we need each other. We don't have a person to waste. And yet for too long politicians have told the most of us that are doing all right that what's really wrong with America is the rest of us. Them. Them, the minorities. Them, the liberals. Them, the poor. Them, the homeless. Them, the people with disabilities. Them, the gays. We've gotten to where we've nearly themed ourselves to death. Them and them and them. But this is America. There is no them; there's only us. One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all. That is our Pledge of Allegiance, and that's what the New Covenant is all about.

How do I know we can come together and make change happen? Because I have seen it in my own state. In Arkansas we're working together and we're making progress. No, there's no Arkansas miracle. But there are a lot of miraculous people. And because of them, our schools are better, our wages are higher, our factories are busier, our water is cleaner and our budget is balanced. We're moving ahead.

I wish, I wish I could say the same thing about America under the incumbent President. He took the richest country in the world and brought it down. We took one of the poorest states in America and lifted it up.

~ Bill Clinton acceptance speech, Democratic nomination, July 1992 

a couple of tweets from Cammock's thread:

[....]

(Rufo is famously anti-woke, btw.)

Perfect example. Make up a story the masses will like. Ignore that there's numerous other billionaire philanthropists trying to fix or remake this world to their goodwill specifications, which is a more complex problem. Instead create a trend out of three persons which feeds populist anger (eyeballs):