The Montoya Minute the week of 02.03.20
What is truth? Bernie is fighting Dems, no charges filed on cop who killed Antonio Arce, American Dirt and Sandra Cisneros, Super Bowl too Sexy?, butterfly activists found dead.
When it comes to media literacy we often think about things in terms of truth. It is true or untrue? Is it fact or fiction— or what we say now, is it an 'alternate fact?’
If we are to consider what we talked about last week with Terministic Screens, we all see and understand things from a different POV. So how do we even know if something is true or simply something that resonates as factual?
Well Philosophers like Aristotle and Plato generally believed that there was an ultimate truth (they were also wealthy white aristocrats). They thought that only certain people deserved the right to speak to a crowd and sway the masses because they needed to have the morals and ethics that would keep them from using the powers of rhetoric for evil.
Others like the Sophists believed that truth is simply what is valid to a certain audience at a certain time. An example of this would be Fox News. It’s valid for a certain audience based on their Terministic Screens but the information is simply not factual. But that could be said for any news outlet. They are all specific to who is reading.
But the scary thing is that it really doesn’t matter if something it true or untrue. You can make wild claims and win arguments by appealing to peoples emotions and ignorance. It’s our job to make sure we know how news and media are appealing to us and what their end goal is.
We’ll talk about the types of appeals next week.
Sh*t you need to know
Bernie Sanders' real obstacle is not Trump. It's the Democratic establishment
But what has the Democratic party ever offered him and his vision? It is a party that did its very best to institutionally elbow him out of the 2016 race; when he returned in 2020, an entire basketball team’s worth of Democrats arose to run on platforms that were explicit rejections of his wild socialist beliefs like “humans should have healthcare and education”.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Centrist Dems, which is really all of the Dems, just want to keep things the same because at the end of the day they prefer silence over peace. How can these politicians claim to be for the people when they don’t even think we deserve healthcare or education?
No charges for Tempe police officer who shot and killed 14-year-old Antonio Arce
"This situation is absolutely heartbreaking. But, on that day, Officer Jaen did not see a 14-year-old boy with a replica," Adel said. "In that moment, he saw a suspect running through a neighborhood with a weapon."
The announcement came more than a year after Jaen shot and killed Arce. Body-cam footage shows the 14-year-old running from the officer while clutching what law enforcement said appeared to be a gun. The weapon turned out to be a non-lethal airsoft gun with an orange tip.
No justice for POC in America. RIP Antonio Arce.
“American Dirt” Tries To Pretend That Immigration Isn’t Political
Cummins — being, as she mentions in the author’s note that concludes the book, “more interested in stories about victims” — goes to great lengths to make her characters small, helpless, and predictable. She creates a plot that seems impossible to someone like me — a Mexican immigrant who, like Lydia, lived a middle-class life in Mexico and whose family has suffered at the hands of cartel-related violence.
“Your baby will be a US citizen,” Lydia tells Soledad, a Honduran migrant whose beauty is described as “an accident of biology” and who has become pregnant after being raped. That perspective feeds into many Americans’ fears that immigrants want to come to the US to have “anchor babies.” Never mind that in real life, the Trump administration will instruct consular officers to deny visas to pregnant travelers.
After being kidnapped by Mexican immigration officials, Lydia and Luca earn their freedom by paying their own ransom, but they are told by “el comandante” that they should not care about the other immigrants because “most of these are bad guys anyway.” Echoing Trump, he continues: “They’re gang members, they’re running drugs. They’re thieves or rapists or murderers.”
The book is a mess. And I was really disappointed by Sandra Cisneros response on Latino USA. The gaslighting. It’s one thing to tell people they got it wrong, it’s another to tell us we don’t know what we’re talking about and offering nothing but your opinion to back up your argument. As a literary scholar she should know the importance of close reading as well as how themes and motifs work. She didn’t offer a single example from the book to back her ideas up, which leads me to believe that this is someone who didn’t pay attention and is now in too deep to take it back.
Dear White People: The Super Bowl Halftime Show Wasn’t Too Sexy, You’re Just Racist
So, to the people complaining over this show, where do you draw the line of moral decency? It’s OK for your President to behave like a sexist, racist jerk and boast of grabbing women by their “p*ssys,” yet the idea of two Latinas dancing on stage is too much for you. You’re OK with watching men bash into each other as a sport causing severe damage to their brain, yet J.Lo on a strip pole is too much for you to handle?
Boop.
YouTube Sh*t
I had no idea that DevaCurl was causing hair loss and even curl loss in it’s users. If you use DevaCurl products I suggest you watch this video.
World News
Homero Gómez González, prominent butterfly activist in Mexico, found dead in a well
Homero Gómez González, a former logger who became one of the most vocal defenders of central Mexico’s monarch butterfly population, disappeared Jan. 13 — alarming environmental activists throughout the country and the US, the Washington Post reported.
Unfortunately this is what happens to people who stand up to protect the Earth. Logging companies pay governments and/or paramilitary crews to protect their assets all the time. Murder is usually part of the deal and they are never held accountable.
Second person linked to butterfly sanctuary found dead in Mexico
His disappearance and ensuing death sparked an outcry in Mexico, where environmental and human rights activists are routinely threatened or even killed as a result of their work.
Gonzalez, who fought to defend the monarch butterfly’s wintering grounds from illegal logging, managed the El Rosario butterfly sanctuary located inside the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.
Koala Massacre Currently Occurring in South West Victoria
Another example of a logging company that doesn’t give a shit about animals. The photos are graphic.
Tech Sh*t
WhatsApp to stop working on millions of phones
WhatsApp will stop working on older smartphones. Time for an upgrade!