A HearYourselfThink Year-in-Review

Erin and I quit our safe, steady-paying organizer gigs over a year ago to found HearYourselfThink because we realized then that the relentless flood of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and raw irrationality gushing from talk radio, hyper-partisan media outlets, and internet echo chambers was destroying our democracy and driving our nation to the brink of disaster. As it turns out, (Fmr.) President Obama agrees with us:

Everyone’s now talking about the threat of fake news and how Trump’s election ushered in a “post-truth” era where reality no longer matters and, according to this Trump surrogate, facts have literally ceased to exist:

“There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore as facts…”

Here’s the thing though: no matter how much the likes of Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, and Donald Trump may want to remake the world in their sociopathic image – a world where truth is irrelevant and you just make sh*t up as you go along to suit your agenda – reality is still real, facts still matter, and lies are still lies no matter how often they are repeated.

We worked like heck and logged a lot of miles (4,000!) in 2016 to expose right-wing media and wake people up to the threat it posed. We also trained hundreds of people on how propaganda brainwashes and how to begin to deprogram others from its influence.

In 2016, we:

  • Hosted 18 trainings and 6 events across Pennsylvania and Ohio, with a special trip to St. Louis to present at Netroots Nation (we were voted into the Top 10 out of 200+ panel submissions! If you were one of the ones who voted for us, thank you!)
  • Trained 502 people on how to break down walls of polarization, cultivate self-reflection and create moments of insight about media influence.
  • Held a 3-part class for Slippery Rock University’s Learning in Retirement program called “Media Today: Do You Know What You Think You Know?” bringing our message directly to those most likely to see Fox “News” in a favorable light.
  • Exposed the hysteria and hatred animating Trump supporters in our region. We’ve lived and organized in the Rustbelt our entire lives and knew that anger about the economy wasn’t the whole story about Trump’s appeal here. We went to talk to voters at his rallies about media influence and misinformation as it relates to their beliefs, actions and support for Trump. If you haven’t yet, you can see how that went here (in our hometown) and nearby (in Moon).
  • Demonstrated that with a little distance from the heat of the campaign, you can actually have productive conversations with people caught up in the right-wing media universe that challenge people to stop and think about their ideas and attitudes on a deeper level. If you’re looking for a reason to be hopeful about the future and how we can talk to people in the Trump era, start here.
  • Created the #FoxOff card campaign and FoxIsToxic.com in partnership with Jen Senko, director of The Brainwashing of My Dad to stigmatize Fox “News” and get #FoxOff in public places, like your local YMCA, the pub, and the doctor’s office. The handy, pocket-sized cards are a great tool to remind you to speak up whenever you see a public establishment promoting partisan news and give that owner or employee you speak to something to think about. To date, we’ve sent out more than 1,000 cards to activists in TX, OK, GA, IL, PA, NJ, FL, CA, IA, and NY.
  • Launched YourDrunkUncle.org before Thanksgiving to help prepare people for conversations that would lead to insights, rather than food fights. This was the first holiday since one of the most toxic elections of our lifetime, and we knew people were worried about talking Trump. So we put together this short video summarizing our key strategies, hosted a pre-Thanksgiving Facebook live event, and compiled our best advice for how to talk to Your Drunk Uncle (or Your Trump Uncle, as it may be), here.

Erin and I are all the more dedicated to working to reclaim America’s brain with a lot simmering on the stove already for early in 2017. But if we are going to be able to keep up this critical work to #MakeAmericaThinkAgain we need supporters like you to step up now.

This is serious.

If we don’t receive sufficient investment from supporters who understand the need to fight for truth and reason in the new year, we will not be able to continue our efforts. Our spunky, 2005 Ford Focus can only hold out so long after the beating it took last year as we traveled all over Pennsylvania and into Ohio with our prescient message about the danger to our democracy of propaganda and fake news posing as real news.

You can help by making a contribution below — and, if you attended one of our trainings in the past year, giving us your feedback on how it helped you get a better handle on the right-wing media problem.  We are counting on your ideas, talents, energy and support to make 2017 one hell of a lot better than 2016!

The HearYourselfThink Project is a 501c3 non-profit that defends American values of truth, reason, and the common good by exposing how demagogues tap into the reptilian mind to divide and conquer. We are 100% funded by small donations.

Contact

Dave & Erin Ninehouser, Co-Founders
connect@hearyourselfthink.org

Address

P.O. Box 116
Ambridge, PA 15003
Donate Online

Register to Vote

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Vote.gov (Español)

Howling at the Moon in Moon, PA: Media-Driven Satanic Panic Fuels Hillary Hatred at Trump Rally

Howling at the Moon in Moon, PA: Media-Driven Satanic Panic Fuels Hillary Hatred at Trump Rally

Thousands of hardcore supporters turned out for another Western PA Trump campaign stop in Moon today, just two days before the election.

Erin and myself decided to go and talk to folks about Alex Jones and see how much buy in there would be to his ravings about Hillary Clinton being possessed by demons, smelling of sulfur, etc.

What happened? Well, we managed to not get ourselves burned at the stake. Barely.

But the tragic reality is that the minds of Trump supporters have been fried by decades of right-wing media brainwashing, hate, and ideological indoctrination.

Rather than fight the inexhaustible supply of conspiracy and misinformation point-by-point, we used the example of the Salem witchcraft hysteria of 1692 to try and create breakthrough moments that help people step out of the cacophony of madness and think about how they’ve been swept up in a Hillary-hating frenzy.

WATCH:

The HearYourselfThink Project is a 501c3 non-profit that defends American values of truth, reason, and the common good by exposing how demagogues tap into the reptilian mind to divide and conquer. We are 100% funded by small donations.

Contact

Dave & Erin Ninehouser, Co-Founders
connect@hearyourselfthink.org

Address

P.O. Box 116
Ambridge, PA 15003
Donate Online

Register to Vote

Vote411
Rock the Vote
Vote.gov (Español)

Fox News Commentator Pinned Down for Street Interview

Fox News Commentator Pinned Down for Street Interview

Fox “News” in our backyard again!

Yesterday, we caught up with Stephen Moore, a frequent Fox contributor, outside the hotel in Pittsburgh where he was attending a conference with a stealth lobbying organization (ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council) that promotes pro-corporate legislation on the state level.

We wanted to hear what he had to say about the Trump phenomenon and the role of right-wing media in the rise of “Demagogue Donald” Trump:

 

The HearYourselfThink Project is a 501c3 non-profit that defends American values of truth, reason, and the common good by exposing how demagogues tap into the reptilian mind to divide and conquer. We are 100% funded by small donations.

Contact

Dave & Erin Ninehouser, Co-Founders
connect@hearyourselfthink.org

Address

P.O. Box 116
Ambridge, PA 15003
Donate Online

Register to Vote

Vote411
Rock the Vote
Vote.gov (Español)

HearYourselfThink in Action: Puncturing “the Fox Bubble” at Hannity/Trump Event in Pittsburgh

HearYourselfThink in Action: Puncturing “the Fox Bubble” at Hannity/Trump Event in Pittsburgh

Fox “News” was in Pittsburgh a few weeks back with a Donald Trump event hosted by Sean Hannity. We were on the inside to witness Hannity orchestrate what was billed as a “town hall” but what was really a pro-Trump rally. Raucous attendees were encouraged to scream and cheer and chants of “Build the Wall” rung out loudly and often. On the outside we talked with supporters (they were really very nice!) to see if we could have a genuine conversation that could begin to puncture the bubble of right-wing media manipulation which made the rise of demagogue Trump not only possible but inevitable.

Watch what happened and let us know what you think:

The Inside Truth of the Fox Propaganda Machine

The Inside Truth of the Fox Propaganda Machine

On April 13th, Fox “news” staged an event (*staged* being the operative word) in our home turf of Pittsburgh that they billed as a “town hall” with Sean Hannity and Donald Trump.

A long line of people, stretching for blocks, waited for hours to get into the hall for the live taping which was to be run that night on Hannity’s show. We waited along with them to get an inside view on the workings of the Fox propaganda machine. The day did not disappoint.

The audio clips you’re about to hear are of the insufferably smug Hannity rousing the mobbish crowd before the show with a stand up routine that is equal parts bad comedy and two minutes hate:

Did you catch the moment near the end where he asks a 14 year old girl, Julia, why the country needs to be saved? Her response begs the question: should instilling a child’s mind, by design, with fear and hate not be considered a form of abuse?

That’s what was so unsettling about the whole thing — all the over-the-top flag waving and gaudy appeals to patriotism mixed with open displays of rage, extremism, and raw hatred.

Like Norman Rockwell risen from the dead as a flesh-eating zombie, or a Hallmark card from Hitler.

Talking to Fox Bunker-Brains about Guns

Talking to Fox Bunker-Brains about Guns

President Obama’s executive action on guns last week and his “Guns in America” town hall on Thursday on CNN are bound to have the NRA-loving, Fox-Watchers in your life up-in-arms; hopefully not literally.

We all know how it is when they’re all riled-up about Obama coming to take their guns and how any response to gun violence, however measured and reasonable, is perceived as nothing but a slippery slope to tyranny and a ticket to a FEMA concentration camp for God-fearing gun-toters.

But we also know that it’s important that we figure out ways to engage with our friends and loved ones to keep them from slipping away completely into a realm of paranoia and dark delusions.

After all, that’s what the fear-profiteers of Fox and the NRA want: to keep us divided and for right-thinking people to stand down from discussions that will most likely become loud and/or contentious, allowing the loudest-voice-in-the-room effect to dominate the culture.

Here at HearYourselfThink we say: Don’t Retreat, Expose!

What is at the heart of all the bellicose bombast and belligerence from the gun-obsessed? Weakness.

As Eric Hoffer put it:

“The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than of deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without.”

So to quiet the crazy, we don’t need to get into another polarizing back and forth verbal volley, we need to get people to see how they are being fed false-narratives that are weak on facts but very good at pushing their buttons with appeals to fear and anger.

What’s one simple way to do that? By employing that very power of narrative which has been so effectively used to manipulate them by Fox and the NRA.

We know that when someone is emotionally invested in a position, facts will often bounce right off their ideologically reinforced bubble.

But by avoiding a heated confrontation and focusing on telling a powerful, fact-based narrative, we can infiltrate their bubble-think with an alternate point of view before they can defend against it.

What kind of narratives will help folks see beyond the bubble?

We can give historical context by telling the story of a grassroots organization of gun enthusiasts that at one time worked to preserve America’s environmental heritage for future generations of hunters and sportsmen but has gradually become a tool of the billion dollar gun industry and their big money lobbying arm in Washington.

NRA in 70sI found this NRA album from 1970 in a used record store in Pittsburgh. It’s devoted to radio spots promoting conservation of America’s wild heritage read by celebrities like Max Baer of Beverly Hillbillies fame.

Baer down-homily intones:

“You know what preservation means to me? Jars of jelly with the caps sealed in place. Even in the great outdoors, preservation has its place. But what we really need more of is conservation.”

Contrast that with public statements of current celebrity board member, Ted Nugent and we see how far off the rails of its former vision and into the realm of aggression, conspiracy and fear mongering the NRA has gone.

Nugent:

“And in my mind, I’m going why can’t I just shoot this guy in the spine right now; shoot him in the spine, explain the facts of life to him” and “The war is coming to the streets of America and if you are not keeping and bearing and practicing with your arms then you will be helpless and you will be the victim of evil.”

Telling a personal story takes the focus off of a tit-for-tat exchange and creates a space where listening is more likely to happen.

Maybe, like us, you have a story in the family of an NRA member who quit the organization in disgust. Erin’s grandfather, a World War II vet, was a proud member for years but dropped his membership when he saw the NRA had become obsessed with rabidly partisan politics and with selling guns and ammo over all other concerns, even over the objections of law enforcement.

Erin’s mom had this letter-to-the-editor published in our local paper about her dad and the NRA:

Not My Dad's NRA Anymore (LTE)

The idea isn’t to instantly convert the person but to have the most effective conversations possible that will not devolve into opposing camps shouting past each other and only causing them to further entrench in their ideological position.

At the same time, this doesn’t mean we allow blatant misinformation or insanity to go unchallenged.

We need to be firm in our approach while we find a balance between confronting the unacceptable and methods like the use of narrative power to reach our counterparts in meaningful ways that will change hearts and minds over time.

Remember: their intransigence is actually a sign of the weakness of their position.

As with a cult member, you don’t challenge the entire belief system at once; you instead work on points of weakness which will cause them to question and ultimately abandon their adherence to the cult.

Or at least become less likely to constantly pop off about it with the over-the-top false confidence of extremist ideological indoctrination.

Have you had an interaction (on Facebook, at work, or anywhere else) with someone about guns recently?

Tell us how it went! Email us at connect@hearyourselfthink.org. We want to know what’s working to reach people and help figure out the best methods and practices to have powerful and effective conversations that will bend the curve back toward reason, decency and sanity in the American discourse.