Against misinformation

An analysis of \u27misinformation\u27, a primary framing for vaccination dissent, illuminates weaknesses in understanding vaccination controversy and the dissemination of false beliefs. Rather than approaching vaccine dissenters as misinformed, we can identify how untruths circulate in good-faith efforts to identify facts and clarify the challenges that the Internet poses to elites\u27 control of information. When we shift our view, we can see how narrow social networks and lack of empathy for others drives polarized perceptions of \u27fake news\u27 and threatening cultural trends. The antidote to these problems is education in empathy, enhanced identification with others different from ourselves. Examples from the Covid-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. provide illuminating perspectives about how the humanities can be harnessed to solve persistent social problems. (DIPF/Orig.

Women's liberation and the rhetoric of "choice" in infant feeding debates

<p>Abstract</p> <p>This short essay examines infant formula marketing and information sources for their representation of "choice" in the infant feeding context, and finds that while providing information about breast and bottle feeding, infant formula manufacturers focus on mothers' feelings and intuition rather than knowledge in making decisions. In addition, the essay considers how "choice" operates in the history of reproductive rights, shifting the discourse from a rights-based set of arguments to one based on a consumerist mentality. Utilizing the work of historian Rickie Solinger and a 2007 paper for the National Bureau of Labor Statistics, I argue that the structure of market work, and not abstract maternal decision making, determine mothers' choices and practices concerning infant feeding. For true freedoms for mothers to be achieved, freedoms that would include greater social provisions for mothers, our culture will have to confront how structural constraints make breastfeeding difficult, as well as how the concept of choice divides mothers into those who make good choices and those who do not.</p

Milk sharing and formula feeding : infant feeding risks in comparative perspective?

The advent of Internet forums that facilitate peer-to-peer human milk sharing has resulted in health authorities stating that sharing human milk is dangerous. There are risks associated with all forms of infant feeding, including breastfeeding and the use of manufactured infant formulas. However, health authorities do not warn against using formula or breastfeeding; they provide guidance on how to manage risk. Cultural distaste for sharing human milk, not evidenced-based research, supports these official warnings. Regulating bodies should conduct research and disseminate information about how to mitigate possible risks of sharing human milk, rather than proscribe the practice outright

Microsoft Word - 1222-6166-4-RV.doc

Abstract The advent of Internet forums that facilitate peer-to-peer human milk sharing has resulted in health authorities stating that sharing human milk is dangerous. There are risks associated with all forms of infant feeding, including breastfeeding and the use of manufactured infant formulas. However, health authorities do not warn against using formula or breastfeeding; they provide guidance on how to manage risk. Cultural distaste for sharing human milk, not evidenced-based research, supports these official warnings. Regulating bodies should conduct research and disseminate information about how to mitigate possible risks of sharing human milk, rather than proscribe the practice outright

Michael J. Germana

This paper explores the relationality between Modernism and Postmodernism as well as between literature and theory by examining the works of two writers: master novelist William Faulkner, and high priest of Postmodernism, Jean Baudrillard. Specifically, this paper examines Faulkner&apos;s eleventh novel---the oft-neglected If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem---as a proto-postmodern text which, when examined by the light of Baudrillard&apos;s theory of simulacra and simulations, informs the transition from Modernism to Postmodernism