Influence of Epoch Proportions

October 26, 2020

The Good News

A family that raised $2 million for their baby’s life-saving medical treatment has received it for free (CNN)
The early bird gets the worm… Nearly 60 million Americans cast early vote as record-shattering turnout expected (Guardian)

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” ― Robert F. Kennedy

Influence of Epoch Proportions

(Jim Watson via Getty Images)

About an hour’s drive northwest of New York City lies the idyllic 400-acre Buddhist community known as Dragon Springs. Surrounded by forests and guarded by armed security, the compound, aka The Mountain, is a refuge for persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. The property was acquired in 2000, a year after the Chinese government officially labeled Falun Gong members an “evil cult” and banned them. Today, it boasts a Chinese temple, schools, and rehearsal space for their globe-trotting dance troupe, Shen Yun. Around 100 people, including the group’s leader, “Master” Li Hongzhi, are thought to live on the tax-exempt religious site that serves as Falun Gong’s spiritual headquarters.

Also in 2000, The Epoch Times was founded by Chinese Americans affiliated with the Falun Gong religious movement. A small, low-budget newspaper with a very anti-China slant, the Times was handed out for free on the streets of New York City. Another move at that time would ensure the newspaper’s transformation into one of the country’s most powerful disseminators of right-wing propaganda and misinformation. The publication and its affiliates began creating dozens of Facebook pages, filling them with feel-good videos and viral clickbait which it used to sell subscriptions and drive traffic back to its slanted news coverage.

Before 2015-2016, Epoch Media Group — now a number of newspapers and a website — had generally stayed out of US politics. Once Donald Trump threw his hat and divisive rhetoric into the political ring, Falun Gong members started viewing him as the anti-Communist leader who would bring about the end of the Chinese Communist Party. By 2016-2017, The Epoch Times had ramped up its previously staid coverage of US politics with articles explicitly supporting Trump and criticizing his opponents; more and more emphasis was placed on issues like Islamic terrorism and illegal immigration to the US, while far-right conspiracy theories were swiftly embraced.

After Trump won the election, The Epoch Times hired a well-connected Tea-Party strategist to help make inroads with conservatives. The strategist said the goal was not only to raise its profile in Washington DC, but to make Falun Gong persecution a Trump administration priority. In 2019, The Epoch Times was barred from advertising on Facebook for “evad[ing] its transparency requirements” by disguising its ad purchases. But after being barred from advertising on Facebook, The Epoch Times simply moved much of its operation to YouTube, spending almost $2 million on ads since May 2018.

Today, the organization and its affiliates are a major force in right-wing media, with tens of millions of social media followers and an online audience rivaling those of The Daily Caller and Breitbart News. One recent affiliate, a right-wing politics site called America Daily, has more than a million Facebook followers. It has posted anti-vaccine screeds, an article falsely claiming that Bill Gates and other elites are “directing” the COVID-19 pandemic, and allegations about a “Jewish mob” that controls the world. The Epoch Times is even influential in Trump’s inner circle, with the president and his family sharing articles from the paper on social media, and members of the administration sitting for interviews with its reporters.

Additional Reads

Stranger Than Fiction (Atavist Magazine)
Epoch Times, Punished by Facebook, Gets a New Megaphone on YouTube (NYT, $)

The Few, The Loud, The Extremes

Researchers taking part in a major project on political polarization in the UK have found that those people wanting to fight “culture wars” are but a tiny percentage of the population. The new report by the More in Common thinktank says just 12 percent of voters on the political edges make up 50 percent of all social media users.
Furthermore, there is actually widespread agreement in the UK over topics such as gender equality and climate change, often seen as culture war issues. The study was based on a 10,000-strong political polling panel, academic interviews, and focus groups over an 18-month period. The report split British voters into seven distinct “tribes” based on their core beliefs.
The two “tribes” most oriented towards politics, labeled “progressive activists” and “backbone Conservatives,” were the least likely to agree with the need for compromise. Researchers found significant differences between the US and UK. There was a stronger inclination towards moderation in Britain, with 55 percent of the population saying they were in the political center.
Only 33 percent of Americans identified as moderate. “The overall picture in the US is two wings which hate each other and an exhausted majority in the middle,” the report states. “In the UK it’s more a kaleidoscope, which makes us well placed to avoid going down the path towards full polarization….” (Guardian)

The Eastern Europe Exodus

Over the past 50 years, Europe has lost almost 60 percent of its Jewish population. The diminution is primarily the result of the Soviet Union’s collapse and the opening of Eastern Europe’s borders. In the late 1800s, nearly 90 percent of the global Jewish population lived in Europe. On the eve of WWII, there were some 16.5 million Jews worldwide.
By 1945, after the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, the global population was reduced to some 11 million; Europe’s share had fallen to some 35 percent. In 1970, Europe’s share fell to 26 percent, then to 9 percent today, which is an estimated 1.3 million Jews. Two-thirds of those Jews live in France, the UK, and Germany. Intermarriage has been another “significant factor in the erosion of the Jewish population size,” as children in such families are often not brought up as Jewish. (Guardian)

Additional World News

Hong gone: As China Clamps Down, Activists Flee Hong Kong for Refuge in the West (NYT, $)
China to reveal its five-year (FYP) growth strategy in Xi Jinping era (CNBC)
Samsung Chairman Lee, the man who made the company an electronics giant, dies at 78 (CNet)
Uh-Oh. Russia’s Laptev Sea Should Have Started to Freeze by Now (Wired). The “birthplace of ice” has missed its due date.
She Used to Clean City Hall. Now, She Runs It. (NYT, $)
The U.S. Can’t Afford To Ignore The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict (NPR)
Nigeria protests: Police chief deploys ‘all resources’ amid street violence (BBC). We can’t let bygones be bygones in Azerbaijan.
Pope names US Archbishop Wilton Gregory 1st African American cardinal (ABC)
UN treaty banning nuclear weapons to take effect as 50th country ratifies text (France24)
Popping the populist balloon: We’re endlessly told why populism works. Now see how it might fail (Guardian)

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Trump Is Preparing To Ditch Mitch’s Majority

At a closed-door fundraising event in Nashville last week, President Trump told supporters it would be “very tough” for Republicans to keep control of the Senate in the upcoming election because some of the party’s senators are candidates he cannot support. “I think the Senate is tough actually. The Senate is very tough,” Trump said. “There are a couple senators I can’t really get involved in. I just can’t do it. You lose your soul if you do. I can’t help some of them. I don’t want to help some of them.”
Instead, the president said he thinks Republicans “are going to take back the House” — a sentiment not commonly held by many of the party’s top officials and strategists. Trump’s words were shared by an attendee at the fundraiser on the condition of anonymity, as the event was a private gathering.
Many strategists involved in Senate races say the party’s chances at keeping the upper chamber are undermined by the President’s unscripted, divisive rhetoric and his low poll numbers in key states. Republicans currently hold a 53-to-47 majority in the Senate. Should former vice president Joe Biden win the presidency, Democrats need to gain three seats to claim control. (WaPo)

War Of The Worksheets

Melissa Statz, a fourth-grade teacher in the small Wisconsin town of Burlington, heard children in her classroom talking about Kenosha, and wondering why people had filled the streets after a policeman shot a Black man in the back on August 23. Believing it was a good “teachable moment,” Statz used a children’s book, an educational video, and a worksheet to lead a discussion on racism and why people were protesting.
The worksheet posed questions like, “What is the Black Lives Matter Movement trying to do?” and “How Do We Stop Systemic Racism?” The students seemed engaged, and asked a lot of questions. Statz, who is white, said “One of the Black girls in my class came up to me and said, ‘Thank you so much for teaching our class about racism.”
Another Black child — one of fewer than 50 Black students in a district of more than 3,000 — gave her a hug after the lesson. But to Statz’s astonishment, one parent posted photos of the worksheet on a private community Facebook group with more than 40,000 members, slamming it as an attempt to “indoctrinate our kids” and demanding the school district fire the teacher. The arguments on social media spilled over into a heated school board meeting in September, racial slurs were graffitied on school campuses, and a barrage of hateful messages were directed at Statz, accusing her of sowing division in the small town.
“Our nation is still divided by issues of race but the impression being communicated to our students that we can’t talk about it is toxic in my mind,” said a white teacher who lives in Burlington and works in Kenosha. “Burlington is a microcosm of things happening in the Midwest in general, and our country at large.” (NBC News)

Additional USA News

Paranoia and finger-pointing in Trumpworld as election approaches (Politico)
The Lessons of Reading Every Book About Trump (New Yorker, $)
Joe Biden Had Close Ties with Police Leaders. Will They Help Him Now? (NYT, $). Will the boys in blue vote blue?
The Unspectacular Excellence of Joe Biden’s Slow and Steady Campaign (Politico)
The ACA Case Reveals the Flimsiness of ‘Constitutionality’ (Atlantic, $). The precedential obscurities of Obamacare
Barrett nomination clears Senate hurdle, putting her on course to confirmation to Supreme Court (WaPo, $)
Caught blue-handed: Why are Mitch McConnell’s hands blue? (Slate)
If A.O.C. Is So Heavily Favored, Why Has Her Race Drawn $30 Million? (NYT, $)
He’s a former QAnon believer. He doesn’t want to tell his story, but thinks it might help. (WaPo, $)
There’s No Turning Back on AI in the Military (Wired). War drones on.

Solar’s Moment In The Sun

(Visual China Group via Getty Images)

In case the jury was still out, the official verdict has now been announced by the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2020: Solar is the cheapest form of electricity for utility companies to build — below fossil fuels costs worldwide for the first time. It’s thanks to risk-reducing financial policies around the world, and it applies to locations with both the most favorable policies and the easiest access to financing.
The IEA report emphasizes how important these policies are to encouraging the development of renewables and other environmentally forward technologies. Carbon Brief (CB) summarizes the annual IEA report with a lot of key details. The IEA report “offers four “pathways” to 2040, all of which see a major rise in renewables,” CB says. “The IEA’s main scenario has 43 [percent] more solar output by 2040 than it expected in 2018, partly due to detailed new analysis showing that solar power is 20 [to] 50 [percent] cheaper than thought.”
Takeaway: The world’s best solar power schemes now offer the “cheapest…electricity in history” with the technology cheaper than coal and gas in most major countries. Also noteworthy: How public success stories like Elon Musk’s solar and wind battery farm in Australia have helped move public sentiment. (Popular Mechanics)

Additional Reads