there's really no point in watching.
If they confirmed Hegseth, they'll confirm everyone else.

We are becoming cynics. Authoritarian leaders love it. When people don't trust, sure they might not trust the authoritarian leader, but they also don't trust each other enough to get together and do anything about it.

--Cautionary Tales w/Tim Harford Missing on Dead Mountain: a Cold War Cold Case

communism over capitalism, democracy over autocracy, but to render us impotent, indecisive, and distrustful in the face of events. It wants us to believe only that everything is rigged, that no one is decent or trustworthy, and that all mysteries must be a conspiracy.

Vladimir Putin's fire hose of falsehoods has been successfully exported around the world. Some of that torrent of content still comes from inside Russia. But much is now produced in America and the UK too. Its effect is not to make us favor one form of government over another

Not elected officials, not established experts, not the mainstream media, not even your fellow citizens. If everyone is lying to you and every institution is untrustworthy, is it such a stretch to believe that officialdom is hiding the truth…?

Nothing's ever that simple or straightforward, is it?

Evolution has honed the human brain to pay attention to deadly threats. And so we are suckers for vivid stories, warning of shadowy figures out to get us. But the specific contention of the fire hose is not to make us believe in one conspiracy. It's just to sow doubts that any voice can be trusted.

after comment from bots all amplify a constant and confusing commentary on world events from wars through vaccines to election results.

The fire hose of falsehoods is relentless, inconsistent, and confusing, but it's also visceral and entertaining. It's hard not to be drawn in.

Researchers have called this modern Russian propaganda model the fire hose of falsehoods and it sprays out partial misleading or downright made-up stories in a vast torrent and in all directions: government statements, TV broadcasts, online articles, tweets, reels, posts and comment after comment

his novel use of propaganda. Generations of propagandists have abused the truth by massaging facts and inventing lies to make the public believe their version of events. Under Putin propaganda is deployed to make its audience start to doubt that the truth exists at all.

If their rulers were willing to lie so brazenly about shortages of food in the shops, what else were they hiding? When the Soviet Union finally did fall apart, yet another challenge to objective reality arose - this time in the form of Vladimir Putin.

One feature of Putin's 25-year rule is

But after Khrushchev came Leonid Brezhnev; while not as violent as Stalin, Brezhnev also favored repression and secrecy. Under him, Soviet citizens were told to rejoice in their communist system while watching it crumble before their very eyes.

Surely there are ways to be pro-life other than this.
Maybe spend energy & resources fighting child poverty instead of invoking 1930s bigoted/ignorant mindsets.
Why aren't those types of bills being introduced in state and federal legislatures?

I was so happy to see Sen Bennet push RFK Jr on his "feelings" answers.