Trump’s Efforts to Control #Information Echo an #Authoritarian Playbook
In firing the head of the agency that collects #employment statistics, #Trump underscored his tendency to suppress #facts he doesn’t like & promote his own version of #reality.
#law #democracy #censorship #propaganda #authoritarianism #dictatorship #autocracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/us/politics/trump-bls-jobs-facts.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
An old rule in Washington holds that you are entitled to your own opinions but you are not entitled to your own #facts. #Trump seems determined to prove that wrong.
Don’t like an #intelligence report that contradicts your view? Go after the analysts. Don’t like cost estimates for your #tax plan? Invent your own. Don’t like a predecessor’s #climate policies? Scrub government websites of underlying #data. Don’t like a #museum exhibit that cites your #impeachments? Delete any mention of them.
Trump’s war on #facts reached new heights on Friday when he angrily fired the #Labor Dept official in charge of compiling #statistics on #employment in America because he did not like the latest #jobs report showing that the #economy isn’t doing as well as he claims it is. #Trump declared that her numbers were “phony.” His proof? It was “my opinion.” And the story he told supposedly proving she was politically biased? It had no basis in #fact itself.
@Nonilex
Ignoring the little risk of this policy: yes comrade Czar Putin, our Ukrainian brothers will welcome us with open arms when we liberate them.
Thus the 3 days special operation is now in its 3rd year.
If the only safe thing to report is what the Glorious Leader wants to hear, only that will be reported. Reality has an utterly brutal way to crash on that alternate facts, from time to time.
From the Cold War to the present day, the rise of evangelical Christianity has brought religion clearly into the public sphere. A three-part documentary on how the politico-religious machine of evangelicalism is determined to reshape the world.
Well, enjoy the factual jobs report: it's the last one, ever.
Nonilex
Doug 🌈🇨🇦 
dingodog
Robert Link
Andreas K
Steve Loughran
Klimastig
Edelruth, PBS Passport Holder