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Rage has limits as a rhetorical strategy

Rage has emerged as the preferred rhetorical lever in America’s cultural and political arguments. Political activists now use rage as a tactic to lure followers onto the bandwagon of whatever cause can be exploited to advance an agenda or accumulate power. Activating the masses by telling them how angry they should be has a certain functionality to it and feels righteous in the moment. A major problem is that rage seldom ends at the level of messaging. It gets operationalized in violent acts and the destruction of property, as has been realized repeatedly in recent years across America.

The summer of 2020 was filled with rage as “Defund the police” activism substituted chaotic action for genuine dialogue about grievances.

Rage was used after the 2020 election in the runup to the riot of Jan. 6.

Rage is being applied to fuel current public arguments about guns and abortion.

The word “rage” is in the title of a women’s activist group’s campaign this summer: “Summer of Rage” headlines the website. Raging is easier than a summer campaign of creating reasoned persuasion.

Demagogues think rage can move public sentiment faster than doing the heavy lifting of careful thinking and interpersonal convincing required by rational deliberation and debate. Raw anger can be simple to generate and spreads quickly. Rage flourishes in the streets, on social media and — sadly — in the halls of Congress. The former niceties of the legislative arena have disintegrated, as name calling, cheap shots and dehumanization have gotten traction as argumentative devices.

The nation’s news media too often play a role in facilitating rage in the public sphere. The structure and nature of establishment journalism today necessarily reduces sociopolitical controversies into dramatic “stories,” which require a simplification of complex topics. Simplification enhances the emotion of any topic — at the expense of measured reasoning. News coverage in this era requires accompanying video, which too often excites emotion without sufficient context.

The hit-and-run nature of social media especially lends itself to rage and the sensationalism of simplification. Persuasive deliberation struggles in the heat of social media algorithms. Mean tweets may well have contributed to making Trump a one-term president.

Rage has drifted into all corners of society. Normalized rage is found in modern music and “entertainment,” including numerous violent video games where anger is played out vicariously.

A particular f-word is now such a commonplace — even when referring to the president or justices of the Supreme Court — that at some point will lose its ability to shock. Such raw venting serves little rhetorical purpose except to say, “I’m mad … and have no other way to express myself.”

Ultimately, overheated emotion has severe limits in moving a society forward, and indeed, seldom improves a culture. Further, rage often backfires. It often runs its course with no identifiable progress, but the debris of animosity and destruction remains. Rage disrupts cultures quickly, but may take decades to undo.

Rage makes compromise or changing the minds of adversaries unlikely. It is possible to re-engage people with whom one has a policy disagreement, but it’s extremely difficult to re-engage people who have been labeled and dismissed as hateful, evil or bigoted.

Cultures in which rage ultimately wins out descend into chaos with disastrous consequences. Civil societies hinge on being able to decide things through rigorous debate, but rage disrupts the clash of ideas, making true deliberation impossible.

America’s constitutional framers knew there would be tense disagreements in their new nation, but they crafted a system to allow robust debate within and outside of government. For that structure to function, however, there must be a commitment to foundational principles of civility.

John Adams once wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Rage disallows fair rhetorical debate, and as Adams asserts, makes it difficult for Constitutional principles to work effectively. The question now is whether any of America’s national leaders are willing to tone down their own rage and lead the nation in reasoned discourse.

Jeffrey M. McCall is a media critic and professor of communication at DePauw University. He has worked as a radio news director, a newspaper reporter and as a political media consultant. Follow him on Twitter @Prof_McCall.

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US emissions inflict almost $2T in damage to other countries: study

China and the U.S., the world’s top two greenhouse gas emitters, have collectively cost the global economy more than $3 trillion, forming the basis for potential litigation, according to research published Tuesday. 

Researchers from Dartmouth University found that five of the world’s biggest emitters — the U.S., China, India, Russia and Brazil — cost the world some $6 trillion in gross domestic product over a quarter-century period. All five nations are among the five largest emitters worldwide except Brazil, which is the twelfth-largest. The figure represents about 11 percent of annual global GDP during the study period. 

The two biggest emitters, China and the U.S., accounted for more than $1.8 trillion each in lost global income from 1990 to 2014. 

“This research provides an answer to the question of whether there is a scientific basis for climate liability claims — the answer is yes,” Dartmouth PhD candidate Christopher Callahan, the lead author of the study, said in a statement. “We have quantified each nation’s culpability for historical temperature-driven income changes in every other country.” 

The research also put a specific number to the damage major emitters have done to developing nations, which are often especially vulnerable due to their geographic locations in the global south and along continental coastlines. In Bangladesh, for instance, the U.S. accounted for $14.1 billion in economic losses over 25 years, with China representing another $13.6 billion. 

“Greenhouse gases emitted in one country cause warming in another, and that warming can depress economic growth,” Dartmouth assistant professor of geography Justin Mankin, senior researcher on the study, said in a statement. “This research provides legally valuable estimates of the financial damages individual nations have suffered due to other countries’ climate-changing activities.”

Researchers said the study also repudiated the idea that climate change can only be mitigated by collective international action rather than action by a single country. 

“Nations need to work together to stop warming, but that doesn’t mean that individual countries can’t take actions that drive change,” Callahan said. “This research upends the notion that the causes and impacts of warming only occur at the global level.” 

Republican policymakers have frequently pointed to China’s contribution to emissions to cast doubt on the effectiveness of U.S.-based mitigation efforts. U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry has also frequently said major international mitigation initiatives will rely on Beijing’s cooperation.  

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Biden health officials discussing expanding COVID booster eligiblity

Biden administration health officials on Tuesday said they are discussing authorizing a second COVID-19 booster shot for all adults, but downplayed any imminent recommendations.

“Those conversations have been going on for a while,” White House coronavirus coordinator Ashish Jha said Tuesday in a press briefing. Jha added, however, that the ultimate decision rests with the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I know that the FDA is considering this, looking at it. And I know CDC scientists are thinking about this and looking at the data as well. The decision is purely up to them,” Jha said.  

The Washington Post first reported on Monday that the administration is working on a plan to expand booster eligibility to all adults. 

The White House has been working hard to promote second booster shots to Americans over the age of 50, which have been authorized since late March. People age 12 and older who are immunocompromised are also eligible. 

But while about 67 percent of all Americans have been fully vaccinated against the virus, only 34 percent of eligible Americans have received a first booster dose, according to federal data. In addition, health officials are working on a fall booster campaign that will target specific variants of omicron, as evidence shows immunity from the first booster series is waning.

“The reason to get a booster now is to prevent infection now. There’s a lot of infections now and increasing number of hospitalizations now. Certainly, those are hospitalizations, infections, severe disease that we want to prevent right now,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said. “And, you know, potentially more infections to come before that fall booster is available, which is why we really want to make sure people have as much protection as they can right now.”

People who got a second booster now with the existing vaccine would still be eligible to receive omicron-specific boosters that are expected to come out in the fall, officials said, and stressed people eligible for a booster should get one.

“Getting vaccinated now will protect you now. [It] does not at all preclude … you’re also doing it in the fall. So if the risk is now, address the current risk,” White House medical advisor Anthony Fauci said. 

The White House is looking to stem a wave of infections from the BA.5 omicron subavariant, which appears more infectious and able to evade immunity than others. The BA.5 subvariant now accounts for an estimated 65 percent of cases, CDC said.

The country is averaging more than 100,000 new cases per day, though that number is likely an undercount because at-home tests are not being reported. Hospital admissions are averaging about 5,100 people per day over the past week, which is double what the rate was in May according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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McConnell: 'Democrats are unifying the country in unhappiness'

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Tuesday highlighted a new poll showing that 93 percent of working-age Americans rate the economy as poor or fair, declaring that “Democrats are unifying the country in unhappiness.”  

McConnell pointed out key finding of a New York Times/Siena College poll published Tuesday, which also showed that President Biden has a paltry 33 percent job-approval rating.  

“We all know inflation and the economy are the biggest problems facing Americans today,” McConnell said on the floor. “We are a big and a diverse country. Ninety-three percent of Americans hardly ever agree on anything, but Democrats are unifying the country in unhappiness at the dark path down which they’ve taken our economy.”  

McConnell cited data released by Monmouth University showing that 42 percent of Americans are struggling to stay afloat financially, calling it “the highest rate ever” in the poll’s history.  

“Sixty-three percent of Americans name economic issues as their chief concern,” he said. “And they know who to blame for their misfortune — President Biden and congressional Democrats, who plowed $2 trillion into our economy last year and created the highest inflation in four decades.”  

The New York Times/Siena College poll found that voters dissatisfaction with the economy if even weighing on Democratic voters.  

The poll found that 64 percent of Democratic voters said they would prefer someone other than Biden to be the party’s nominee in 2024.  

It also found that only 13 percent of American voters think the nation is on the right track, the lowest Times polling has found since the Great Recession of 2009.  

McConnell once again blamed inflation on the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that Congress passed last year without a single Republican vote. 

“I’m sure many of my colleagues heard heartrending stories from constituents struggling with inflation during the past two weeks’ state work period. I certainly did in Kentucky, where the average household now spends more than $500 more a month than they did before President Biden took office,” he said.  

Biden’s approval rating now stands at 70 percent among Democrats, according to the New York Times/Siena College poll, a troublesome sign for Democratic candidates ahead of the midterm elections.  

The president’s unpopularity is acute among younger voters. Ninety-four percent of Democrats under the age of 30 would like someone else to be their party’s standard bearer in 2024, the poll showed.  

McConnell warned that a budget reconciliation package under negotiation between Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) could put more pressure on the economy, citing more than $200 billion in tax increases the package would include to extend the solvency of Medicare.  

“Kentucky business owners are watching apprehensively as Washington Democrats debate another dose of bad policies,” he said. “This time our colleagues are reportedly cooking up $1 trillion in massive tax hikes on things like small businesses and domestic energy. 

“When you tax something, you get less of it,” he added.  

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Students from marginalized groups leave medical school at higher rates than peers

Medical students who are low-income and identify as non-white are more likely to leave medical school, a pattern that researchers say has implications for health care access for patients and the overarching medical workforce.  

Researchers at Yale University analyzed enrollment data from 2014 to 2016, and found that of around 33,000 students about 3 percent experienced attrition from medical school within five years—meaning they dropped out of their programs. 

Their study found that Hispanic students were about 5 percent more likely to drop out of medical school, while American Indian/Alaska Native/ Pacific Islander students were 11 percent and Black/African American students were about 6 percent.  

That’s in comparison to white students who were found to only have a 2 percent chance of dropping out.  

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Growing up in a low-income household and an under-resourced neighborhood increased chances of attrition by about 4 percent. 

“It’s an accrual of disadvantage,” explained Dowin Boatright, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Yale and a senior author of the study, in a statement. 

Students who identified with multiple marginalized identities—like having low-income households and coming from under-resourced neighborhoods—had even higher attrition rates. 

Researchers discussed multiple potential causes for the stark differences in dropout rates, from implicit biases to lack of diversity within medical faculty.  

They also outlined how most medical schools use deficit-based learning models that focus on what students are missing or need to catch up on—rather than promoting characteristics, skills and talents that schools want to amplify. 

 “Implicit in the deficit-based model is something being wrong with an individual or students from a marginalized community, which already signals a perception of inferiority,” said Boatright. 

Mytien Nguyen, a student a Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study, also explained that medical school admissions offices have already determined that admitted students are, “fit to be doctors and are academically ready,” which indicates that the attrition rates identified in the study speak to the medical school environmental not adequately supporting students from marginalized backgrounds. 

Nguyen said it could simply come down to nurturing versus surviving. 

“I think students from non-marginalized backgrounds are really being nurtured while students from marginalized backgrounds are surviving,” she said. “And biologically, when you’re surviving and managing stress, you’re not able to perform at your best. With every student that leaves, it’s not just a loss for the health care industry, but a loss for our patients as well.” 

Minority health professionals are critical as they can reduce the disproportionate burden of diseases, including COVID-19, among communities of color.  

That could be in jeopardy, as a separate study from 2018 by the Association of American Medical Colleges found that racial and ethnic minority physicians are more likely to practice primary care and serve in underserved communities. But the physician workforce has been diversifying at a much slower pace than that of the entire U.S. population. 

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Study finds brains can subconsciously detect deepfakes

A rise in digital propaganda distributed by malicious actors has prompted concern as to whether the general public will be able to discern reality from fake images or videos. 

In particular, deepfakes, or computer generated video or audio clones of individuals, pose a threat to news organizations, cybersecurity officials, and border patrol workers alike.  

But new research out of the University of Sydney suggests that even though humans may not be able to consciously tell which faces are real or fake, people’s neural activity can. 

Using behavior and brain imaging techniques including Electroencephalography (EEG), researchers found human brains encode and interpret realistic artificially generated images in a manner different from real-life identification. EEG is a test that shows activity occurring on the brain’s surface layer.

Study participants’ brains were able to identify deepfakes 54 percent of the time, as determined via neural activity, while participants could only verbally identify deepfakes 37 percent of the time. 

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“Although the brain accuracy rate in this study is low – 54 percent – it is statistically reliable,” said Thomas Carlson, of the University’s School of Psychiatry in a press release. “That tells us the brain can spot the difference between deepfakes and authentic images.”

Individuals were shown 50 images of real and computer generated faces in a behavioral experiment, and asked to verbally identify each image’s veracity. A second study cohort was shown the same images while being monitored by EEG, unaware half of the images were fake.

Researchers found that at a group level, participants “tended to interchange the labels, classifying real faces as realistic fakes and vice versa,” they wrote. 

Additional research targeted at understanding the discrepancy between neural responses and conscious identification could help in the fight against deepfakes, they continued, and might one day be translated into algorithms to flag the fakes on digital platforms.

The data also show that despite their surface-level similarities, current deepfakes are flawed.

In the future, EEG helmets could help officials detect scammers in real-time. Carlson went on to detail a recent scenario where cloned voice technology was used to steal tens of millions of dollars in Dubai. 

“In these cases, finance personnel thought they heard the voice of a trusted client or associate and were duped into transferring funds,” Carlson said. 

However, because the study only marks a starting point in the field, authors cautioned the research may not ever lead to a foolproof mechanism of deepfake detection. 

“More research must be done. What gives us hope is that deepfakes are created by computer programs, and these programs leave ‘fingerprints’ that can be detected,” Carlson said. 

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Fauci: Take new subvariant seriously, but don't 'let it disrupt our lives'

Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said Tuesday that a new omicron subvariant on the rise is something to take seriously but should not be a cause for panic.  

The subvariant, known as BA.5, is now the majority of COVID-19 cases in the United States. It is even more highly transmissible than earlier variants of the virus, and has an increased ability to evade the protection of vaccines and prior infections.  

But health officials stressed that vaccines still provide important protection against severe illness, especially if people stay up-to-date on their booster shots.  

“We should not let it disrupt our lives, but we cannot deny that it is a reality we need to deal with,” Fauci said at a White House press briefing.  

“It’s something that A, we don’t panic on, B, we don’t let it disrupt our lives, but we take it seriously enough and utilize the tools that we have to mitigate,” he later added, speaking of BA.5.  

The White House on Tuesday released a fact sheet with its plan for fighting the subvariant, which was largely a continuation of measures the administration had previously emphasized.  

Health officials stressed that the availability of vaccines, booster shots, and treatments like the Pfizer pills Paxlovid mean that the country is in a much better place, even with the new subvariant, compared to earlier in the pandemic.  

“Even in the face of BA.5, the tools we have continue to work,” said White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha.  

There was no indication of a major shift in strategy back towards emphasizing restrictions like mask mandates, though officials did mention that masking helps.  

Officials are discussing opening up second booster shots to all adults, but noted the final decision is with the Food and Drug Administration. Currently, second booster shots are only authorized for those 50 and older. 

However, many people have not received a third shot. About half of adults with the first two shots have received their first booster, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.  

Officials stressed that people should get their booster shots now, especially if they have not received a shot yet in 2022, because immunity wanes over time.  

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Former Cowboy Marion Barber III died of heatstroke, police say

A medical examiner has ruled that former Dallas Cowboys player Marion Barber III, whose body was found last month, died of heat stroke and his death was accidental. 

The report from the Collin County medical examiner’s office, which was released Monday, states that Barber was found on June 1 in a shower without the water running. The thermostat at his home was set to 91 degrees Fahrenheit, and the heat was running. 

Barber was known to exercise in “sauna-like” conditions, according to the report. Another shower in his home had water running when Barber was found, and exercise equipment was present at the time. 

The examiner found no evidence of injury or drug use. 

Barber’s father told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram last month that Barber’s body had decomposed by the time he was found and he may have been dead for several days. The Telegram reported that police conducted a welfare check on Barber after residents of the apartment complex where he lived reported water leaking from his unit.

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Washington Post publisher: Biden's Saudi Arabia trip 'erodes our moral authority'

The Washington Post’s publisher is criticizing President Biden for an upcoming trip to the Middle East, during which the president plans to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite previously calling the Saudi leader a “pariah.”

Post publisher Fred Ryan blasted Biden for agreeing to meet with bin Salman, who Biden condemned on the campaign trail for his role ordering the murder of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Turkey in 2018.

“So why is President Biden now going to Jiddah on bended knee to shake the ‘pariah’s’ bloodstained hand? Once again, he is seeking votes,” Ryan wrote in the Post on Monday.

“The president has justified his trip as a necessary move to promote stability in the Middle East and to deter Russian and Chinese aggression. But the president should know meeting with Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, as he is known, will give the Saudi leader exactly what three years of Saudi PR campaigns, lobbying expenses, and even a new golf league have not: a return to respectability.”

Ryan argued that Biden’s meeting with the crown prince will signal to the world that America’s values on human rights are “negotiable,” saying it sends the message that “the United States is willing to look the other way when its commercial interests are at stake.”

The trip comes as Biden faces increasing domestic pressure to ramp up oil production and importation amid high gas prices across the U.S.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s largest producers of oil and the Biden administration has repeatedly pushed the country to increase its supply after Western countries curbed imports from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

“We have learned, through decades of hard lessons, that terrorists recruit by exploiting hatred of the United States among people brutalized by their own despotic leaders,” wrote Ryan, a onetime chief of staff in former President Ronald Reagan’s administration. “That narrative succeeds best when Americans talk a good game about human rights until there’s something else we need more — such as cheap oil.”

“About-faces such as the one Biden is making erode our moral authority and breed anti-American resentment,” he continued. “They communicate to democracy activists and reform-minded governments worldwide that Washington is an unreliable partner. And that sows confusion and sabotages our diplomacy — the opposite of what Biden says his trip is trying to achieve.”

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