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     In order to restore the foundation of individualism in the U.S.,  grassroots America must be able to tell truth from fiction and fact from opinion. However, assessing credibility with the constant bombardment of “fake news” can be a difficult task. Tasha Stacey discusses reasoning  fallacies in her Art of Reasoning Part 6 review, and presents an example of a credibility fallacy in regard to Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. Alexandra York provides additional insights on assessing the credibility of many of our cultural institutions in her outstanding essay “LYING AS A WAY OF LIFE: Corruption and Collectivism Come of Age in America.” And, finally, Tasha Stacey discusses how political correctness is damaging the male/female dynamic and provides a positive alternative for us to consider in the world of dance.

As always, if you have questions, comments or suggestions regarding this newsletter of ROAR ‘s operations, please contact us.

Sincerely,

Mike Gemmell
Founder and President, Restore Our American Republic, LLC
 

 

Review:The Art of Reasoning: An Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking-Part 6

 By Tasha Stacey

 

In my previous reviews of David Kelley’s “The Art of Reasoning,” I covered the types of reasoning fallacies and listed three basic types: (1)  subjectivist fallacy – nonobjective factors are used to support a conclusion, (2) Fallacies of context – jumping to conclusions without an adequate adequate body of evidence for the conclusion, and (3) Credibility fallacies – ignoring evidence or testimonials to the contrary when individuals are considered to be specialists or experts on a subject.

A textbook  example of a fallacy of credibility is illustrated by Victor Davis Hanson and his review of the Robert Mueller investigation of the Trump campaign of 2016 (“Russianism,” National Review, 7/24/2018.)  In his step-by-step demonstration showing Mueller’s lack of credibility, Hanson first focuses on the positive statements concerning foreign relations with Russia by both Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton prior to the 2016 presidential campaign:

“We believe that there are a lot of challenges and threats that we have inherited that we have to address. But there are also opportunities, and we are being extremely vigorous in our outreach. Because we’re testing waters, we’re determining what is possible. We’re turning new pages and resetting buttons.” – Hillary Clinton

Obama went even further in October 2016 just one month before the election that brought Donald Trump to the White House:

“There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections, there’s no evidence that has happened in the past or that it will happen this time.”

However, after Hillary Clinton’s election defeat, everything changed with charges of collusion being suggested between Russia and the Trump campaign. Robert Mueller was then tasked with investigating Russian collusion in the 2016 election. After focusing for 1-1/2 years on the Trump campaign he has found essentially nothing of consequence while “inconvenient” facts that have seriously damaged his credibility have been subsequently glossed over. Inconvenient facts such as a $500,000 honorarium for a single speech by Bill Clinton in Moscow that followed shortly after Russia announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One and made multimillion dollar donations to the Clinton Foundation. In addition, discredited FBI officials lied to investigators and leaked confidential memos. These facts should have caused Mueller to vigorously investigate Hillary Clinton’s campaign, but thus far no action has been taken on his part. Casting further doubt on Mueller’s credibility was Mueller investigatory team member, Peter Strozok, and his text to Lisa Page concerning the investigation into the Trump campaign where he admitted: “There’s no big there there.”

Due to faulty development of basic reasoning skills today, there are too many people like Robert Mueller who are “seeing what they want to see” and ignoring important evidence to the contrary. A rational skepticism toward the media and individuals on the public stage is sorely needed in today’s world. In addition to Hanson’s efforts,  serious cases of media bias have been brought to light by organizations such as Project Veritas.  (See: “American Pravda: My Fight for Truth in the Era of Fake News,” by James O’Keefe  for details on media bias at CNN, Twitter, Washington Post, New York Times, and other mainstream media outlets.)

Here are some important questions to ask when trying to identify potential reasoning fallacies from media sources:

(1) Does this commentator have a record of objectivity?

(2) Is it possible they’re jumping to conclusions on this?

(3) Is there important information  they seem to be unaware of?

(4) Is there evidence to prove the statement is true?

(5) Do they  provide a good reason to accept the conclusion?

(6) Could their conclusions involve any errors of reasoning?

(7) Do they have the capacity to deceive us?

 

 

 

 

Tasha Stacey was born (1994) and raised in Grand Junction, Colorado.  She has an entrepreneurial heart and officially opened up her business this year, ServeFlow, LLC. She serves as her clients’ ultimate off-site administrative and/or clerical office assistant  and offers services such as dictation, documentation editing, digital copywriting, and more. In addition, she has built websites, created logos, and managed projects involving writing, marketing, and networking skills.

 

LYING AS A WAY OF LIFE: Corruption and Collectivism Come of Age in America

Reviewed by Mike Gemmell
The exposes by Project Veritas concerning systematic bias of  mainstream media outlets such as the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN and others have shocked many Americans and led social commentators to discuss connections between corruption in the media and the activities of the Washington establishment. Alexandra York has been tracing the deep-seated ideas that have led to these recent events for many years in her capacity as the founder of American Renaissance for the 21st Century, her work as a Newsmax columnist, and in particular her 2015 monograph “LYING AS A WAY OF LIFE: Corruption and Collectivism Come of Age in America.”

York’s purpose in writing the 58-page monograph was to show that the high level of corruption  in Washington D.C. is a symptom of a larger cultural malaise that has been building within the U.S. for many years:

“… politics is only a surface symptom of a deeply embedded whole-culture illness… even though many of the symptoms are political, they are not causal and only serve to distract us from the real threat to all that America is and stands for as a distinct and historically unique culture.”

Making her work all the more insightful is the fact that her “LYING…” monograph was published several years before the corruption revelations we are now seeing spread across the daily headlines.

“Her second chapter “The Frankfurt School and Marxism In America”  is particularly relevant to what is happening on the political/cultural stage in the U.S. She discusses at length the ideological roots of The Frankfurt School Marxists who were invited to the U.S. and the intellectual climate that had been developing for decades in the U.S. that helped pave the way toward the rapid assimilation of the ideas of the Frankfurt School. Of particular interest is American intellectual Herbert Croly who helped pave the way for the Frankfurt school intellectuals with his redefinition of the term equality to mean redistribution of wealth to achieve equivalent social status rather than the Founding Fathers original meaning of having equivalent access to an objective judicial system. Croly’s redefinition of equality sounds eerily like the campaign slogans of Bernie Sanders and is now a fundamental part of the Democratic party platform.

It took time for the Frankfurt school’s ideas to take root, but their strategy of injecting ideas into American popular culture during the 1930s and beyond via work with radio, Hollywood, and later television paid big dividends. They laid the foundation for the work of Saul Alinsky, The Father of Commmunity Activism, whose ideas were instrumental in the formative years of both future president, Barrack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.

Thankfully, York ends her monograph with a detailed list (19 items) of actions that concerned citizens can take to start restoring the  cultural health of America.

What makes this work of Alexandra York particularly valuable is that it is intended for a general audience and requires no prior technical knowledge to absorb its full meaning.  One could spend hundreds of hours poring through various books and not gain the insights that a 1 to 2 hour investment of time would yield by reading this work.

If you are concerned about the direction of American culture, PLEASE read this work, and pass it on to others.

                                                                                  ***

Lying AS A WAY OF LIFE: Corruption and Collectivism Come of Age in America by Alexandra York is available  at Amazon books for $0.99.

 

Alexandra York is an internationally published author in both nonfiction and fiction, featured Art & Culture Newsmax columnist, and founding president of American Renaissance for the Twenty-first Century (ART) a New-York-City-based nonprofit educational arts and culture foundation dedicated to a rebirth of beauty and life-affirming values in all of the fine arts:  www.art-21.org. She has written for many publications, including Reader’s Digest and The New York Times. Her latest novel is “ADAMAS.

 

Painting by: Sheri Chakamian

The Rebirth of Romance: Tango Dancing

By Tasha Stacey

Restoring the foundation of individualism in the U.S. is central to ROAR’s mission to restore the republic in America. Part of that restoration involves challenging political correctness in the area of the male/female dynamic. In recent years the PC doctrine has given rise to the casual “hook-up” culture of many young people in the area of dating:

“Hook-up culture is promising you that when you’re a young adult or even into your twenties, this is gonna be the easy, casual thing without having to put in a lot of commitment, time, energy, drama.” … Current culture has succeeded in throwing off the bands of restraint and structure in sexuality, gender, and every kind of area one can name… But as singles in ‘The Dating Project’demonstrate, the removal of structure and boundaries has actually made things far more difficult in relationships.”

Thankfully in recent years, challenges have emerged to this outlook. Cassie Jaye documented her journey away from traditional feminism in “The Red Pill.” And positive alternatives to political correctness in sex have emerged in movies such as “Take the Lead” with Antonio Banderas and Alfre Woodard, a popularization of the work of  dance instructor Pierre Dulaine.

The arts can be an indispensable aid in challenging PC  doctrines by enabling us to see an alternate vision of what life could be. Art shows us our ideals in concrete form and helps inspire us to think, investigate, and imagine what a better world would look like. An art form that is tailor-made for providing us an ideal concerning the male/female dynamic is: dance. Ever heard of the phrase “it takes two to tango”? Well, it is true. Tango is one of the most intimate and romantic dances in the world. So, for millennials or others who would like to experience what an alternative to casual sex and the “hook-up” culture might look like, I offer this exquisitely romantic rendering of the Tango in Tango Santa Maria. 

 
 

Tasha Stacey was born (1994) and raised in Grand Junction, Colorado.  She has an entrepreneurial heart and officially opened up her business this year, ServeFlow, LLC. She serves as her clients’ ultimate off-site administrative and/or clerical office assistant  and offers services such as dictation, documentation editing, digital copywriting, and more. In addition, she has built websites, created logos, and managed projects involving writing, marketing, and networking skills.

 

 
Photo Credit: usatoday.com/Chris Chase (Back to the Future)

Summary

In this issue we’ve reviewed the importance of recognizing reasoning fallacies and biases that can affect our understanding of the world around us with Tasha Stacey’s Art of Reasoning review and Alexandra York’s invaluable reference, “LYING AS A WAY OF LIFE: Corruption and Collectivism Come of Age in America.” As we struggle toward correcting the ills in our culture, having an inspiring vision of what life can be is crucially important. That is where the indispensable value of art can help by showing us an ideal to contemplate and strive for. We hope readers have enjoyed an inspiring look at the male/female dynamic as shown through Tasha Stacey’s essay on the Rebirth of Romance through dancing and will take the time to communicate this to those who have been caught up in the “hook-up” culture.

 

On August 7, 2018   /   News and Views   /   Leave a comment

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