The United States has been using science and pseudo-science to wage psychological wars for centuries. Psywar as we know it in America grew up during the Indian Wars of the 19th century, where U.S. troops fought hundreds of Indigenous nations and confederated tribes, using battlefield anthropologists to gather information about the enemy. Read more in my latest @newscientist column, or check out my forthcoming book "Stories Are Weapons." https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26234910-900-how-the-us-used-science-to-wage-psychological-war/
Hello Berkeley! I'll be talking to the astounding @edyong209 on 6/18 at the Hillside Club, about my new book, "Stories Are Weapons," a history of psyops and culture war in the USA. Expect dunking on junk science, geeking out about archives, and more. https://www.booksmith.com/event/stories-are-weapons
Does it seem weird to everybody that Godzilla x Kong and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes have the same plot, which is basically, "What if the apes were the fascists?"
@annaleen in fact, to me, it does not. But that's because I understand that those movies are generally racist allegories. More the Planet of the Apes than Godzilla. But Kong is a pretty well-known stand in for Black men.
@Adam_Cadmon1 Excellent point. Which makes Noah and Kong the "respectable" ones, who MIGHT be spared by the humans, especially if they stay in the subterranean part of subterranean Earth.
Hey Seattle pals! I'll be at Town Hall Seattle with the incomparable Lindy West on 6/6, 7:30pm, talking about my new book, "Stories Are Weapons." There will be psyops. There will be jokes. Hopefully you will feel better afterwards. Get your tickets now! https://townhallseattle.org/event/annalee-newitz-with-lindy-west/
My TED talk went up this morning. It's about the power of storytelling, and how escapism can help us engage with the world in more productive ways. Plus I talk about the 501st Legion, the Emerald Tutu, and public transit! Check it out here: http://go.ted.com/annaleenewitz
@annaleen I worked with a math teacher at an alternative school who didn't think we should teach history, hated fiction, and didn't read beyond what was required for the job. It became a problem when one of our student's coping mechanism for PTSD was reading fiction as escapism.
Probably for the best that she's retired and raising avocados now.
In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson authorized roughly 75,000 American citizens to deliver 4-minute speeches about why the U.S. should enter the Great War. They were called the 4 Minute Men (though some were women and children). The "four minute" monicker came from the length of time it took to change reels in a movie theater, where these speeches were delivered. In case you thought Americans had short attention spans now -- welp, we did over a century ago too. https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/world-war-i-american-experiences/about-this-exhibition/over-here/surveillance-and-censorship/four-minute-men/
I love reading abstracts for scientific papers that assume I am part of a group of a few dozen experts who will be UTTERLY SCANDALIZED by a very minor discovery that overturns a very minor hypothesis and ultimately does not affect the larger claims in this particular field.
@xgranade Absolutely, and that is what I love. This one in particular was just kind of funny, because the cool part of the paper had nothing to do with the AMAZING discovery
@annaleen Makes a lot of sense. I once attended a really neat talk by a student that kept apologizing for not having some particular result that was far less interesting than what they actually discussed and showed.
I have no doubt that said result would have been billed as amazing and game-changing, missing the entire point as to why the whole experiment was so bloody cool.
Hey Portland friends! I'll be Powells Books on 6/4 at 7pm, talking about my new book "Stories Are Weapons" with the one and only Dave Miller, host of OPR's "Think Out Loud." Hope to see you there!!
Had a huge and delicious birthday dinner comprised mostly of pasta and dessert. Then had a nice walk and signed a petition to bring more public transit to San Francisco. Now I'm re-watching Le Dune Deux. This post brought to you by early 00s "this was my dinner" microblogging aesthetics.
I asked my media studies students to look at the New York Times' op-ed page to determine what the paper's Overton Window is. Most thought it was fairly liberal, but others thought it was just kind of silly. One commented simply, "These are really absurd topics for articles."
@annaleen I have read that there are studies that show that he influence over what we think about is far more significant than promulgating specific opinions.