In this weeks Quantum we look at the meta narrative that our post -postmodern society is trying to feed us. Including Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Stephen Colbert, Elon Musk and the EU; Humza Yousaf; Donald Trump and Musk; Tim Walz on misinformation; Alaister Campbell and Douglas Murray; Jailed for Facebook Posts; Labour Councillor calls for slitting peoples throats; Hope not Hate; Anti-Establishment rhetoric; Banning Dawkins; Olympic boss doesn’t know what a woman is; Islamists and Taylor Swift; Country of the week – Japan; Giant Wind Turbines; Lawyers and the French Revolution; Closing Schools in the UK; the NHS and Pregnant men; SEEK 47 – Being Catholic; a listeners poem…. with music from the Manic Street Preachers, 4 Non Blondes, Pulp, Taylor Swift, Alphaville, Peter,Paul and Mary, the Bach Collegium; and Eric Bibb…
Here is the music used in this weeks podcast here
Support Quantum here
Catch up on last week’s episode Breathless – Quantum 316 – UK Riots, Bangladesh, Walz, the Lord’s Prayer in Victoria, and the Redemption of an American Idol
As well as the links above….I also used these below…
When western worlds wear woke
The anti-woke wake with wise words
But where will they ever be spoke
When woke wisdom will wash them unheard.
For we live in this world of false news
And the truth, like the soap, slips our grasp
As the media filters our views
In the way their technology asks.
Fact-checkers on sand wash away
When their bias is brought to the light
But when will these honest ones say
That their warnings were not quite right?
So the pendulum swings left and right
In a world that has lost its way
And where is the good news in sight
When no-one remembers to pray.
Look up for the saviour is Lord
For Jesus, (the Truth is his name)
Our future is bright in his Word
For ever remaining the same.
Salvation remains free for all
Every nation and tribe on the earth.
Wake the prophets: remember your call
That everyone needs new birth.
Don’t despair there is good news in sight
From a podcast that wants you to see
When the world cannot tell left from right
Find some sense from our David’s weeflea.
From Mike
Interesting, as always, but do the victors (or monied and powerful) very often get priority in writing history? Our internet age, coupled with a free press, perhaps makes it harder to deceive over the longer term. I entirely agree about attempts to restrict press freedom being wrong.
Or it might be that our internet age makes it easier to deceive over the long term? The ability to rewrite history, change the meaning of words, censor opponents etc. These are frightening tools for authoritarians to have!
The breaking Blackburn Cathedral story in Lancs might be a model for our secular friends to copy. ‘Anglican Authoritarianism’ at work with Kangaroo Court Justice? The secular world has much to learn from the Church.
As a 73-year-old male, if I am ever asked by an NHS clinician if I’m pregnant, I’ll be sorely tempted to answer ‘yes’, then wait and see what happens.
David, I’ve fact-checked something for you (not really!) but the word ‘media’ is plural for ‘medium’, so when we refer to ‘the news media’ we are referring to more than one medium. So one news medium could be newspapers, another radio, and another TV. Similarly one social medium would be X, another Facebook or Instagram, and so on.
A few things that I would like to ask.
Kamala Harris reported as being unsuitable was not a narrative, but the change after Biden stepped down was? We all spin a narrative including yourself in this podcast. Would it not be a more responsible message to warn people to be critical of narratives? Is CNN worse than Fox news?
I was heartened by the audience laughing at the ‘unbiased’ line in the Colbert clip. They realised that there is always a narrative. Especially in American media.
Is social media really the best place to get news? Should it have no checks or balances? I have checked in with your X/Twitter account on and off for a bit and followed up on some of your posts and retweets. You posted about a tweet from Alexandra Marshall on May 8th with a headline ‘London Mayor Khan’s Muslim Housing Plan Sparks Controversy’. I tried to find this controversy. I am neither Christian or Muslim, I do not want any group to have leg up on housing (except the homeless). I could find nothing to verify this claim. How many people read it and looked at it at face value? Is this post needless inflammatory?
I think we should promote a more critical and logical society that thinks more carefully about the media they consume and its practically unavoidable underlying narrative.
The narrative was that Biden was fit, healthy and a great leader. When that was demonstrated to be false – suddenly the narrative changed to him being unfit and Kamala being a genius…. And yes people should be critical of narratives – but the problem is that we are in a society where only ONE narrative is permitted to spread as The truth. Social media, like all other media, should have checks and balances. Of course. But to restrict media to the MSM who only spread the one narrative would be wrong. Social media for example can be a useful corrective to the MSM. The question re Islam is one example…the MSM will never allow anything critical of Islam….
Which was the false narrative?
Biden strong Kamala weak? Kamala strong Biden weak? Both weak? Both Strong?
Who is the MSM? CNN? BBC? Fox? ITV? X? The news outlet that disagrees with you?
Which religious group should I be most fearful of?
Gun owning Christians? Not in the UK, we have effectively banned guns.
Christians? Not in the UK we are a Christian nation on paper and a mostly accepting country in practice.
Muslims? I can see a mosque if I walk slightly away from my house so my view is not obscured by trees.
My neighbours across the street are Muslim, should I be fearful of them after 10+ years of living across from them?
There was a Hindu celebration that lasted for over a week that I could observe from my front room, what would MSM say?
Is there one narrative? Or one narrative that appeals?
That Biden was strong, competent etc. A false narrative that Kamala promoted.
If you don’t know what the Mainstream Media is then a) I can’t help you and b) you shouldn’t be commenting on it!
Re the rest of your comments – don’t be facetious – it doesn’t suit you…
And please don’t think that the world revolves around you. Just because you don’t personally experience something, does not mean that it does not exist. Perhaps better to take a wider perspective and whilst not ignoring your own personal experience, not making it the rule by which you judge the wider news….
Narratives are complex. Which is the problem when we have a governing elite peddling us only one narrative….which was precisely my point…
Or Kamala was actually competent all along but they were covering for Biden?
Social media can be a useful corrective. Could it also be an inflammatory source of misinformation?
Islamophobia is a problem in the UK, where did this come from? The MSM, by your testimony it is too scared to criticise the religion; social media, currently a confirmation bias free for all?
Or I might be indulging myself and being hyperbolic. Could it in fact be a whole range of factors that the media in general has not find a way to accurately report?
Of course social media can be an inflamattory source of misinformation – as can the MSM.
I don’t think Islamaphobia is a problem in the UK – that’s misinformation that you have absorbed from the MSM.
I wish the media was about reporting…..it used to be but has changed. Journalists generally now consider themselves to be campaigners.
Should have brought this up in my last reply, my apologies.
Do you still stand by the following that you reposted?
‘London Mayor Khan’s Muslim Housing Plan Sparks Controversy’
Yes – largely – although it was a report on a news channel which was then corrected by social media! It wasn’t Khan’s particular proposal – just his support of the North London Muslim Housing Association.
Here are two important facts which I think need to be clarified and which illustrate the corruption of the English language, especially exemplified by this dialogue.
1. The word ‘narrative’ merely means a description or an account of events. It should not be confused with ‘opinion’.
2. The word ‘media’ is plural for ‘medium’ so, for instance, we should say that social media ‘are’ influential, not ‘is’.