Building Resiliency Around Democracy: RadPod Ep104 with Dr. Charles Kriel
Please take 24 minutes to watch RadPod’s latest interview with filmmaker and digital activist Dr. Charles Kriel
***Save the date: Bette members — look for a registration link for our Tuesday Happy Hour at noon PT, July 30, with Dr. Charles Kriel. If you would like to join our community events featuring global experts, please take out a membership and help support the light of truth.***
“I don't know how you can watch the clown show that we all saw last week, which unfortunately also happens to have a trailer attached to the clown car that carries fascism — and not think that we just have an awful lot of work to do when it comes to building resilience against disinformation or authoritarianism.
“We need to work on building resilience around democracy, we need to work on a dialogue that talks about disinformation and talks about democracy. It's really important.
“We need to absolutely ensure that Trump and the authoritarians do not win, and that Ukraine does not lose.”—Dr. Charles Kriel, Ep104 RadPod
My podcast, RADICALIZED Truth Survives, has featured global experts on disinformation for three years. Among our first guests was Dr. Charles Kriel and his wife Kat Gellen, filmmakers who directed two of the most important documentaries on the subject of data and disinformation. Although the titles have changed to accommodate global distribution, the subject matter is the same — one, People You May Know/Data and Disinformation investigates Cambridge Analytica’s interference in global democracies; and the other — Dis/Informed/The Disinformation Age — focuses on how conspiracy theories are weaponized to radicalize unsuspecting groups of people, think, yoga moms radicalized to become anti-science.
You can find additional links on where to watch their movies at Metrotonemedia.com or search them on various platforms.
Please watch our latest episode today with Dr. Kriel — Building Resiliency Around Democracy:
Here are some terrific quotes from our interview:
How to Build Resiliency:
Well, the main thing is to do is to be resilient to and build resilience as much as you possibly can — build it amongst your friends and family… We do need to hear people's grievances up to a point, but we don't need to hear their racism, and we don't need to hear their misogyny. And we don't need to hear their homophobia… We should make it clear that you can't speak that way. We're in an era now where we need to make it clear that there's no place for racism.
The Main Issue
The main issue on the table right now is authoritarian fascism. Now, this isn't friendly fascism anymore. This is outright fascism that we're dealing with now. And I'm sitting here in Europe, where we're all in danger of becoming frontline states. I mean, we're all frontline states in the information war. But we're in danger of becoming other kinds of frontline states. It's incredibly important that Trump not be elected, that NATO not be weakened, that there's not a military alignment alliance between the United States, Russia and China — this has been set up for a very long time — so that we can make a game show host a dictator over a country.
On Psyops, Brexit, and the Russian-sponsored refugee crisis
I think the psyops have worn off. But also reality has kicked in here in the UK, we can feel the damage that Brexit has done, we can we can feel it in every aspect of society here. Brexit was such a disaster… It was very much brought on by Russian interference by interference from Cambridge Analytica as well, to move things in that direction and that's how I started working on this whole thing was seeing the patterns in Brexit and the way that that was working. But it also happened in the racism that brought it on — Brexit was Russian sponsored — the Russian sponsored a refugee crisis by creating instability in Africa and the Middle East. Refugees have come over the borders into Europe, in droves, and into the UK. And this is a method for Russia to create instability and to magnify hatreds that already exist across Europe. And it's paying off well for them.
The Clown Car Carries Fascism
I don't know how you can watch the clown show that we all saw last week, which unfortunately also happens to have a trailer attached to the clown car that carries fascism — and not think that we just have an awful lot of work to do when it comes to building resilience against disinformation or authoritarianism.
Whatever It Takes
If I can just wrap up with one one thought and this is really incredibly important: we have to do whatever it takes, whatever it takes — all working together — put aside whatever our ideologies are, put aside whatever our irritations are — we need to absolutely ensure that Trump and the authoritarians do not win, and that Ukraine does not lose. Thank you.—Dr. Charles Kriel
Look for a registration invite asap for our Happy Hour meeting with Dr. Kriel.
More on him here:
Dr. Charles Kriel is the digital policy advisor to the UK’s House of Commons and House of Lords. He worked with the U.K. Parliamentary Committee writing the Online Safety Bill. Dr Charles Kriel Univ of Oxford - Collaborator, OII U.K. Parliament - ex-Specialist Advisor to UK DCMS Select Committee King’s College London - Associate Fellow Co-Founder metrotonemedia.com. He grew up in Alabama, and claims historic roots as a carny.
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