Friends,

I am alternating sips of strong fresh coffee with a splash of cream with ice water. Having engaged in my morning mindfulness practice and jotted a few notes in my journal, I am reviewing some things I found interesting in my online wanderings in recent days…

How Too Much Information Can Make Us Stupid and Miserable, is a fantastic article from Social Scientist and writer Katie Jgln’s blog The Noösphere over on Substack. It’s discussing the harm to individuals and society that can come from the unrpecedented firehose of information we can experience in modern life.

Another thing that has caught my mind’s eye in the last few weeks has been this quote from Van Badham, an Australian writer, columnist, podcaster, and student of disinformation pipelines and counterdisinformation campaigning over on Threads…

“… Apparently, one of the main factors for the creation of information resilience in people is… a happy childhood. And I certainly had one of those. What disinformation campaigners target with their material is *unhealed traumas* in people. Distant parenting, neglect, abuse and PARTICULARLY parental abandonment are very powerful psychological triggers that disinformation campaigners prey on with their key mythos, narratives and imagery. The invitation is for (you, the viewer) to take on the role of rescuer of (a child, or children) by following an instruction for action. That’s why QAnon wants to convince you there are tortured babies under pizza restaurants, why homophobic/terf campaigners are targeting drag queens (!) as somehow imperilling to children, why every war propagandist from terrorists to authoritarian governments are going to pump out imagery of suffering children as a means of slyly provoking enough traumatic empathy to manipulate you into action. The good news is that if you are AWARE of your own trauma, and make a point of invoking that awareness when exposed to traumatic information, your inoculation kicks in and you can resist disinformation. …”

Quoted from a longer Thread by Van Badham on 6/22/24

Another posting that is in the mental mix as I think about things and future projects this morning is a delightful blog post “Sunlight Is The Best Disinfectant” Summer Solstice Ritual over on White Rose Witching’s blog.

There are a number of other influences floating around in the background as I consider a longer piece of writing related to the themes above. For now though I have to sign off and refill my cups and try to get a few things done around the house before getting ready for work.

What interesting or idea-sparking posts or articles or quotes have you come across this week?

Bliss and Blessed Be,
Pax / Geoffrey