AVC's Top 5 Newsletters of 2023
Thank you, loyal readers, for reading and sharing our weekly newsletter. These were our 5 most popular newsletters in 2023.
1. One Key Reason People Believe and Share Misinformation (Mar. 31)
Psypost reported on a study finding that people with heightened anxiety are more likely to believe in claims they read and share on social media. The study also found that much of our reasoning is based on whatever political party we identify with. This "partisan motivated reasoning" means that we, essentially, work backward to justify our previously held beliefs by accepting or ignoring information that aligns with what we already find to be credible or trustworthy.
Ideologically extreme Republicans were more likely to believe misinformation than ideologically extreme Democrats, but centrist Republicans were better at identifying misinformation than centrist Democrats.
2. How to Build Republican Trust in Elections (Even When They Lose) (Jan. 12)
One unfortunate result of Trump's constant election denying is that Republicans, even two years after the 2020 election, remain skeptical about elections in the US. And while Kari Lake was unsuccessful in her challenge of the 2022 Arizona Governor election, it seems as if this will be a strategy for at least part of the GOP from now on when they lose. And, even with the current iteration of the Republican party being more show than substance, our political climate is better off when there are at least two competent political parties not shouting down every election they lose.
Which makes this study from Katherine Clayton and Robb Willer, published in Sage Journals, so compelling. Clayton and Willer find that "viewing real messages from Republican politicians defending the legitimacy of the 2020 election increased faith in the election's outcome and in the broader electoral process among Republican voters, compared to either a neutral control condition or to comparable messages from Democratic politicians." The study also indicates that there is no downside to admitting that "Republican politicians who endorse the 2020 election results might not face backlash from voters."
3. The Catch 22 of Silent Observation (Mar. 9)
In an interview with conservative commentator Charlie Sykes at The Bulwark, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan defended his silence about election misinformation and other problems at Fox News with what Sykes dubbed “in the room-ism.”
Sykes followed the interview with an edition of his Morning Shots newsletter that delved into this idea. Sykes weaves quotes and paraphrases from his interview with Paul Ryan with quotes from news outlets that show just how far Ryan’s being “in the room” while hoping to do good gets him. Spoiler: nowhere, it gets him nowhere.
4. Freedom of Speech Under Attack in Florida (Jan. 5)
David French often speaks of the many ways he helped fight for freedom of speech for conservatives, and everyone else, on college campuses. I am old enough to remember the days when conservatives, rightfully, for the most part, were upset with the hostility with which conservative ideas were treated at colleges and in academia at large. So it is maddening and disheartening to see this piece from ProPublica on the silencing impact Florida's Individual Freedom Act, also known as the Stop Woke Act, has had on college campuses.
While proponents of the Individual Freedom Act may try and focus on the name of the bill to say that it gives freedom back to college students to fight the tyranny of radical professors, the reality is that the legislation is forcing professors to not speak about issues of race lest they risk losing their jobs. The Stop Woke Act is, in effect, silencing voices on college campuses that conservatives do not want to hear from. This means that in all the years that conservatives fought for their right to speak freely on college campuses without being threatened or treated with hostility, the only lesson learned is that those in power should try to curtail the speech of others.
5. "He Gets Us" draws Echo Chambers on both the Right and Left (Feb. 24)
Last week we shared a few articles on the Superbowl ads for He Gets Us. But the buzz about the ads has remained strong. So this week, I highly recommend John Inazu's commentary on why the ads have created such a stir and an onslaught of emotions. Inazu traces the two camps he's found; the Left has called the ads "right-wing" and fascist, while those on the Right consider the ads "unbiblical." The money quote from Inazu is this poignant bit of insight, "I suspect what's really going on is a combination of deeply entrenched echo chambers and the quick attribution of guilt by association."
Inazu is talking here about why the reaction to ads about Jesus understanding us has seemingly polarized people on different ends of the political horseshoe in similar ways, albeit for different reasons. While this is not Inazu's primary goal, his point about deeply entrenched echo chambers and guilt by association perfectly summarizes how some news media operate. This week, the Washington Post, and every other major news outlet that is not to the Right of Fox News, reported on the legal filings from Dominion's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
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