#(i do think there's an interesting linguistic phenomenon where some things come across WAY better in written form

[queenlua]

this morning i heard someone nonironically refer to themselves as an "anxious girlie," aloud, and i now have to go retroactively expunge the term "girlie" from all of my vocabulary whatsoever

[thoughtexperimentno4]

Thought Experiment No. 4 - The Overlap of "Gay Linguistics" & AAVE

[HOST]: Hey, this is Dom Alexander for Totally Real Linguistic Podcast. 

[HOST]: You know, I’d be a bit concerned for someone’s health if they told me they’d never heard of RuPaul’s Drag Race or–I mean, hell, probably even Charli XCX and having a Brat Summer are the biggest things right now. Like, it’s gay. It’s unequivocally gay. There’s such a strong tether to the LGBT community amongst all of those things–and more, there’s definitely more, so don’t take those as being exceptions–that makes it impossible to separate them from it. 

[HOST]: Chappell Roan, Lady Gaga, Elton John, David Bowie–the list goes on, and it’s not just people in it. What I’m talking about is that all of these people and these things, they’re so saturated in gay culture that they would probably bleed rainbows. And they’re not obscure. They’re quite apparent in the mainstream. They’re household names. If you don’t know who they are or what they are, someone that you know does–guarantee it. And if they’re so well-known, they’re bound to impart bits of themselves on the people who watch and consume them, right? Right. 

[HOST]: I’m gathering up all these examples so we can talk about a linguistic and cultural phenomenon that’s really only beginning to show itself in full–like, completely and transparently–as of late. In the wake of the 2020 pandemic, our society began to really rely on virtual communication. So, enter social media. 

[HOST]: Social media is its own hellscape for many reasons. But given that, it’s also pretty apparent that the language used online is a unique feature. Specifically, the language used in the queer community across several different platforms–Twitter, TikTok, Instagram. It’s kind of strange, but a lot of the language used starts to intersect–you find it everywhere. It’s its own dialect, in a way. But not really. Because a lot of that language seems to originate from AAVE–-African American Vernacular English–and black culture, specifically black trans and queer culture. It’s been telephoned through contemporary pop culture. 

[HOST]: We can’t reduce AAVE to “just slang”  because that discredits how influential it is. It’s its own language. It shapes experiences and lives among its speakers. Young queer folk like to tweet out words like “Lit”, “I’m weak”, “finna”, etc. as colloquial terms, but they’re misinterpreting the dialect as “just slang”. I mean, what it really is–and this is according to Court Cureton with Women’s Republic–is “a vast system of verbalised and unified resistance”.

[HOST]: Okay, but what does that mean? Big words. AAVE’s background is a bit controversial, but some believe it comes from creole backgrounds while others believe that it evolved in the southern plantations. But AAVE is absolutely soaked in historical context. People don’t necessarily realise, but AAVE and other black “slang” have a long, long history in modern queer culture. It comes from ballrooms, from house culture, from places where queer trans POC communities hold spaces that protect them. By bringing their culture and language into these safe spaces, they sparked interest in non-black outlets who carried that same sort of dialect to other communities. Of course, they didn’t get credit for it. It didn’t seem that big of a deal to start using that lingo. I mean, even popular media started encroaching on it. Even, you know, “Yaas Queen” stems from the 1980’s ballroom subculture. How many times have you heard Lady Gaga–I mean, how many times has she had that thrown at her? Madonna? Chappell Roan? Anyone, really.

[HOST]: Now, why am I bringing all this up? Because I think that the community can do better. AAVE has a special place in queer culture. But first, we need to recognise the terms that are being syphoned from such a beautiful, historical, and nuanced resistance language. And I mean, the same can be said of any other community. Gen Z is in on it, too. A lot of the terms that older generations would like to think are unique to Gen Z and Gen Alpha are actually–I mean, you guessed it, because we’re already talking about it: they’re from AAVE. If you’re more inclined to believe something is just a trend or a “made up” word from pop culture–which is silly, because I mean, all words are made up, right?–you’re less likely to respect it or take it seriously. That’s injustice.

[HOST]: Lastly, you can be sure that this sort of appropriation isn’t just limited to AAVE. In America, that’s the case, but internationally, this sort of thing goes on all of the time with a breadth of different languages. I mean, we could do an entire episode on how the exact same thing is happening with Jamaican Patois in the United Kingdom. But because this is a topic that’s so close to home, and because it’s something that we can directly influence–well, is there a reason that we shouldn’t hope to change it? If we’re able to, if it’s in our grasp, if it’s just right there–shouldn’t we?

[HOST]: Anyway, thanks for tuning in. This is Dom, signing off. New episodes weekly!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reflection

Foremost, I want to apologize for the extensive length of this podcast--I didn't realise that I talked so slowly!

I thought that writing this script through was a fantastic exercise in learning how to improvise in the midst of delivery. While drafting the script, I tried to imagine it as a living, breathing piece of dialogue; if anything, it was going to be more of a reference rather than something concrete. I kept this in mind by allocating space for colloquial language or possible transitions that I could throw in ad hoc. In the end, that made the actual delivery of the text via voice a lot smoother. By laying down a platform without the idea that I would fully commit to its content, I was able to make smoother transitions between ideas, reinforce ideas as they made themselves to be larger than others whilst speaking, and so on.

[passionate-reply]

“Why did Kraftwerk stop making albums?” they all ask, as though Karl Bartos isn’t right here, consistently kicking ass and making great music. If you’re hungry for more Kraftwerk goodness, specifically with an early 90s techno flair, you probably won’t do better than Esperanto, so come check it out! (Also featuring special guest star Andy McCluskey from OMD.) Full transcript below!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be talking about an album not too many people have heard, but that I think more people really should--especially fans of Kraftwerk. It’s Esperanto, the 1993 debut of Kraftwerk alumnus Karl Bartos’s project, Elektric Music. The production of the final classic-lineup Kraftwerk LP, 1986’s Electric Cafe, had been dominated by frustrating delays, rewrites, and remixes, and when all was said and done, the resulting album was a relative flop. By the time of the 1991 remix album The Mix, which seemed to end Kraftwerk’s career with a whimper, Bartos had grown alienated from founding members Ralf Huetter and Florian Schneider-Esleben, and fed up with their apparent lack of work ethic. He set out on his own, partnering with Lothar Manteuffel of the Neue Deutsche Welle act Rheingold, to form Elektric Music.

What I think really stands out about Esperanto first is its sense of freewheeling, unrestrained immediacy. For nearly a decade leading up to this album, Bartos had been working at the whim of others, waiting around, and feeling like he was spinning his wheels. Esperanto feels like a tightly coiled spring that’s finally being released. It’s dense, busy, in-your-face music that positively demands to be paid attention to.

Music: “Lifestyle”

Vibrating at the core of Esperanto is an undeniable Kraftwerk-esque sonic template: textural synth side-swipes, chattering vocoder-driven vocals, and hypnotic, mechanical rhythms. It’s natural to expect that rhythmic quality from Bartos, since he was chiefly brought on to provide percussion parts for Kraftwerk, but it’s also important to remember that he’s as interested in pop music as he is in classical. Both Bartos’s solo work, as well as the Kraftwerk tracks he had a hand in, emphasize melody, in a poppy, easy to love manner. The melodies here have some precedent in Bartos’s earlier work, but they’ve never been quite as punchy and vibrant before.

“Lifestyle” also makes early use of vocal chops, which contribute to that tight and busy feel, while also being a marked attempt at pushing this core sound into the musical future. Some of these specific samples are actually repeated across multiple tracks, if you listen closely--a sort of callback to the repeated melodic motives of the early Kraftwerk albums. “Information,” a high-concept eight-minute epic that the rest of the tracklisting pivots around, is even closer to being structured like “Trans-Europe Express”:

Music: “Information”

Bartos has never really ceased struggling under the weight of his Kraftwerk past, torn between indulging in these ideas and themes that come so naturally to him, and feeling obligated to set himself apart--as well as obligated to push the envelope and break new musical ground. Esperanto radiates and burns with that sense of conflict, which feels fresher and more raw, given the timeframe involved. This tension between working with and working against the Kraftwerk legacy is not only musical, but also thematic. Like the Kraftwerk albums, Esperanto is deeply concerned with the role technology plays in our lives...but it’s a lot less optimistic. Take, for instance, the opening track, “TV”:

Music: “TV”

“TV” is Esperanto at its most gloomy or melancholy, portraying the detached haze of modern lotus-eaters transfixed by the glowing screen. It’s an image that’s readily familiar and relatable to us today, of course, and it’s also one that runs contrary to the techno-utopianism of Kraftwerk, where home technologies offer hope of bringing people together rather than splitting them apart, and disconnecting them from the real world. If that wasn’t enough to convince you to read “TV” as an anti-Kraftwerk screed, the lyrics even point to “computer graphics” and “electric bands” as fodder for that destructively distracting entertainment. Ouch! Along somewhat similar lines is the track “Kissing the Machine”:

Music: “Kissing the Machine”

“Kissing the Machine” is also a sort of rebuttal of Kraftwerk tracks like “Computer Love,” demonstrating the pitiful perversion it really is to expect human, emotional fulfillment from a cold and sterile mechanical contraption. Whereas “TV” is more overtly downbeat, “Kissing the Machine” takes the route of dramatic irony, going for an eerily cheerful, naive sort of sound, painting its narrator as utterly oblivious to what they’re missing out on. You probably noticed that the vocalist on this track is actually not Bartos--it’s Andy McCluskey, best known as the frontman of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Like Manteuffel, McCluskey is a younger synth-pop artist whose career began in the 1980s, making music that owed quite a lot to what Kraftwerk had achieved before. Bringing on some slightly younger talent is not only a nod towards keeping up with the times, but also another jab at the legacy of Kraftwerk, who refused to collaborate with any other musicians, and at times even seemed loath to acknowledge how the art of electronic music had evolved in their wake. As the title of Esperanto implies, the theme of language is also prominent here, and that serves as yet another way in which the Kraftwerk philosophy is turned on its head, most notably in the title track:

Music: “Esperanto”

While many people assert that it’s more “authentic” to listen to Kraftwerk in German, they made consistent attempts to incorporate a wide variety of languages into their work. Besides the English-language versions of their LPs, Kraftwerk also sang in French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and even Japanese, to varying degrees. They were selling a vision of “Europe Endless” that was multicultural and multilingual, and seemed to have wanted people from all over the world to connect with them and feel included and represented in their future, rather than view them as some distant and peculiarly Teutonic phenomenon.

“Esperanto” flies in the face of the dream of linguistic unity. Esperanto itself is an artificial, constructed language, created by L. L. Zamenhof in the late 19th Century. Combining features from the most commonly spoken languages across the globe, and streamlining away things like irregular verbs, Esperanto was built from the ground up to become a true “universal language” for all of mankind, that was easy to learn and use. But despite the hopes of Zamenhof, whose name for his new tongue translates to English as “one who hopes,” it obviously never caught on. The most beautiful utopian vision in the world is still just a vision, and you can end up failing even if “you’ve got the perfect pitch.”

Kraftwerk’s longtime graphic designer Emil Schult, whose contributions to Kraftwerk’s signature aesthetic are nearly as important to their legacy as any of their music, returned to create the cover art of Esperanto. With its bright and simple red tone and strong use of diagonals, Esperanto’s cover art is clearly evocative of the iconic cover of Kraftwerk’s 1978 LP The Man-Machine, arguably the finest hour for the band as well as Schult. However, its abstract, non-figurative qualities set it apart from the work Schult and Bartos had done before, as Kraftwerk hadn’t made an album that didn’t feature their own faces front and center since 1975’s Radioactivity. The image of a rising sun is fitting for the idea of Bartos’s empowered return to music after a period of dormancy.

The world is full of people bemoaning the fact that Kraftwerk gave up on making new music, and the apparent irony of this band who appeared to be visiting from the future being absent from the world they helped create, in which “electronic music” has ceased to be a novelty and become a default. Karl Bartos may not be the most prolific artist in the world, but I’ve always seen him as the rightful heir to the Kraftwerk legacy, and I think his string of solo albums since leaving the band are the most worthy follow-ups that could ever have been paired with Kraftwerk’s classic run. Esperanto does everything you could possibly want a 1990s Kraftwerk album to do, staying true to that musical heritage while also pushing forward, and staking a place in the broader artistic conversation. I think everyone who identifies as a fan of Kraftwerk owes it to themself to give Esperanto a spin.

My favourite track on Esperanto is the closer, “Overdrive.” Unlike the readily apparent cynicism purveyed by tracks like “TV” and “Kissing the Machine,” “Overdrive” reads as a more complex perspective about technology and everyday life. It’s a portrayal of that all-too-modern scourge of overstimulation, that’s still ultimately a very exciting one, that sweeps you up in its triumphant “kiss of life.” Listening to its chaotic instrumental outro, I can’t help but feel that it leads directly into Bartos’s follow-up to Esperanto, 2003’s Communication--an album that would tackle the Internet age, and its inescapable virtual hustle and bustle, head-on. That’s all for today--thanks for watching!

Music: “Overdrive”

[libr-tumbl-alternative]

The political dissident, linguist, and professor Noam Chomsky says the rest of the world thinks the U.S. media's Trump-Russia collusion allegation is a "joke" given the history of the U.S. in the last 135 years, and that if we are worried about foreign interference, Israel already influences more of American politics than Russia could ever hope to, in this interview with Democracy Now! "Take, say, the huge issue of interference in our pristine elections. Did the Russians interfere in our elections? An issue of overwhelming concern in the media. I mean, in most of the world, that's almost a joke." "First of all, if you're interested in foreign interference in our elections, whatever the Russians may have done barely counts or weighs in the balance as compared with what another state does, openly, brazenly and with enormous support," he said. "Israeli intervention in U.S. elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done," Chomsky said. "I mean, even to the point where the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, goes directly to Congress, without even informing the president, and speaks to Congress, with overwhelming applause, to try to undermine the president's policies--what happened with Obama and Netanyahu in 2015. Did Putin come to give an address to the joint sessions of Congress trying to--calling on them to reverse U.S. policy, without even informing the president?" "And that's just a tiny bit of this overwhelming influence." "I must say I don't pay much attention to television," he said about the news media's coverage of Russia in general. "So I don't know a great deal about it. But, in general, I think the media--first of all, Fox News is, by now, basically a joke. It's, as you said, state media. The other media, I think, are focusing on issues which are pretty marginal. There are much more serious issues that are being put to the side." Chomsky also said the president is "perfectly right when he says we should have better relations with Russia. Being dragged through the mud for that is outlandish." "Russia shouldn't refuse to deal with the United States because the U.S. carried out the worst crime of the century, in the invasion of Iraq, much worse than anything Russia has done. But they shouldn't refuse to deal with us for that reason, and we shouldn't refuse to deal with them for whatever infractions they may have carried out, which certainly exist. This is just absurd," he said. "Instead, what's being--there is a focus on what I believe are marginalia." AMY GOODMAN: Well, Barbara L'Italien said a lot there, but she was then cut off, with the shock of the Fox & Friends crew in the morning that they had the wrong Democratic congressional candidate. But this kind of media activism also just goes to the whole issue of the media, Noam Chomsky, the issue of Fox News becoming really state media, with--you have the person who supported the sexual harasser Roger Ailes, Bill Shine, now a top aide to President Trump in the White House. That's gotten little attention. So you have Fox being a mouthpiece for Trump and a place for him to hear what people have to say, and the other networks very much running counter to Trump, on certain issues, CNN and MSNBC. But your thoughts? NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, my frank opinion is that--I must say I don't pay much attention to television, so I don't know a great deal about it. But, in general, I think the media--first of all, Fox News is, by now, basically a joke. It's, as you said, state media. The other media, I think, are focusing on issues which are pretty marginal. There are much more serious issues that are being put to the side. So, the worst of--even on the case of immigration, once again, I think the real question is dealing with the roots of immigration, our responsibility for it, and what we can do to overcome that. And that's almost never discussed. But I think that's the crucial issue. And I think we find the same across the board. So, of all Trump's policies, the one that is the most dangerous and destructive, in fact poses an existential threat, is his policies on climate change, on global warming. That's really destructive. And we're facing an imminent threat, not far removed, of enormous damage. The effects are already visible but nothing like what's going to come. A sea level rise of a couple of feet will be massively destructive. It will make today's immigration issues look like trivialities. And it's not that the administration is unaware of this. So, Donald Trump, for example, is perfectly aware of the dangerous effects, in the short term, of global warming. So, for example, recently he applied to the government of Ireland for permission to build a wall to protect his golf course in Ireland from rising sea levels. And Rex Tillerson, who was supposed to be the adult in the room before he was thrown out, as CEO of ExxonMobil, was devoting enormous resources to climate change denial, although he had, sitting on his desk, the reports of ExxonMobil scientists, who, since the '70s, in fact, were on the forefront of warning of the dire effects of this accelerating phenomenon. I don't know what word in the language--I can't find one--that applies to people of that kind, who are willing to sacrifice the literal--the existence of organized human life, not in the distant future, so they can put a few more dollars in highly overstuffed pockets. The word "evil" doesn't begin to approach it. These are the kinds of issues that should be under discussion. Instead, what's being--there is a focus on what I believe are marginalia. So, take, say, the huge issue of interference in our pristine elections. Did the Russians interfere in our elections? An issue of overwhelming concern in the media. I mean, in most of the world, that's almost a joke. First of all, if you're interested in foreign interference in our elections, whatever the Russians may have done barely counts or weighs in the balance as compared with what another state does, openly, brazenly and with enormous support. Israeli intervention in U.S. elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done, I mean, even to the point where the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, goes directly to Congress, without even informing the president, and speaks to Congress, with overwhelming applause, to try to undermine the president's policies--what happened with Obama and Netanyahu in 2015. Did Putin come to give an address to the joint sessions of Congress trying to--calling on them to reverse U.S. policy, without even informing the president? And that's just a tiny bit of this overwhelming influence. So if you happen to be interested in influence of--foreign influence on elections, there are places to look. But even that is a joke. I mean, one of the most elementary principles of a functioning democracy is that elected representatives should be responsive to those who elected them. There's nothing more elementary than that. But we know very well that that is simply not the case in the United States. There's ample literature in mainstream academic political science simply comparing voters' attitudes with the policies pursued by their representatives, and it shows that for a large majority of the population, they're basically disenfranchised. Their own representatives pay no attention to their voices. They listen to the voices of the famous 1 percent--the rich and the powerful, the corporate sector. The elections--Tom Ferguson's stellar work has demonstrated, very conclusively, that for a long period, way back, U.S. elections have been pretty much bought. You can predict the outcome of a presidential or congressional election with remarkable precision by simply looking at campaign spending. That's only one part of it. Lobbyists practically write legislation in congressional offices. In massive ways, the concentrated private capital, corporate sector, super wealth, intervene in our elections, massively, overwhelmingly, to the extent that the most elementary principles of democracy are undermined. Now, of course, all that is technically legal, but that tells you something about the way the society functions. So, if you're concerned with our elections and how they operate and how they relate to what would happen in a democratic society, taking a look at Russian hacking is absolutely the wrong place to look. Well, you see occasionally some attention to these matters in the media, but very minor as compared with the extremely marginal question of Russian hacking. And I think we find this on issue after issue, also on issues on which what Trump says, for whatever reason, is not unreasonable. So, he's perfectly right when he says we should have better relations with Russia. Being dragged through the mud for that is outlandish, makes--Russia shouldn't refuse to deal with the United States because the U.S. carried out the worst crime of the century in the invasion of Iraq, much worse than anything Russia has done. But they shouldn't refuse to deal with us for that reason, and we shouldn't refuse to deal with them for whatever infractions they may have carried out, which certainly exist. This is just absurd. We have to move towards better--right at the Russian border, there are very extreme tensions, that could blow up anytime and lead to what would in fact be a terminal nuclear war, terminal for the species and life on Earth. We're very close to that. Now, we could ask why. First of all, we should do things to ameliorate it. Secondly, we should ask why. Well, it's because NATO expanded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in violation of verbal promises to Mikhail Gorbachev, mostly under Clinton, partly under first Bush, then Clinton expanded right to the Russian border, expanded further under Obama. The U.S. has offered to bring Ukraine into NATO. That's the kind of a heartland of Russian geostrategic concerns. So, yes, there's tensions at the Russian border--and not, notice, at the Mexican border. Well, those are all issues that should be of primary concern. The fate of--the fate of organized human society, even of the survival of the species, depends on this. How much attention is given to these things as compared with, you know, whether Trump lied about something? I think those seem to me the fundamental criticisms of the media. Powered by AutoBlogger.co

[notalwayslate]

The Curious Case of Lights and Love at Lake Lochdubh

For: @minticetea

Happy Rumbelle Secret Santa!!!

Prompt: Anyelle, X-files AU

Summary: When mysterious lights and a crop circle appear in the small town of Lochdubh, Agent Fox Mulder is soon on the case much to the dismay of Constable Hamish Macbeth. However when Linguistics Expert, Belle French, arrives to assist, Hamish finds the intrusion on his town not as troubling as the intrusion on his heart.

AO3 Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/13084107

The gust of Scotland’s fresh air was a welcome relief to her jetlag eyes, as Belle exited Edinburgh’s baggage terminal. The hustle and bustle of life was eerily quiet in the predawn light, as she rolled her luggage to the curb. After watching the rest of the passengers on her plane leave with family or awaiting taxis, she started to worry that he wouldn’t show. Just as more doubt started to creep into her mind, she noticed a single headlight in the distance. Relief washed over her, as the white Ford Fiesta pulled up to the curb.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Mulder apologized while getting out of the driver seat.

She smiled at him, as he took her luggage placing it in the boot of the car.

“You know you have a headlight out?” She called out to him as she slid into the passenger seat of the car buckling her seatbelt. She heard the boot close, as he slid back into the driver’s seat.

“Oh yes, I’m very aware I have a headlight out. Third time in fact, in the last two weeks.”

“Huh,” her brows burrowed together. “Is there a short circuit or something causing it to go out?”

“More like a short temper,” Mulder responded. “The local authority doesn’t take too well to strangers in his town.”

“Are you serious?”

“I’m convinced I’m keeping the local repair shop in business, with as many replacement lights I’ve had to buy.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Just the cost one pays to find the truth I guess,” he shrugged, smiling at her. “Thank you for coming. I know you didn’t have to but…”

“You don’t need to thank me,” Belle abruptly cut him off. “The truth is I really owe a lot to Dana. It was due to her ample praise of my work that the bureau extended their consulting contract with me. So when she called asking for a favor, I was only too happy to help.”

Smiling at the mention of his partner’s name, Mulder never ceased to be amazed by what an inspiration Scully was to others. Of course she had a hand in Belle French becoming one of the top consultants in ancient languages, Scully always made it a point to promote and expand the number of women working in the field.

“I must confess though, Mulder, I don’t know many agents, who seek out paranormal activity while they are supposed to be on vacation. When Scully called asking me to come to Scotland to help you with this, I was surprised when she told me it was unofficial business.”

“What?” He shrugged. “Some agents prefer a beach, others the ski slopes. I just prefer to find the unequivocal proof of extraterrestrial life.”

Her laugh turned into a smothered yawn, as Mulder observed her with concerned eyes. “Sleep Belle. We have a few hours till we get to Lochdubh.”

X

A thump and sound of shattering glass bolted her up into a sitting position from a dead sleep. Alone in the car she looked out the windshield to see a uniformed man standing next to a taller man smoking a pipe and wearing a deerstalker hat.

“What the…” she mumbled to herself scrambling for the door handle. The look of complete and utter shock that fell upon the two men’s face as she exited the car would have been hilarious if anger hadn’t preoccupied her thoughts. Looking down at the shattered glass on the road, she raised her chin looking the policeman straight in the eye.

“Did you just break the other headlight?”

He blinked owlishly at her.

“How dare you!” She scolded.

She waited for a response but was met with silence. After a few more moments of glaring daggers at them, the taller man finally spoke to her.

“I’m so sorry, m’lady. My friend here thought this car belonged to someone else. He will be more than willing to pay for the damage. Uh, isn’t that right Hamish?”

A firm nudge to the ribs, finally broke whatever spell the man was under, as he jumped to attention. “Of course. Of course I will pay for the damage. Both of them.”

“Darn right you will. You…”

“Belle!”

Turning to the call of her name, she saw Mulder running towards her, a drink tray and a white bakery bag in hand.

“Well I see you’re up.” He placed the items down on the hood of the car, taking out one of the coffee cups, handing it to her. Turning to the policeman, he smirked.

“I see you are already making new friends, Constable Macbeth.”

“See, I knew it was his car,” Hamish balked to the taller man.

“So that makes it okay?” Belle interjected.

He turned to her, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed down whatever words he was going to speak.

“You know he has had to pay for every headlight you have broken. Last time I checked you are supposed to be enforcing the law, not breaking it.”

A small crowd of locals gathered at the scene, as the petite brunette berated the mute Constable in front of all to see.

X

Throwing his hat across the room with a curse, Hamish stalked into the station.

“Bad morning?” TV John asked lying on the couch watching the telly.

“I looked like a bloody idiot!”

Hamish moved to the window, peaking out the blinds. Across the street, Mulder was helping carry Belle’s luggage into the Inn.  

“Well you better call Billy and have him repair those headlights, unless you want a round two from the little lady.”

“So you heard then?”

“I’m pretty sure the whole town heard,” TV John chuckled.

“I’m not paying for that. That bloke has been creeping around this town for too long now. The rest of them left weeks ago, but oh no, not him.  And now what? He has his girlfriend coming here?”

“Who said she was his girlfriend?”

“Well who else would she be?” Hamish’s harsh tone grew curiously lighter. “Why you don’t think she is? You think she’s single? No way would a woman as beautiful as that be single.”

Chuckling TV John picked up the phone, dialing, as Hamish continued with his rambling.

“A girl like that wouldn’t want to be stuck in a small town like this. Nah, did you see her clothing? Well of course you didn’t you weren’t there, but it was nice. Expensive. A girl who likes that type of expensive duds isn’t going to be…”

“One room or two?” John’s inquiry jarred Hamish from his own self chatter.

“Ah, I see thanks.” And with that John hung up the phone. Grinning at Hamish, he spoke. “Two rooms.”

“What?” a distracted Hamish answered.

“That was Granny from the Inn. They are staying in two rooms, two separate rooms.”

“Two rooms?” Hamish smiled. Grabbing his hat off the floor he put it on walking towards the door.

“Where are you going?” TV john inquired.

“I gotta go see Billy the mechanic.”

X

After a much needed rest, and a belly full of some of the most scrumptious food she had ever eaten, Belle found herself with Mulder in the middle of a field a kilometer or so outside of town, where the first crop circle appeared almost a month and a half ago.

Although she had seen the pictures Mulder had emailed her, it was an entirely new experience to see the patterns and symbols first hand. Examining the flattened grass, Belle listened as Mulder recounted how local residents reported strange lights above Lake Lochdubh, while a local sheep herder found this in his field the next morning.

“Can we talk to him, the herder that found this?”

“Nobody’s talking now, the Constable made sure of that.”

“I’m surprised it got out at all.”

“Someone contacted the media. Soon every reporter found their way to Lochdubh. I found out about it on a small international paranormal news feed I follow. Caught the first flight out, but that’s when the hoax confession came out. Everyone was leaving by the time I arrived.”

“Well that was one of the things that confused me, when Dana called and told me about it. They classified it as a hoax within days of it appearing, so what made you decide to stay here and investigate?”

“Well I found it interesting that the man, Peter, who confessed to it, was known to spend his nights passed out in the local pub. Something just didn’t feel right about it. So I stayed, and a week and a half later, I saw the lights over Lake Lochdubh, and a new symbol appeared in this field by the next morning.”

“So why would Peter do it again, after confessing it was a hoax?” Belle inquired.

“Why, indeed, especially since I have it on good authority that he was passed out in the drunk tank that night.”

“So it wasn’t him, but why confess though?”

“Well one thing you will learn about this small town, is that the residents want to keep it that way…a small town”

“So we have a false confession, lights in the night sky, and new patterns and symbols being discovered?”

Mulder nodded.

“I love a good mystery,” Belle chuckled, as they continued to examine the field.

  X

Four days had passed since Hamish first laid eyes on Belle French, and although he saw her consistently in his dreams, he had yet to see her again in person, that is until he walked into Barney and Agnes’s pub that Thursday night.

She sat in a corner table, a dress of blue lace, wound tightly against her firm body. She sat with Mulder, and Doc, sipping on a beer. Thanks to the town’s twin gossipers, Nessie and Jessie, Hamish had learned everything there was to know about the divine Belle French, and where and with whom she spent her time with over the last few days. She was an interesting bird, he would give her that.  She had a BA in Ancient Languages, and her masters in Literature, if the gossip was to be believed.

“If only she was here under different circumstances,” he thought to himself.

He thought he quieted down this alien phenomenon hogwash when he got Peter to agree to confess to making those symbols in the field. Yes, Hamish was curious as to the origins of the lights and unexpected crop circles, but he was not about to let his beloved town to be put on display for every passing stranger to examine.  The people here deserved peace and quiet, not to be poked or prodded by every alien chasing crackpot that stumbled into town.

He snapped out of his thoughts as her delicate laughter floated across the room, nestling into his ears.

“She’s a beautiful woman,” Barney the bartender motioned his head towards Belle’s table as he poured Hamish another.

“Aye.”

“Nice too. Agnes told me she was single as well.”

“Oh, did she now,” Hamish feigned annoyance.

“I’m just saying, a girl like that, they don’t stay single for long. A man has gotta take a chance when he still has one.”

“Well, I happen…” Hamish’s words were cut short, as he heard a familiar masculine voice boom through the room.

“And it’s a pleasure to meet you as well Ms. French.”

Hamish turned in his seat to see the newly returned James Spencer pulling up a seat next to Belle. His grip on his mug tightened as a wave of anger, and what Hamish would deny was jealousy made his blood boil.

James Spencer, six foot two, well built, and rich, was the only child of town matriarch Albert Spencer. He had recently returned to Lochdubh after his father’s passing, to take over the town store. If there was one thing Hamish hated more than a stranger in Lochdubh, it was James Spencer in Lochdubh. And there he was, talking to Belle French with a smoothness that would probably have her falling in love by the end of the night.

X

“Another round for the lady, Barney.”

Within minutes of meeting James, Belle knew he was not her type. Sure he was easy on the eyes but as he continued to boast about himself, she could see there was no real substance behind his looks. She had dated men like that before and it always ended in disaster.

“Well we are glad you are back, even though we wish it was under different circumstances,” Doc spoke up to James.

“Thanks,” James smiled, turning his attention back to Belle. “I moved back here from Elin after my father’s death.” Although he appeared solemn as he talked about his father, Belle couldn’t help shake the feeling that there was a bitterness hiding somewhere beneath his eyes. As he continued to talk, Belle couldn’t help but to catch a glance of the Constable, who was sitting at the bar. She caught herself glancing down at how well his jeans fit his backside. Feeling sudden warmth coiling in her belly, she shook her head, trying to force her attention back to the company at her table, but her eyes kept searching for him.  

Two days later, the knocking on her door roused her from her sleep.

Rubbing her eyes, Belle let an elated Mulder into her room.

“Look what someone left outside my door. And more importantly look at page 118.”

Taking the book from Mulder’s hand, she turned to the dog eared page. Astonished Belle looked down at the page, the symbol she just saw in the field, staring back at her.

“What, How….Who?” Startled her thoughts scrambled together.

“I have no idea. I woke up this morning, and this book was at my door. Who knew? I guess at least one person in this town actually wants to help us.”

“It’s a Lingua Franca Semitic script.” Belle said flabbergasted. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.” Grabbing the pictures of the crop circles off the desk she examined them against the book. “Get me a pen and some paper,” she instructed as she sat down at the small hotel desk.  Mulder watched silently as Belle frantically took pen to paper, finishing she sat back in her chair in awe.

“Could you translate it?”

She nodded silently at him.

“Well what do the symbols mean?”

“Believe.” She whispered.

X

Exhilarated by the finding, Belle and Mulder found a renewed resolve to uncover the mystery of the Lochdubh lights and crop circles. With a camera, walkie talkie, and blanket in hand, Belle made her way to the shore of Lake Lochdubh that evening with the intent of hopefully viewing the mysterious lights, while Mulder scouted the field.  

As the sun went down, Belle pulled the blanket tightly around her, as she heard a snapping of a twig in the distance. Grabbing the walkie talkie, she pressed the button.

“Mulder are you there?” She was met with moments of static before Mulder’s voice rumbled in.

“I’m here, everything okay by the lake?”

Hearing another twig snap, Belle whispered. “I think someone is here.”

“I’ll be right there.”

She heard a heavy footstep behind her. Lifting her walkie talkie, she spun on her heel, ready to pounce on the intruder.

“Hamish?”

“Hey,” He held both hands up in front of him. “I didn’t mean to scare yah. I heard you were coming up here, and I just wanted to check on you.”

Relief flooded her system, as she placed her walkie talkie down.

“Belle are you okay, are you there?” She jumped as Mulder’s voice boomed from the device.

“Yeah, I’m here, it’s okay. It’s just the Constable.”

Hamish tried not to grimace at the ringing description she gave of him. Just the Constable. Not like the Adonis, James Spencer, Hamish thought to himself. He stood silently just looking at her. This was a mistake. He had heard from TV John that the pair of them had planned on splitting up, she at the lake, Mulder at the hay field. The thought of her alone in the dark made him apprehensive, so he packed a bag and before he could think better of it, headed to the lake to find her.

He needed to say something, but standing before her with those alluring blue eyes on him, all thought went out his head. How could anyone be so gorgeous? ‘Say something’ his thoughts screamed at him.

‘Tell her you were worried about her, no tell her you always patrol around the lake,’ his inner thoughts fought.

“So….” He finally spoke. “Seen any little green men?”

Shite, why the hell did he say that?

“If you are done making fun of me, I’m sure you have other people you still need to harass tonight, Constable,” she bucked back her displeasure evident in her voice.

“It was just a joke…I”

“Yes, I’m well aware everything I and Agent Mulder do is a joke to you Constable.” She snipped.

This was not going well, but as much as his embarrassment wanted him to flee, he still couldn’t just leave her here alone.

“Listen, I’ll just sit over here then,” he placed down his bag, spreading out a blanket he had in his arms about 20 feet away from hers. She shot him a look of her confusion, so he continued his reasoning. “I’m worried about you being out her alone.”

He saw her chin lower, her defensiveness ebbing away. “I won’t say anything, I’ll just sit over here, but…well my job is to keep this town safe, and while you are in this town, that includes you as well.”

The corner of her mouth twitched, and he could have sworn that he saw a brief smile.

“I actually wouldn’t mind the company,” she conceded.

His promise to stay quiet lasted all of fifteen minutes, and before long, the two of them were lost in conversation with each other.  As the night went on, she found herself sitting on his blanket, as he pulled out a thermos of coffee.

“It’s so beautiful here. I understand why you want to keep this place hidden away from the real world.”  

“It must be a change for you, coming from a big city,” Hamish responded.

“Who said I’m from a big city?” She laughed. Hamish listened memorized by her story. How she lived in Australia till the age of 10 then moved to America with her father after her mother had passed. He was surprised to learn that she currently lived in a small town, Storybrooke Main, to be near her father.

“The FBI often calls me in to consult on a variety of cases, so I get to travel some, but most of my work can be done at home remotely. Although I enjoy the adventure, there is nothing like small town.” She smiled at him, and Hamish felt his heart skip a beat.  

The more she talked, the more he learned, and the more enthralled he became with her. Lucky for him, they saw no lights over the lake that night, or the next, or the night after that. His new ritual of nights with Belle under a blanket of stars next to Lake Lochdubh, had easily become the best nights of his life.

Hamish never had trouble garnering a woman’s attention; there must have been some truth about women loving a man in uniform. Women had come and gone out of his life, but the feelings he had for Belle were surprisingly new and deeper, than anything he felt before, and he hadn’t even kissed her yet. A situation he planned or rather hoped to rectify very soon.

 X

Belle sat across from Mulder in the booth, a permanent smile plastered on her face as she stared at the menu.

“You look overly chipper this morning. Since I know we haven’t had any progress with the case, I assume you had progress in….other areas. ” He smirked taking a sip of coffee.

“He’s not who I thought he was. I mean the first time I met him, he was breaking your headlights, but he’s really a good guy underneath it all. He likes to read western novels, and you should hear the stories of how he bends over backwards to help his friends, and how much he loves this town, and….”

Holding his hand up to stop her love struck ramblings, Mulder laughed. “I get it, I get it. You think the guy is wonderful, but since he gets your nights, could I just get your attention this morning.”

“Right,” Belle said blushing, as she placed down her menu, pulling out the Ancient Linguistic book that their mysterious benefactor had left them. As Mulder started to talk, she flipped open the book, as the pages fell over, revealing the inside back cover.  Her attention focused on an old worn brownish residue on the inside cover. She traced the rectangular shaped stain, as a thought suddenly occurred to her.

“Where is the nearest library?”

X

Warm fingers caressed his face as he leaned his cheek into the touch. Slowly opening his eyes he smiled at the vision of Belle before him. “Best dream ever.” He murmured sleepily, as her giggle danced through the air.

“Ahem,” Mulder cleared his throat, startling Hamish fully awake. Rubbing his eyes, he did in fact see Belle standing before him, with Mulder behind her. Was she just touching his face, or was he dreaming that? Either way, he wasn’t going to complain as he sat up on the couch in the jail.

“Sorry I must have fallen asleep?”

“That’s alright; we’ve all been having active nights lately.” Mulder smirked.

Casting him a glance, Mulder took her cue. “I…uh…I’ll just wait outside then.”

“Sorry to wake you,” Belle blushed. “But I needed to tell you something.”

“No it’s fine,” Hamish stood straightening his uniform.

“I just wanted to let you know, that Mulder and I have to follow up on a lead today, so I won’t be at the lake tonight.”

The punch of disappointment he felt showed on his face, as the next words out of her mouth were, “I’m sorry.”

“No, no you have nothing to be sorry for,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “I just….well…I…” He suddenly felt the end of his ears burning. Why was he so nervous to tell her that he wanted to spend more time with her? That the nights they spend together at the lake were the best moments of his life.

“I was thinking…well I’ve had such a good time getting to know you, that maybe when I get back we could go out…to eat….like a date?” she bit her bottom lip, looking at him through her lashes.

“Aye. I would like that. Love that in fact.”

“Great.”

“Great,” he echoed smiling so wide his face hurt. “So you got a lead?”

“Yeah,” she nodded her head. “We discovered….”

Her words were cut off by the swift entry of Doc, “Hamish they need you at….Oh,” he halted looking at the young couple before him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you had company.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ve got to get going,” Belle smiled at Doc, turning her attention back to Hamish. “And it sounds like your needed elsewhere.” She turned to leave, as Hamish grabbed her hand, bringing it up to his lips. “Be careful.”

The hairs on the back of her neck rose, as his lips made contact with her hand. With a blush, she whispered, “See you soon,” as she turned and walked out the door.

X

The hours moved as slow as molasses that day. TV John couldn’t help but chuckle, as he watched Hamish walk to the window for the 10th time, peering out, looking for any trace of her return. It wasn’t until well after the sunset that TV John finally convinced Hamish to head to Barney’s Pub for a drink.

“Come on Romeo,” he teased. “Your Juliet obviously won’t be back till late tonight.”

Taking a swig of beer, Hamish leaned into Barney who was cleaning a glass behind the bar. “So how did you know Agnes was the one for you Barney?”

Chuckling to himself, Barney stared at his wife standing at the opposite end of the bar. “The moment I met her.”

“Phish posh,” a drunken regular chimed in sitting a few stools down. “There is no such thing as love at first sight.”

“Who asked you?” Barney clipped back, turning his attention back to Hamish. “It’s a common question, people ask, how do you know when you meet the one. The truth is when you’ve met the one, you just know it, it’s….”

“Magic, different….special,” Hamish said wistfully smiling at the thought of Belle.

“That it is,” Barney smiled at the love-struck grin on the constable’s face. Soon however Hamish’s smile faded, as two drunks started to fight. Hamish dragged the first man out, cuffing him to the railing outside the pub, while he went in for the second. As he took both men to the jail to sleep it off in the drunk tank, he shot a glance over to the inn, seeing that Mulder’s car still had not returned.

With both men in their cell, Hamish took a seat at his desk to fill out the paperwork, as the events and lack of sleep this week finally caught up to him. Closing his eyes, he fell into a deep peaceful sleep.

Jolting awake, Hamish lifted his head from his desk. Daylight streamed in the room, as he quickly headed straight to the window. A wave of comfort flushed through his body, as he saw the white ford fiesta, sitting outside the Inn. She was back.

With pep in his step, Hamish walked over to the cell, a renewed energy of getting to see Belle today, fueling his good mood. Picking up his baton, he started banging it against the bars.

“Rise and shine laddies,” the continuous clinking of the bars, aroused the two hangover men.

Groaning loudly the first man sat up on his cot, rubbing his blood shot eyes.

“Could you stop that damn noise?” the man commanded, causing Hamish to stop for a moment as if pondering the question.

“Oh you mean this noise?” Hamish smirked lifting the baton once again banging it against the bars. “Maybe you’ll think twice before acting like fools at Barney’s.”

Hamish heard the door open, glancing behind him to see Doc entering the jail.  

“Hey Hamish,” Doc called out, as Hamish stopped his torment, turning around to acknowledge him.

“Hey Doc.”

“I heard from Agnes that these two were causing quite the ruckus last night.” Doc stated walking over the cell. “Thought I would bring over these,” he pulled a bottle of aspirin from his pocket, and a couple bottles of water.”

“Give me that,” the second man mumbled squeezing his arm between the bars to get the remedy for his hangover.

“You eat yet?” Hamish inquired to Doc.

“Yeah, I just finished breakfast.”

“Well after we get these two taken care of, I’m heading over the Inn to see if Belle wants to get a bite to eat then.”

“She’s already there, with James Spencer.”

“What?” Hamish spoke his voice laced with confusion. “Just the two of ‘em?”

He didn’t want to be jealous. Why was he jealous?  Belle was just eating breakfast. Eating breakfast with the most eligible bachelor in town according to most of the female population.

“Take care of these two will yah?” Hamish asked Doc, as he was already half out the door, making a beeline to the restaurant. His heart raced as he neared the building, stopping in his tracks as he saw the two of them through the window.

The oaf reached over the table taking the hand she so freely offered. Hamish stumbled a moment, trying to will the power back into his legs as James stroked her knuckles and she gave him one of her most radiant smiles.  He saw a rose lying near her, obviously given to her by him.

Through his agony, Hamish still had the forthright to move away from the window, as he flung his back against the brick wall of the alley. Trying to keep the contents of his dinner from last night down, he ran his hands over his face, his heart trying to make any type of sense of what he just saw. That looked like a date, hell who was he fooling, that was a date. She was flirting with him, he knew that smile, it was the same one she had given him.

After minutes of slouching in the alleyway, Hamish stood tall, straightening his cap. Anger and heartbreak fueled his steps as he sauntered into the restaurant, heading straight to the table with Belle and James.

“Hamish,” she was clearly startled by his sudden appearance pulling her hand out of the grasp of James.

“Good morning,” he gave his most cocky grin, even though he was dying inside. ‘Don’t let her see the hurt. Don’t give her the satisfaction,’ he thought to himself. “How are you two doing this morning?”

Her mouth hung open, and he could see she was struggling with what to say.

“Good, Constable,” James spoke. “A breakfast date with a beautiful woman is a wonderful way to start your day.”

Laughing, Hamish shook his head. He clapped his hand on James’s back, a tad too hard. “Yes, I believe that. Well don’t let me interrupt your date here.” He nodded at her, “Belle.”

Turning he closed his eyes, as he walked away from their table, his heart shattering in a thousand pieces.

X

Doc jumped at the slamming of the door. He was still in the cell attending to the men, as Hamish huffed into the room, throwing his cap, then undoing his tie, and throwing that to the floor as well.

“I take it things didn’t go well?”

If looks could kill, Doc would have been dead on the floor. Just as Doc opened his mouth to speak, Belle came rushing through the door.

“Hamish!”

“Oh great,” Hamish kicked the side of his desk. “Your date already over?”

“No listen you don’t understand…I was...”

“No I don’t need to understand,” he barked out. “I thought….I thought we…” he gestured his hand pointing between he and her. “Forget it.”

“If you would just let me speak,” Belle countered.

“You should hear the lady out,” one of the drunks in the cell chimed in his two cents.

“Stay the hell outta this!” Hamish pointed towards the cell. Turning he plastered on a phony grin.

“Its fine, Belle. It was a fun distraction, but it’s time you left here.”

“What?” he saw the stab of pain in her eyes, and for a moment he wanted to kick himself, but yet his broken heart kept talking.

“I was just trying to get close to you, so that I could get you to convince Mulder to leave. You’ve both outstayed your welcome here.”

Her bottom lip wobbled as her eyes started to water. “I don’t believe you.”

“You mean nothing to me.”

“You’re lying,” her voice was hoarse with emotion.

“Good day Ms. French,” he gestured for her to leave.

Walking to the door, she turned to him, one hand on the knob.

“Well you mean something to me,” she lifted her chin, her eyes still watering, as she walked out of the jail, possibly his life for good.

“You are going to regret that, Mate,” the other drunk called out of his cell.

“Who asked you?” Hamish countered.

“That girl has feelings for you, even a blind man can see that,” the other drunk spoke.

Hamish sat down in his chair running his hands through his hair. The look of hurt in her eyes would haunt his every night. She didn’t seem like the type of girl who played games. Why would she lead him on? So many questions swarmed his mind.  She wanted to talk to him. Why hadn’t he let her speak, at least find out why she wanted James now, and not him.

“In my day, a man fought for the ones he loves,” the drunk said to the other.

“Aye. His pride outweighed his heart on that one. Shame cause she was a real looker, nice too.”

Overhearing the drunkards, Hamish realized that they were right. Belle was special, he had never had these feelings before in his life, and doubted he ever would again. He needed to fight for love, fight for her.

He quickly stood up, casting the three men a glance of determination.

“Go get err, Hamish,” Doc smiled at him.

After going to the Inn, he was informed that Belle was not there. He searched every building, asked every person he saw, but it seemed no one knew where she was. ‘Damnit, the town wasn’t that big, where the hell could she have gone, he thought to himself.’ Then it hit him.

Jumping in his car he made the short trek, and found her sitting by the lake. Willing his courage, he got out of the car, walking towards her with his heart in his hand. He would plead his case, beg her to give them a chance, and if she still wanted to be with James in the end, he would walk away if that is what her heart truly desired.

She was startled as she looked up and saw him standing a few feet away, he could see that.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her eyes puffy, and he could see she had been crying for a while. Even with swollen eyes, and puffy nose, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life, and every word, every plan he had went out the window, as his heart spoke.

“You mean something to me too. Actually, you pretty much mean everything to me.” Her eyes started to water again, and he pressed forward.

“I was wrong. I saw you and him there, and jealousy and anger took over, but I should never have spoken to you that way, or said the things I said. Even though I can’t change that, I am here now, and want to talk this out, because I love you, and what we have is worth fighting for.

He waited with baited breath, as she moved to her feet. When she lifted her hands, half of him expected her to slap him, but she grabbed the lapels of his coat, crashing her lips to his.

The taste of her lips, made his head spin, and with that one kiss every other kiss in his life faded from his memory. This was his forever; this was the only woman he would kiss again in his life. His lips followed her, as she moved to pull away.

“That breakfast with James was just…” her words were cut off, as Hamish pulled her in this time for another kiss. That second kiss led to a third, then fourth, and soon the two found themselves wrapped around each other on the ground. Things may have gone further, if Hamish didn’t believe that Belle deserved better than their first time being a quickie on the cold hard ground. She deserved time, and comfort, and roses, and wine. He lay on his back, with her in his arms, and he stroked her hair.

“So why were you there with him this morning?”

Smiling she lifted her head from his chest, leaning on her elbow. “Remember when I told you we had a lead?”

X

She couldn’t help glancing at her watch, anticipation and nerves building, as Belle waited for James to show up to her hotel room. She opened the door on his second knock, and tried not to let her disgust show as she watched him, look her up and down like a piece of meat.

“Come in,” she gestured for him to enter, watching as he zoned in on the freshly made bed in her room. ‘Jerk,’ she thought to herself.

“I must say I am in no way complaining, but I am flattered at the attention I am getting from you today. First breakfast this morning, and now dinner tonight.” He chuckled.

“Well I just couldn’t wait to see you again,” Belle said a slight grin on her face.

He glanced over at the small desk against the wall, picking up the ancient languages book, quickly flipping through it.

“So have you and Mulder made any progress on those crop circles?” He asked interest piqued.

“Oh yes, all thanks to this book. We were able to decipher the meaning of the patterns in the field.”

“Wow! That’s great. So it’s real then. You know I never really believed that whole hoax theory.”

“Oh, the patterns are very real, but it is most definitely a hoax. But then again, you already know that don’t you James?”

He looked at her with confusion.

“I have to say, leaving Mulder that book, it definitely helped your cause, but you left too big of a clue in it.”

“Really? And what exactly was that?”

Taking the book from his hand, Belle pulled the pages revealing the inside back cover. “This residue on the back of the book.  There was something familiar about the shape of it, and then it hit me. That’s where the library checkout card and pocket use to be.”

Stone faced he looked at the page, not revealing what was going on in his head.

“Most libraries they have switched to a more electronic form, but one of the charms of these little country towns, is that they still use this paper form.”

“So it’s a library book, I don’t see how that ties to me?”

“Well it doesn’t, not exactly. See I called a few of the local towns libraries to see if anyone had checked out this book, and the thing is that it really isn’t that much in demand. Not a real page turner I guess. All the libraries I called didn’t carry it, all for one that is, the library in Elgin.

“R...Really…” James stammered.  

“Yes, isn’t that a coincidence, as I recall you told me you use to live there. And funny enough the one copy that the library had was actually stolen from the stacks. I mean can you believe that. Someone actually stole this book, removed the card and pocket holder, and possibly used it as inspiration to form the patterns in the field, and then it somehow ended up at the doorstep of Mulder and I. The only two people in this town determined to prove it wasn’t a hoax.”

“I have never seen that book before,” James retorted.

“You weren’t expecting someone to confess to it being a hoax did you, James. The media, the attention was dying down, and you couldn’t allow that to happen, could you? So you left this book for me and Mulder so we would verify these crop circles. Bring attention back to Lochdubh; scream to the heavens, that it wasn’t a hoax but that the crop circles were still a mystery.”

“So if I am somehow causing these crop circles, have you forgotten the lights the people have seen over the lake, let me guess I’m somehow magically causing those as well?”

“Actually yes, you are. When Mulder and I went to the library, we were able to pull your library account, and imagine my surprise, when I saw that over the last 6 months, you had checked out quite a few books on drones.” As Belle continued to talk, the bathroom door opened, as Mulder and Hamish emerged into the room, both men holding drones in their hands.

“Where in the hell….how in the hell did you get those?” James blared out, seeing the familiar machines.

“Unofficially,” Mulder spoke. “While Belle here was so kind as to agree to take you to breakfast this morning, and keep you…occupied…I happened to break into your apartment, and find them in your guest closet, but officially….”

“Officially...” Hamish smirked, “I happened to be walking by your apartment, and could have sworn I heard a baby in distress in your apartment. So I had no choice but to break down the door, and found these drones, as well as these…” Hamish threw down a folder full of pictures and research on crop circles onto the bed, “in plain sight.”

“You won’t get away this, you can’t get away this.” James barked.

“Can and have,” Hamish quipped.

Bristling James sat down on the bed, bringing his hands to his face. “How can you stand to live here?”

His question was met with silence, and soon James walls came crashing down, as he confessed to the three of them. He spoke about learning of his father’s illness a year ago, and the stipulation his father was putting in his will about how James would receive the house, and storefront in Lochdubh, on the condition that he live there.

“Even in death, he tried to control my life. He couldn’t stand the fact, that I left this town when I was 18 and never looked back. So he forced me to come back here, leave Elgin, and live here, in this pathetic town where nothing happens! Do you have any idea how many people visit Stonehenge in a year? How much money that town makes on tourists?”

“So you wanted to make Lochdubh a tourist trap?” Hamish asked appalled.

“The entire town would have benefited from it. Millions of people coming in spending money on lodging, food, and souvenirs; busses coming to the town…it would be…”

“Awful,” Hamish piped in.

“Beautiful,” James countered. “We could all be rich.”

“So you cooked up this crop circle scheme just to get Lochdubh on the map?” Mulder inquired.

“I used the drones to make the patterns in the field. I copied the symbols I found in that book.”

“So the lights that the town people saw were…”

“The drones flying over the lake, as I positioned them.” James confessed. “The mist and moisture over the lake caused a distortion of the lights making them seem grander then what it really was.”

“Sounds like the mystery has been solved,” Mulder turned to Belle.

Sneering at Belle, James spoke. “So I take it our dinner date is off?”

Hamish moved next to Belle, placing his arm around her waist.

“Sorry mate, she’s already got plans.”

X

Mulder placed his last bag in the boot of his car. Turning he smiled, as Belle wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Have a safe flight back.”

“I will.”

Letting go, Mulder couldn’t help notice the natural glow of love surrounding her.

“So I hear the bureau already contacted you about another case.”

Nodding Belle smiled. “Yeah, I told them I was taking an extended vacation, but when they doubled my price, I was amendable to work on it…remotely of course. For being such a small town, this place has an amazing Wi-Fi connection.”

Turning his attention to Hamish, Mulder gave him a stern look.

“You better take care of her.”

“Aye, I promise.” Hamish smiled a toothy grin, bringing his arm around Belle shoulder.

Circling the car, Mulder smiled as he passed the two new headlights. As he pulled out of Lochdubh, the last glance he saw in his rearview mirror was Hamish and Belle kissing.

X

One Year Later

“Okay we can leave the 18th and return on the 25th,” Scully spoke looking at the airlines website. Hearing no response she looked up over the computer to see Mulder smiling, as he twirled Belle and Hamish’s wedding invitation in his hand.

“It’s amazing to think this happened because of me.”

“I’m pretty sure the court records show that everything happened because of James Spencer,” Scully scoffed.

“You know what I mean, she would never have been there, and met him, if I didn’t decide to go there.”

“Well as I recall, it was my phone call and my favor that had Belle heading for Lochdubh.” Scully raised her eyebrows in a challenge.

Raising his hands, Mulder smirked conceding to his partner. “Alright, alright, we both had something to do with the two of them getting together.”

“Next thing you know you’ll be asking them to name their first born after you,” Scully scoffed.

“Well now that you mention it…”

“You’re unbelievable, Mulder.”

“What? Having another Fox Mulder in the world wouldn’t be so bad.”

“Well, I did hear that they are thinking of getting a dog,” Scully smirked.

[stretchjournalemerson]

Everything is Politics: The Role of the Essay and the Democratization of Media

By Eitan Miller and Kathleen Grillo Hilton Als, author of The Best American Essays, opens up a conversation about stories from magazines, journals, and websites. In his introduction he says, “But the essays of the future start with questions, generally political in nature, and if you don’t think so, think again” (Als xxviii). The term “political” is a broad one. While obviously some essays discuss overtly political issues, we believe that Als is describing a greater phenomenon. “Politics” shape a person’s life and the questions they ask. Als writes that essays are “generally political,” but beyond that, all essays have some basis in politics.

Apart from the simple partisanship of left vs. right, politics is the basis for life in any society. The way that society is governed and its freedoms or restrictions create individuals’ identity and shape their being. The political background of a given country shapes the writing an individual can create. In her essay From Silence to Words, Min-Zhan Lu describes her complex relationship with writing, language, and identity given her experiences in communist China and learning English. Lu directly analyzes how the politics of her country shaped her writing and thinking. She uses language, a key factor in anyone’s life, to exemplify the split world she lived in. The politics of the world she grew up in directly affected her everyday life as a child and what she wrote as an adult. This revelation affects all of us, not just those who grew up in communist China. American “democracy” shapes our lives in more ways than we could possibly know and creates the foundation on which our writing stands.

Hilton Als’s essay was possible solely because of the politics surrounding his life. As Als grew, he utilized experiences from his childhood when writing books that started a conversation about societal issues such as gender, race, sexuality, and identity. This essentially made his books contact zones where he brought issues to light in order to educate and inform those unaware of their position within those issues. As Pratt defines it, a contact zone is a “social space[ ] where cultures meet, clash, and grapple” (Pratt 34). The politics of Als’ life, defined as the way his mind was formed by the governmental structures and influences he grew up with, shaped what he wrote. As with Lu, who talked about language, a large part of what she thought about language came from the politics of her country. Als was born into a country that shunned him for his race, his sexuality, and his size. And so, the essays Als wrote focused on these issues. All writers, whether they write academically or personally, touch on subjects that matter to them and that they have encountered at some point in their life. Where they grow up, who they grow up with, and what ideals they grow up with shape what writers want to speak about. Famous essayist Joan Didion is known for her narrative memoir-style essays and novels. She wrote about various topics that impacted her life, as all authors do. Her life, as described in Goodbye to All That, includes moving halfway across the world by herself to becoming one of the top journalists in her field. This is undoubtedly linked to the politics of her society. Although implicitly, Didion wrote about feminism as Lu wrote about language and Als wrote about racism. They grew up in different circumstances, different times and places, and this is reflected in their essays. The politics of their life, whatever they may look like, continued to influence their work well into adulthood.

Like the other authors, Noam Chomsky was greatly influenced by the politics of his life. In a biography, Christian Garland describes Chomsky: “Chomsky continues to be an unapologetic critic of both American foreign policy and its ambitions for geopolitical hegemony and the neoliberal turn of global capitalism, which he identifies in terms of class warfare waged from above against the needs and interests of the great majority” (Garland). However, Chomsky’s primary work is as a linguist. Furthermore, his essay Prospects for Survival describes the limited chance that the human race will survive for an extended period of time. On the surface, this is a scientific and logical argument given the history of other species, but Chomsky describes the role of politics in the imminent destruction of the human race. He writes about nuclear war and climate change, both political issues, as shaping the human experience or eventually lack thereof. His experiences, as shaped by US politics and the political linguistic dominance of the English language, shaped his ideas, prompting his various essays.

Clearly, essays, while diverse in content, all ask questions and are based in politics. But, there are many ways that discussion can be staged. A relatively recent development is the “video essay,” a form where the creator can present an amalgamation of pictures and videos with a narrated analysis that is generally targeted towards a YouTube audience. This medium is particularly effective when discussing visual matters such as TV and movies because the viewer can witness the pertinent content. In the TED Talk below, a YouTuber who goes by the alias of “Nerdwriter” describes how video essays impacted the genre of the modern essay. Watch specifically from 5:05 to 7:26, though the entire talk is fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ald6Lc5TSk8

Evan Puschak (Nerdwriter) touches on the fact that video essays, in addition to being a convenient method of intertwining various types of media, are far more democratic than “traditional” forms of the essay. Platforms like YouTube allow users to reward and share good content, making information and analysis accessible to all people with Internet access. This democratization of the essay in its various forms is an important development, arguably the most important development of the modern essay. Even other forms of digitally shared essays share this democratization, taking power away from a “moderator” and putting it in the hands of the people. Accessibility is key to any successful essay because essays are meant to be read.

In his book The Best American Essays, Als writes, “Of course [the essays will] be made up of many things including questions, images, and gestures” (Als xxviii). The essay itself is hard to define. From the point of view of a high schooler taking AP courses, the essay consists of five straightforward paragraphs. However, the essay has many different forms. Academic essays written by the authors of this piece include How the Korean Wave Is Crashing Over America by Kathleen Grillo to Alternative Oppression: A Look at the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by Eitan Miller. These works look at a variety of social and political issues such as race and religion through the lens of media, and are very clearly “political.” On the other hand, essays like those styled after the works of Joan Didion and the authors of this piece have a more narrative style. It may appear that these “essays” are contrary to the definition provided by Als. Didion, as well as our essays styled after her, is not outrightly political. However, they both still find a basis in politics. Didion’s works bring in issues of feminism and the effects a particular geographic location has on a person. Issues of equality and how society is constructed are based in the politics behind the author's life. Would Didion’s essays be the same if she grew up in a communist country? The essays we wrote in her style, though independent, both describe the transition from high school to college. For each of us, we find ourselves thriving in college more  than high school. And although not directly stated in either essay, it asks the questions: Why are colleges, especially high tuition institutions, better for individual growth than high school? What is the effect of education on a person’s life? How do money and the government play into the education a person receives?

Clearly, politics shape society, society shapes the self, and the self expresses ideas through writing. Logically, essays have to be based in politics. Authors are raised with implicit biases that come from the people that surround them, including the politics of the world they grow up in. And when authors write, they carry those biases within their writing. Even if they’re not choosing a side overtly, what they choose to write about is a bias in itself. Als used the stereotypes and prejudices he faced growing up in his writing. Lu struggled with a family life and country that was split, and reflected her struggles through language. Didion discussed the challenges she met as a woman moving from home and back. All authors were born into a certain political circumstance. And, while politics is most commonly viewed in direct relation to the government of a country, the power of politics is so broad that it seeps into everything. Even our most basic thoughts are founded with a certain political ideology. Because of this, it is impossible to say that essays are not based in politics. So what is written, no matter who writes it, when they write it, or where they write it, all comes down to politics.

Works Cited

Als, Hilton. The Best American Essays 2018. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018.

Brockes, Emma. “Hilton Als: 'I Had This Terrible Need to Confess, and I Still Do It. It's a Bid to��Be Loved'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Feb. 2018,

Chomsky, Noam.  “Prospects for Survival.”  The Massachusetts Review, 2017, pp. 621-634. www.massreview.org/sites/default/files/06_58.4Chomsky.pdf.

Didion, Joan. Slouching towards Bethlehem: Essays. Picador Modern Classics, 2017.

Garland, Christian. “Noam Chomsky.” The Decline of the Democratic Ideal, chomsky.info/2009____-2/.

Grillo, Kathleen. How the Korean Wave Is Crashing Over America, Intro to College Writing WR-101-13, Emerson College, 21 Nov. 2018.

Lu, Min-Zhan. "From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle." 1987. College English 49(4): 437-448.

Miller, Eitan. Alternative Oppression: A Look at the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Intro to CollegeWriting WR-101-13, Emerson College, 21 Nov. 2018.

Pratt, Mary Louise. “Arts of the Contact Zone.” Profession 1991. New York: Modern Language Association P, 1991: 33-40.

Puschak, Evan. “How YouTube Changed the Essay.” TEDxTalks, uploaded 9 Jun. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ald6Lc5TSk8.

[philosophyofpolitics]

Noam Chomsky on Mass Media Obsession with Russia & the Stories Not Being Covered in the Trump Era

AMY GOODMAN: We continue our interview with Noam Chomsky, world-renowned dissident, linguist and author, now in Tucson at the University of Arizona. I asked him about a recent mix-up on Fox & Friends, in which the hosts thought they were interviewing former Democratic congressional candidate, a current one, Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona, who supports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE, but, in fact, they were actually speaking to a Massachusetts Democratic congressional candidate, Barbara L’Italien, who opposes ICE. Here is how the interview started.

SEN. BARBARA L’ITALIEN: Good morning. I’m actually here to speak directly to Donald Trump. I feel that what’s happening at the border is wrong. I’m a mother of four. And I believe that separating kids from their parents is illegal and inhumane. I’m actually Barbara L’Italien. I’m a state senator representing a large immigrant community. I’m running for Congress in Massachusetts. I keep thinking about what we’re putting parents through, imagining how terrifying that must be for those families, imagining how it would feel not knowing if I’d ever see my kids again. We have to stop abducting children and ripping them from their parents’ arms—

ROB SCHMITT: OK—

SEN. BARBARA L’ITALIEN: —stop putting kids in cages—

ROB SCHMITT: You want to—

SEN. BARBARA L’ITALIEN: —and stop making 3-year-olds defend themselves in court.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Barbara L’Italien said a lot there, but she was then cut off, with the shock of the Fox & Friends crew in the morning that they had the wrong Democratic congressional candidate. But this kind of media activism also just goes to the whole issue of the media, Noam Chomsky, the issue of Fox News becoming really state media, with—you have the person who supported the sexual harasser Roger Ailes, Bill Shine, now a top aide to President Trump in the White House. That’s gotten little attention. So you have Fox being a mouthpiece for Trump and a place for him to hear what people have to say, and the other networks very much running counter to Trump, on certain issues, CNNand MSNBC. But your thoughts?

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, my frank opinion is that—I must say I don’t pay much attention to television, so I don’t know a great deal about it. But, in general, I think the media—first of all, Fox News is, by now, basically a joke. It’s, as you said, state media. The other media, I think, are focusing on issues which are pretty marginal. There are much more serious issues that are being put to the side. So, the worst of—even on the case of immigration, once again, I think the real question is dealing with the roots of immigration, our responsibility for it, and what we can do to overcome that. And that’s almost never discussed. But I think that’s the crucial issue. And I think we find the same across the board.

So, of all Trump’s policies, the one that is the most dangerous and destructive, in fact poses an existential threat, is his policies on climate change, on global warming. That’s really destructive. And we’re facing an imminent threat, not far removed, of enormous damage. The effects are already visible but nothing like what’s going to come. A sea level rise of a couple of feet will be massively destructive. It will make today’s immigration issues look like trivialities. And it’s not that the administration is unaware of this. So, Donald Trump, for example, is perfectly aware of the dangerous effects, in the short term, of global warming. So, for example, recently he applied to the government of Ireland for permission to build a wall to protect his golf course in Ireland from rising sea levels. And Rex Tillerson, who was supposed to be the adult in the room before he was thrown out, as CEO of ExxonMobil, was devoting enormous resources to climate change denial, although he had, sitting on his desk, the reports of ExxonMobil scientists, who, since the '70s, in fact, were on the forefront of warning of the dire effects of this accelerating phenomenon. I don't know what word in the language—I can’t find one—that applies to people of that kind, who are willing to sacrifice the literal—the existence of organized human life, not in the distant future, so they can put a few more dollars in highly overstuffed pockets. The word “evil” doesn’t begin to approach it. These are the kinds of issues that should be under discussion. Instead, what’s being—there is a focus on what I believe are marginalia.

So, take, say, the huge issue of interference in our pristine elections. Did the Russians interfere in our elections? An issue of overwhelming concern in the media. I mean, in most of the world, that’s almost a joke. First of all, if you’re interested in foreign interference in our elections, whatever the Russians may have done barely counts or weighs in the balance as compared with what another state does, openly, brazenly and with enormous support. Israeli intervention in U.S. elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done, I mean, even to the point where the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, goes directly to Congress, without even informing the president, and speaks to Congress, with overwhelming applause, to try to undermine the president’s policies—what happened with Obama and Netanyahu in 2015. Did Putin come to give an address to the joint sessions of Congress trying to—calling on them to reverse U.S. policy, without even informing the president? And that’s just a tiny bit of this overwhelming influence. So if you happen to be interested in influence of—foreign influence on elections, there are places to look. But even that is a joke.

I mean, one of the most elementary principles of a functioning democracy is that elected representatives should be responsive to those who elected them. There’s nothing more elementary than that. But we know very well that that is simply not the case in the United States. There’s ample literature in mainstream academic political science simply comparing voters’ attitudes with the policies pursued by their representatives, and it shows that for a large majority of the population, they’re basically disenfranchised. Their own representatives pay no attention to their voices. They listen to the voices of the famous 1 percent—the rich and the powerful, the corporate sector. The elections—Tom Ferguson’s stellar work has demonstrated, very conclusively, that for a long period, way back, U.S. elections have been pretty much bought. You can predict the outcome of a presidential or congressional election with remarkable precision by simply looking at campaign spending. That’s only one part of it. Lobbyists practically write legislation in congressional offices. In massive ways, the concentrated private capital, corporate sector, super wealth, intervene in our elections, massively, overwhelmingly, to the extent that the most elementary principles of democracy are undermined. Now, of course, all that is technically legal, but that tells you something about the way the society functions. So, if you’re concerned with our elections and how they operate and how they relate to what would happen in a democratic society, taking a look at Russian hacking is absolutely the wrong place to look. Well, you see occasionally some attention to these matters in the media, but very minor as compared with the extremely marginal question of Russian hacking.

And I think we find this on issue after issue, also on issues on which what Trump says, for whatever reason, is not unreasonable. So, he’s perfectly right when he says we should have better relations with Russia. Being dragged through the mud for that is outlandish, makes—Russia shouldn’t refuse to deal with the United States because the U.S. carried out the worst crime of the century in the invasion of Iraq, much worse than anything Russia has done. But they shouldn’t refuse to deal with us for that reason, and we shouldn’t refuse to deal with them for whatever infractions they may have carried out, which certainly exist. This is just absurd. We have to move towards better—right at the Russian border, there are very extreme tensions, that could blow up anytime and lead to what would in fact be a terminal nuclear war, terminal for the species and life on Earth. We’re very close to that. Now, we could ask why. First of all, we should do things to ameliorate it. Secondly, we should ask why. Well, it’s because NATO expanded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in violation of verbal promises to Mikhail Gorbachev, mostly under Clinton, partly under first Bush, then Clinton expanded right to the Russian border, expanded further under Obama. The U.S. has offered to bring Ukraine into NATO. That’s the kind of a heartland of Russian geostrategic concerns. So, yes, there’s tensions at the Russian border—and not, notice, at the Mexican border. Well, those are all issues that should be of primary concern. The fate of—the fate of organized human society, even of the survival of the species, depends on this. How much attention is given to these things as compared with, you know, whether Trump lied about something? I think those seem to me the fundamental criticisms of the media.

AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky, world-renowned political dissident, author and linguist, now a laureate professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He taught for 50 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tune in next week when we continue our conversation with Noam Chomsky about Gaza, Israel’s new nationality law, the recent Trump-Putin summit, Iran, North Kora, the war in Yemen and more. In December, Noam Chomsky will be celebrating his 90th birthday.

Democracy Now

[d33-alex]

Remedies for the Political Tribalism of the “Post-Truth” Era

Politics has warped facts since the days of Pericles, but our ‘post-truth’ era offers a destructive new twist: defying facts as a badge of tribal allegiance.

The term “post-truth” has been around for decades, but its big moment came in 2016, with the Brexit vote in the U.K. and the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump. Usage of post-truth shot up twentyfold, according to the Oxford Dictionaries, which chose it as the “word of the year” for 2016. Since then, the term has become a commonplace in political commentary. It is not applied approvingly. To dub ours the era of post-truth is not to praise it.

The editor of the Oxford Dictionaries noted that, in this context, “post” doesn’t mean a time after a specified event, as in “postwar” or “postgame,” but rather signifies “a time in which the specified concept has become unimportant or irrelevant.”

Truth as unimportant or irrelevant? How are we to understand such a claim? It can’t mean that truth is simply passe, since that claim, like a snake swallowing its own tail, would subvert itself. If it’s true that we no longer regard anything as true, then we won’t regard that very claim as true—making it a self-defeating conclusion.

But that isn’t what people intend when they use the term post-truth to characterize our present moment. What they mean is not that our entire relationship with the truth has changed, but rather that there is something radically screwy going on in one specific domain, namely politics. It’s in our public life that truth is taking hard knocks, with our warring political tribes determining their own facts or (to quote the Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway) their own “alternative facts.”

The election of President Trump is certainly a special case in this regard, but is our current moment really so distinctive? Caught up in it as we are, it’s perhaps natural to exaggerate its uniqueness. Political tribalism, however, has been around for as long as there has been politics—which is to say, going all the way back to the ancient Greeks. And it has always shaped the way that people see and report the facts.

The political life of ancient Athens was ceaselessly roiled by strife between the democrats, committed to the principle of government by the people, and the oligarchs, holding out for government by the few. The language of the oligarchs reflected their partisanship: For them, democracy was “mob rule,” and the celebrated democratic orators, including Pericles, were “rabble rousers.” At the same time, they attributed all the truth-abusing rhetoric to the other side.

In one of his dialogues, Plato (who was no admirer of Athenian democracy) has his character Socrates sardonically describe how the oratory of men like Pericles transforms the facts, right down to Socrates’ own self-image: “Each time, as I listen and fall under their spell I become a different man—I’m convinced that I have become taller and nobler and better looking all of a sudden.... The speaker’s words and the sound of his voice sink into my ears with so much resonance that it is only with difficulty that on the third or fourth day I recover myself and realize where I am.”

Demosthenes, one of the city-state’s greatest democratic orators, denounced the political dishonesty he saw as a form of treason. In the two-tier system of Athenian democracy, a small council of citizens framed the proposals that would then be debated and voted upon by the full citizen body. Demosthenes charged that the proposals emanating from the council were founded on deliberate falsehoods: “In a political system based on speeches, how can it be safely administered if the speeches are not true?”

Demosthenes said, ‘In a political system based on speeches, how can it be safely administered if the speeches are not true?’

His accusation occurred in the course of an attack against a rival orator whom Demosthenes accused of being in the paid employ of a foreign tyrant, Philip of Macedon. It was Philip, he charged, who was manipulating Athenian democracy from afar, determining which proposals the council sent for the consideration of the people at large. The only thing missing in this affair—a secret dossier by an ancient counterpart to Christopher Steele.

Almost all of the familiar ingredients of political intrigue were present in ancient Athens: conspiracies and coverups, lies and misinformation—not to mention powerful oratory that, by appealing to irrational emotions, transformed the very sense of the facts.

Has our own tense historical moment contributed anything new to the ways in which politics warps the truth? I think it has. It’s a phenomenon both linguistically interesting and politically distressing, and it has erupted across the ideological spectrum. It’s what I’d call pseudo-asserting: It has the appearance of an assertion of truth, but it’s a different form of utterance altogether.

Genuine assertions have the concept of truth baked into them. No one has to say, “The statement that the Eagles won the Super Bowl is true,” or “The statement that the statement that the Eagles won the Super Bowl is true is true,” ad infinitum. They just say, “The Eagles won the Super Bowl.” Of course they are asserting it’s true; that’s what it means to assert anything about anything.

It’s also why we give a hearing to what people assert: because we have something to gain from learning the truth and know that others might know what we don’t. It is among the reasons that we evolved the capacity for language in the first place.

Even though asserting may be the most basic act that we perform with language, there are many other things that we do with words—other “language games” we play, as the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein put it. We use words to emote, to command, to make promises. We even get ourselves hitched by uttering “I do” under the appropriate circumstances.

One of the things that we sometimes do with words is to pledge our allegiance—which has everything to do with the phenomena of post-truth. In today’s political discourse, we have taken to repurposing certain propositions so that pronouncing them is not so much an assertion of truth as a pledge of allegiance to our political tribe. In these acts of pseudo-assertion, the information being conveyed isn’t about the topic of the proposition at all; it’s about the political loyalties of the speaker.

Consider two different propositions, from opposite ends of American politics: (1) “The only way to stop violent crime is to allow citizens to arm themselves,” and (2) “For a person of privilege to make creative use of the culture of the underprivileged is an act of aggression and abuse.” The information that we can glean from these statements isn’t about the putative topics—gun control or cultural “appropriation,” respectively. It’s about the political identity of the speaker. Such assertions are tribal banners, and offering counter-evidence isn’t likely to get you very far.

Indeed, a pledge of political allegiance achieves greater authenticity if it flies in the face of counter-evidence, especially if that evidence comes from “so-called experts.” My insistence that “Human actions have no impact on global warming” gains immeasurably, as a pledge, from the fact that 97% of climate scientists disagree with me; it highlights the depth of my commitment to the cause. Similarly, to show my solidarity with others who wish to ban “Frankenstein” foods, I can insist that “Genetically engineered crops are unsafe for humans and animals,” even as I’m presented with an exhaustive study by the National Academies of Science concluding that there is no such evidence.

These pseudo-assertions aren’t just tribal markers, of course. They also purport to say what is and isn’t true. And that’s where we get into trouble—in the very fact that their persuasive potency, as pledges, is often a function of how far they depart from the best available evidence.

Democratic debate is never a strict weighing of evidence; emotional appeals to party, cause and country are always part of the mix. But our readiness today to proudly defy evidence is very troubling. It undermines our commitment to the truth—and our capacity to reach any sort of middle ground or consensus.

The repurposing of truth-valued propositions for political ends isn’t exactly new under the sun, but its prevalence today does seem like a genuinely new phenomenon. How did this happen? How have propositions easily tested by evidence become retooled as oaths of tribal loyalty, not only impervious to counter-evidence but positively reveling in it?

Some might blame the truth-disparaging theories that have long been incubating in certain corners of the academy, which go by the names of relativism and postmodernism. Relativists deny that there is any truth that holds objectively for all. “Truth,” on this view, is just a matter of perspectives, whether of individuals or cultures; it can make no universal claim.

Plato (above) described how the oratory of men like Pericles transforms the facts.

Postmodernists take this relativism to its logical conclusion, asserting that the discourse of “truth” is a subterfuge concealing the structures of power. After all, once we cease with all the bother about objective truth, what is left but a zero-sum contest among rival interests? For postmodernists, the relations of dominance and subordination constitute all that is human—not only our social and political milieus but also our various “discourses,” including that of science. As they see it, the use by scientists of terms such as “evidence” and “scientific method” are mere bids for power.

Though postmodernism would seem to be a challenge to every sort of truth claim, postmodernists are, in practice, almost invariably on the political left. They don’t just describe the structures of power they have supposedly discovered—they defiantly oppose them. How this normative imperative arises out of the theory isn’t clear, but it may be that leftist politics comes first for postmodernists and their theory dutifully follows after.

As a political matter, the difficulty with the postmodernist vision—of truth supplanted by power struggles—is that it can just as easily fit with any right-wing view. If truth has no deeper basis than power, who’s to say that the assertions of Trump supporters are wrong? They won, after all, and isn’t that what truth, ultimately, is about?

I’m no fan of postmodernism, but I somehow doubt that this obscure academic ideology is responsible in any meaningful way for our post-truth woes. For one thing, the writings of postmodernists are so opaque and filled with jargon that I’ve often wondered whether the authors themselves have any idea what they’re trying to say. It’s hard to see how they could exert much influence outside of their own small coterie.

I would say instead that the downgrading of truth, both within the academy and without, shares a common cause—namely, the promotion of political ends above all else. We have lost the capacity to limit the reach of our ideologies and the identities that go with them. Perhaps modern life has so unsettled traditional identities that many of us have nothing better to fall back upon than the crude claims of politics. And it is certainly the case that new media bear some of the blame, with their unprecedented capacity to distort and heighten every point of ideological disagreement and to disseminate it far and wide.

But having such differences, as all societies do, does not demand that we give up on the truth as a thing apart, as a possible common ground on which to meet. We simply have to check our tribal reflexes as best as we can and confront each other as citizens—each of us with some part to play, some evidence to contribute, in the good-faith effort to govern ourselves.

In Plato’s most famous dialogue, the Republic, Socrates falls into conversation with the bold and intimidating Thrasymachus, who is a sophist—that is, one who offers instructions on how to argue a case, no matter its merit. Sophistry was a respected profession in Plato’s Athens. It is partly due to Plato’s writings that the term eventually took on its pejorative meaning.

Like many sophists, Thrasymachus is dismissive of the whole idea of objective truth, most especially when it comes to questions of right and wrong—that is, justice. Like some ancient postmodernist, Thrasymachus believes that truth is just a cover for pursuing one’s own interests, but as a privileged son of power, he’s perfectly content with this arrangement. As he insists to Socrates, “Justice is nothing other than what is advantageous for the stronger”—in his mind, a good thing.

In the famously long and winding conversation that follows, Socrates guides Thrasymachus and his other interlocutors through many difficult philosophical questions. His answer to the challenge of Thrasymachus ultimately consists of this: That none can maintain the justice of their commitments, whether in philosophy or politics, without also committing firmly to the pursuit of truth.

Giving up on the truth, then as now, means that we’re left with nothing but sophistry.

 By Rebecca Newberger Goldstein | Truth Isn’t the Problem—We Are | The Wall Street Journal  The most recent of Dr. Goldstein’s many books is “Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away.”

[nyc-uws]

You Know How When You Learn a New Word, You See It Everywhere?

Science Knows Why

Mystery = solved.

Have you ever learned a new word, one that you swear you've never heard before, only to find it popping up throughout your daily life for a few days after? It’s like the word is haunting you, or that the word didn’t exist at all before you learned it. Well, turns out that’s called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, and it all comes down to your brain playing tricks on you.

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is actually a term for 'frequency illusion', a type of cognitive bias your mind creates. To understand this, you need to know a little about cognitive bias as a whole. Though there's a whole lot of nuisances caused by cognitive bias, in short, it’s when your mind deviates from normal, rational thought and starts to make up patterns based off of nonsense.

John Donovan from Mother Nature Network summarises this elegantly:

"Example: Hindsight bias (also known as the "I knew it all along" bias) is the tendency to think that, looking back on an event, we should have seen it coming - even though there may be no rational reason that we actually should have known what was going to happen."

So what about frequency illusion? Well, the term was coined in 2006 by Arnold Zwicky, a linguist from Stanford University, who claims that frequency illusion is, in fact, two different processes happening at the same time: selective attention and confirmation bias.

The first process, selective attention, comes about when you learn anything new. Basically, when you learn something new, it stays fresh in your mind - you’re paying more attention to it than other things. Because of this, you see it more often when going about your daily life.

However, this very simple, logical process is amped up by confirmation bias, which is a cognitive bias that makes you "search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions, leading to statistical errors", reports ScienceDaily.

This means that your mind is on the look-out for newly learned information because it’s still super fresh and interesting to you. At the same time, your mind sees these new words everywhere, thinks that it's weird, and tries to make it fit into some rational system.

In other words, because the information is new, you suddenly force yourself to believe that it's new to everyone and has suddenly popped up, when in reality, you’ve just stopped ignoring it.

The name Baader-Meinhof phenomenon actually started as a meme in 1994. Since frequency illusion was coined in 2006, people sort of just came up with a term to describe the weird feeling without having the science behind it. According to Pacific Standard:

"Baader-Meinhof phenomenon was invented in 1994 by a commenter on the St. Paul Pioneer Press' online discussion board, who came up with it after hearing the name of the ultra-left-wing German terrorist group twice in 24 hours. The phrase became a meme on the newspaper’s boards, where it still pops up regularly, and has since spread to the wider Internet."

So there you have it. You actually see new words more often and believe there’s some weird pattern at work because your mind is trying to make sense of new information. It just so happens that most of it is made up.

https://www.sciencealert.com/you-know-how-when-you-learn-a-new-word-you-see-it-everywhere-here-s-why

When you learn a new word and then suddenly start seeing it everywhere you go, it’s called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (aka frequency illusion). It happens because your brain is good at seeing patterns, confirming its own biases, and obsessing over interesting information. You’re also learning new words all the time, but you don’t always encounter them again right away– so when you do, your brain continues to accept it as a meaningful pattern even though it’s just a random coincidence.  Source Source 2 Source 3

There's a Name for That:

The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

When a thing you just found out about suddenly seems to crop up everywhere.

Your friend told you about that obscure bluegrass-electro-punk band yesterday morning. That afternoon, you ran across one of their albums at a garage sale. Wait a minute—that’s them in that Doritos commercial, too! Coincidence ... or conspiracy? More likely, you’re experiencing “frequency illusion,” somewhat better known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.

Stanford linguistics professor Arnold Zwicky coined the former term in 2006 to describe the syndrome in which a concept or thing you just found out about suddenly seems to crop up everywhere. It’s caused, he wrote, by two psychological processes. The first, selective attention, kicks in when you’re struck by a new word, thing, or idea; after that, you unconsciously keep an eye out for it, and as a result find it surprisingly often. The second process, confirmation bias, reassures you that each sighting is further proof of your impression that the thing has gained overnight omnipresence.

The considerably catchier sobriquet Baader-Meinhof phenomenon was invented in 1994 by a commenter on the St. Paul Pioneer Press’ online discussion board, who came up with it after hearing the name of the ultra-left-wing German terrorist group twice in 24 hours. The phrase became a meme on the newspaper’s boards, where it still pops up regularly, and has since spread to the wider Internet. It even has its own Facebook page. Got all that? Don’t worry. You’ll hear about it again soon.

https://psmag.com/social-justice/theres-a-name-for-that-the-baader-meinhof-phenomenon-59670

Confirmation bias

In psychology and cognitive science, confirmation bias (or confirmatory bias) is a tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions, leading to statistical errors.

Confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias and represents an error of inductive inference toward confirmation of the hypothesis under study.

Confirmation bias is a phenomenon wherein decision makers have been shown to actively seek out and assign more weight to evidence that confirms their hypothesis, and ignore or underweigh evidence that could disconfirm their hypothesis.

As such, it can be thought of as a form of selection bias in collecting evidence.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/confirmation_bias.htm