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Awake in the Margins

@awakeinthemargins.bsky.social
17 followers 12 following 97 posts

I follow the lie until I find who benefits from it. That’s the job. Every post, every episode and every fact check comes back to that one question: who benefits if you believe this? Join me: awakeinthemargins.substack.com

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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The “Incredible Summer for American Travel” Was Mostly a Summer of People Cutting Back. Here’s what really happened to American travel this summer and how a private complaint about bad numbers turned into a public victory lap.
awakeinthemargins.substack.com
The “Incredible Summer for American Travel” Was Mostly a Summer of People Cutting Back
Trump posted that Americans had an incredible travel summer. Real data tells a different story.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The Split Screen: Trump Says the Economy is Great, But His Own Party’s Midterm Ads Say Otherwise Republicans have been in charge in Ohio since 2011, Iowa since 2017 and Texas since 2003. They’re campaigning against a crisis their own party presided over. But their boss says everything is great.
awakeinthemargins.substack.com
The Split Screen: Trump Says the Economy is Great, But His Own Party’s Midterm Ads Say Otherwise
Trump has spent weeks telling a national audience that the economy is booming, prices are falling, and that affordability concerns are a “hoax,” a “made up word” and a “con job.” At the same time, as ...
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The Illusion Only Works If You Believe It: Inside Trump’s “Sold Out” Convention RNC 2026 Midterm Convention: Empty Seats, Anonymous Donors, $2M Taxpayer Bill.
awakeinthemargins.substack.com
The Illusion Only Works If You Believe It: Inside Trump’s “Sold Out” Convention
RNC 2026 Midterm Convention: Empty Seats, Anonymous Donors, $2M Taxpayer Bill.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Trump Says He Helped After 9/11. The Record Shows He Took $150,000 Instead. Trump, you’ve been bragging online about 9/11 and your involvement. If you hadn’t been bragging so much, I might never have looked into it. But you did, so I did, and what I found was more damning than I expected.
awakeinthemargins.substack.com
Trump Says He Helped After 9/11. The Record Shows He Took $150,000 Instead.
You brought this on yourself, Donald.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
America is Supposed to Be a Democracy. Right Now, it Runs Like it’s Built for the 1%. The requirements to run for president fit in one sentence, but the system runs on a different rulebook where the wealthy decide for the wealthy, instead of everyone deciding for everyone.
awakeinthemargins.substack.com
America is Supposed to Be a Democracy. Right Now, it Runs Like it’s Built for the 1%.
The requirements to run for president fit in one sentence, but the system runs on a different rulebook where the wealthy decide for the wealthy, instead of everyone deciding for everyone.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The park-money diversion hurts trails, sure, but it also hits small gateway towns, seasonal workers and disabled visitors first. And the same mechanism could hit disaster relief or veterans’ funds next. New post on the real costs and the bigger threat. awakeinthemargins.substack.com/p/this-isnt-...
awakeinthemargins.substack.com
This Isn’t Just About Parks. It’s a Blueprint for Looting Any Public Fund.
The last 1.1 miles up Old Rag’s Ridge Trail are the kind of climb that turns a hike into a handshake.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Russia is helping Iran kill American soldiers. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz was asked whether that had stopped. He said "OK." No follow up. We have decided one word is acceptable from the people running a war. It's not OK.
open.substack.com
'The Clear Winner Is Vladimir Putin.' Follow the Money and You'll Understand Why.
Think about the last time “OK” was an acceptable answer to a serious question.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
The Pentagon says this Iran war costs $37.5 billion. Turns out the real number is closer to $1 trillion. Share this with someone who still thinks this war is cheap.
open.substack.com
The $37.5-Billion Lie and the $1-Trillion Bill Nobody's Showing You
Pentagon says the Iran war costs pennies. History and math say otherwise.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The Trump admin is facing record Cabinet-level turnover — higher than any administration in modern history. The same administration that fired federal workers for inefficiency cannot keep its own Senate-confirmed appointees. The people running the government are leaving the government.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Gas is back above $4. Mortgage rates hit 6.5% for a 30-year fixed loan. Treasury yields are at their highest since inauguration day. Newt Gingrich predicted a "gangbuster economy" by July 2026. It is July 24. Should we file a missing persons report for this gangbuster economy?
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
This morning, Trump defended the ICE tactic that is killing innocent people. Every death, every forced disclosure and every “clearly false” finding from an oversight investigation is weight on a scale strongman politics has no way to lighten. It can only get heavier until something under it gives.
open.substack.com
Trump Just Doubled Down and Defended the Tactic That’s Killing Innocent People
At 6:45 a.m.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Tuesday: The Senate finally stood up to Trump on the Iran War. Wednesday: They flipped ... again. The most significant congressional rebuke of presidential war powers in American history lasted 30 hours. This is what it feels like to be represented by people who work for him instead of you.
open.substack.com
Courage Has a Shelf Life in the U.S. Senate. It's About 30 Hours.
At approximately 12:30 p.m.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
The most truthful think Trump has ever posted on Truth Social may be the question mark after "We will fix it?"
substack.com
Nicole Wisniewski (@nicolecwisniewski)
The most truthful thing he’s ever posted may be the question mark after “We will fix it?”
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that sets in when you have watched someone announce the same thing so many times that the announcement itself becomes the event. The Boy Who Cried, 'Ceasefire!' open.substack.com/pub/awakeint...
open.substack.com
The Boy Who Cried, 'Ceasefire!'
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that sets in when you have watched someone announce the same thing so many times that the announcement itself becomes the event.
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Reposted by Awake in the Margins
The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 09/06/2026
Trump got called out on his lies? Time for his singnature move: a hissy fit
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
An educated public is the only threat the Trump administration cannot neutralize. Here are four ways they're trying to manage that “problem.” open.substack.com/pub/awakeint...
open.substack.com
The War on Knowing Things
The Trump administration doesn't need to ban the news. It just needs you to stop trusting it.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Trump: Small Businesses Are 'Finally Being Treated Right,' But 74% Are Worried About Surviving the Next Year. Someone is Lying.
open.substack.com
Trump: Small Businesses Are 'Finally Being Treated Right,' But 74% Are Worried About Surviving the Next Year. Someone is Lying.
The "golden age" is not what they are selling at the White House during Small Business Month.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
The White House Calls Obama a "Classless Moron" for Quoting the Constitution. You don't deploy the entire White House communications apparatus against a man who isn't running for any office ... unless what he said is true.
open.substack.com
The White House Calls Obama a "Classless Moron" for Quoting the Constitution.
The White House loses its mind over a man who isn't running for anything, holds no political office, sang with toddlers and is opening a presidential library.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
These women showed up, dominated and got erased. We won't let that happen here.
open.substack.com
They Already Had Their Locker Room Moment. He Just Wasn't Watching.
The U.S. women delivered the most dominant Olympic performance in a generation. Their president made them a punchline.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
The same federal law enforcement system that gave a child sex trafficker “concierge services” without consequences now operates the largest child detention apparatus in recent American history. When you start asking what’s happening to those children, the answers get very disturbing very quickly.
open.substack.com
The Children Nobody's Protecting: When the Agents Who Enabled Epstein Now Control Thousands of Kids
A look into CBP corruption, child detention and the oversight that doesn't exist.
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David Pakman @davidpakman.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Yes, Trump’s SOTU was riddled with lies, and yes he was clearly visibly declining as the speech went on, and yes it was embarrassing and humiliating. But the most devastating part was how irrelevant and pointless the speech was in terms of communicating ANYTHING about reality today.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Trump talks about how much he hates Democrats, hates the media, hates the left. So I counted it. 245 times he used the word "hate" in January. He talked about hate 20x more than healthcare. If you're spending time hating, you don't notice your costs haven't gone down. Full breakdown in link.
open.substack.com
What Trump Actually Cares About: Hate and Himself
I coded every one of Trump's Truth Social posts in January. The numbers tell you everything you need to know.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Trump posted a racist video depicting the Obamas as apes. Left it up for 12 hours. Then blamed a staffer. This isn't incompetence. It's a tested strategy. I mapped out exactly how the propaganda laundering cycle works.
open.substack.com
The Staffer Defense: How Trump's Propaganda Machine Launders Accountability
Coffee's cold. Receipts are hot. Let's talk about how the presidency became a game of Three-Card Monte.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
From “the Golden Dome” to “dogsleds” to “centuries of subsidies,” this is Trumpian theater at its peak. Peel back the hyperbole, and a high-stakes chess game emerges over melting ice turning Greenland into the planet’s next resource frontier. What does Trump (and America) stand to win ... or lose?
open.substack.com
Trump's Arctic Ultimatum: Tariffs for Greenland? The Bluster Behind the Ice Cap
During his first year back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump resurrected his 2019 Greenland fixation.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Trump’s latest post about Minnesota lays the rhetorical groundwork for federal troops on U.S. streets, and the consequences would ripple far beyond the state.
open.substack.com
It Never Begins With Tanks: How Words Prepare the Ground for State Violence
Trump’s latest post about Minnesota lays the rhetorical groundwork for federal troops on U.S. streets, and the consequences would ripple far beyond the state.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Trump’s Truth Social post tries to fuse an old lie (“2020 was rigged”) with a fresh conspiracy theory (“Somali fraud scandal = blueprint for Democrat election theft”), then sells voter ID as the cure. The narrative is designed to justify more voter suppression, not to “protect” elections.​
open.substack.com
From Minnesota to Your Ballot: Trump’s Plan to Turn One Fraud Story into a War on Voting
Trump’s Truth Social post this moraning tries to fuse an old lie (“2020 was rigged”) with a fresh conspiracy theory (“Somali fraud scandal = blueprint for Democrat election theft”), then sells voter I...
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Trump’s Gas Price Fantasy and the Real Cost of His Health Care Spin Agent Orange is at it again. Dissecting today's pulp fiction from our president.
open.substack.com
Trump’s Gas Price Fantasy and the Real Cost of His Health Care Spin
We caught him orange-handed ... again. Orange you glad this got fact-checked?
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Unpacking Trump's Mortgage Math I'm fighting propaganda one post at a time. What the orange Cheeto says vs. the truth. The lies -- both big and small -- are too damaging. It stops now.
open.substack.com
Unpacking Trump's Mortgage Math
Grabbing my red pen (actually, an orange Sharpie feels more appropriate) to fact-check President Donald Trump’s mortgage post like a middle school essay.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
32 deaths in ICE custody in one year. That’s the deadliest year in more than two decades. Meanwhile, official reports cite “heart failure” and “natural causes,” even in filthy, overcrowded facilities. How many more euphemisms will we use to hide what’s happening behind locked doors?
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
ICE’s own standards forbid shooting at moving cars. Yet in case after case, federal agents fire anyway ... and we only learn what happened from leaks or grieving families. If federal accountability is internal only, isn’t that the definition of impunity?
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Since Donald Trump took office, 32 people died in ICE custody — the deadliest year in more than two decades. Additionally, federal immigration agents shot and killed at least four people in the streets. Most people don’t know this... because the federal government doesn’t make it easy to find.
open.substack.com
Killed in Custody. Killed in the Streets. How ICE Became America’s Most Unaccountable Police Force
In 2025, two different kinds of human suffering unfolded under the auspices of U.S.
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 08/01/2026
BREAKING: ICE shooter identified as Jonathan Ross. www.startribune.com/ice-agent-wh...
startribune.com
Star Tribune identifies ICE agent who fatally shot woman in Minneapolis
Jonathan Ross was dragged in a separate incident last year by a fleeing driver, according to court records.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
America Last While officials talk about “defending Americans,” Washington is tightening sanctions, issuing oil licenses, seizing assets and positioning military power across the Caribbean — all of it paid for by taxpayers who never voted on a war, a blockade or a decade-long entanglement.
open.substack.com
America Last
They’re flooding your feed with tales of security, drugs, strength and riches from Venezuela. None of it holds up to the math of who pays, who profits and why your bills keep climbing.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Mar-a-Lago Was the Door. Epstein Was the Room. Silence Is the Lock.
open.substack.com
Mar-a-Lago Was the Door. Epstein Was the Room. Silence Is the Lock.
Picture this: Mar-a-Lago’s spa, a humming hub of young women in uniforms, quietly dispatching employees — often young girls — to Jeffrey Epstein’s nearby Palm Beach mansion for “private massages” and ...
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
They Shot a Mother Who Tried to Pull Away ... And No One Wants to Admit It
open.substack.com
They Shot a Mother Who Tried to Pull Away ... And No One Wants to Admit It
There are so many holes, unanswered questions and false narratives in this story. And, yet, a U.S. citizen's life was needlessly lost, and it feels like little is being done about it.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
The White House Built a January 6, 2021 Lie — And You Paid for It...
open.substack.com
The White House Built a January 6, 2021 Lie — And You Paid for It
Fact checking their tax-payer funded lies ... and 4 simple ways to fight back.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
“Inconceivable!” the word echoes across generations — once whimsical, now bitterly prophetic. How could it be that this theater of cruelty is still running, night after night? #robreiner #donaldtrump #princessbride
open.substack.com
The Storyteller Who Taught America How to Care
What Rob Reiner knew about truth that Donald Trump never will - a story set in six scenes inspired by Reiner's movies.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
They Redefined ‘Family.’ Here’s Why It’s a Warning Sign for Millions.
open.substack.com
They Redefined ‘Family.’ Here’s Why It’s a Warning Sign for Millions.
There’s a special kind of spin that feels almost holy in its confidence — the kind that takes a word everyone thinks they agree on and quietly rewrites its meaning behind your back.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
A+++++!?!? Are you f-ing kidding me?! Out here in the economy the rest of us live in, people aren’t grading with crayons. They’re grading with receipts, crushed under the weight of groceries they can’t afford, insurance premiums that are climbing like ivy and rent that swallows half their paychecks.
open.substack.com
Trump Just Graded the Economy A+++++ (Yes, 5 Pluses). Americans Give It a Failing Grade.
There’s lying on your report card.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Authoritarian movements have always loved a unified color story, too, only their palettes marched with uniforms and torches instead of hashtags. The point is the same: narrow the spectrum and insist there is only one correct color for the future.
open.substack.com
Tone-Deaf: When One Company Tries To Color-Code Our Feelings ... and Gets it Horribly Wrong
Pantone’s Color of the Year is vibes with a corporate logo: a mood ring for late capitalism, shrink‑wrapped into a single paint chip and sold as emotional guidance.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
If we believe strategy should reflect who we are, not just what we fear, then we should stop calling this document what it calls itself. Because strategy without values is not strategy at all.
open.substack.com
The National Security "Strategy" That Buries American Values
Winston Churchill once warned, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
This President Can Never Stay "On Topic" We have a president who turns every topic into “me, myself and I” when what this moment desperately needs is a leader who can stay on topic long enough to answer to us, not just talk about himself.
open.substack.com
This President Can Never Stay "On Topic"
A reporter asks President Donald Trump a question and, for a split second, there’s hope.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
#MegynKelly Says #Epstein “Wasn’t a Pedophile.” The Outrage Is the Point. Outrage is a business model. Kelly knows that. #FoxNews knows that. Political influencers know that. And Epstein’s victims — real people with real trauma — become props in a content strategy.
open.substack.com
Megyn Kelly Says Epstein “Wasn’t a Pedophile.” The Outrage Is the Point.
Why Megyn Kelly wants you arguing about “what counts as pedophilia” instead of facts.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
People don’t just disagree politically. They genuinely see different universes. And when your daily life is shaped by “which reality wins today,” it becomes a constant fight for grounding. You’re trying to figure out what’s real, what’s true and who to trust … and the #stress is real.
open.substack.com
Why Our Shared Truth Is Fraying ... and How to Stay Centered
Lately, watching the news feels like living on fractured ground.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
And somehow, through the smoke and mirrors of this manufactured narrative, we are told the #Epstein files, which contain names from every level of power, every ideology and every corner of elite influence, are a partisan invention … a Democrat hoax. Yeah. Sure.
open.substack.com
When Everything Is a ‘Democrat Hoax’
The collapse of shared reality around the Epstein files.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
What Happened to Knowing Right From Wrong? #epstein #jeffreyepstein #epsteinfiles
open.substack.com
What Happened to Knowing Right From Wrong?
When teens are treated like adults and predators get political cover.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
No-Spin November: Follow a credible historian for perspective. No democracy can survive if citizens are kept in the dark or willingly distracted by deceit. Keep learning, stay grounded in facts and don’t let weaponized confusion strip you of your power.
open.substack.com
How Trusted Historians Can Help You Cut Through Spin
If there is one lesson No-Spin November should teach us is that knowledge is power.
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
No-Spin November Day 3 Challenge: Learn How to Check Whether a Post or Video is Real or AI-Generated #AI #misinformation #mainstreammedia #socialmedia #artificialintelligence #real
open.substack.com
When Outrage Is Engineered: How Fox News Got Fooled by Racist AI Videos About SNAP Benefits
This weekend, Fox News ran a viral and incendiary story featuring videos of Black women supposedly raging about losing their food stamp (SNAP) benefits due to the government shutdown. The headline scr...
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
No-Spin November Day 5: balance your news diet by pausing to read or share something that restores your faith in humanity. Yesterday, listening to victory speeches and feeling that positive energy from new leaders reminds us that, even when fear is loud, goodness still spreads quietly, vote by vote
open.substack.com
Restoring Faith in Humanity: One Vote, One Act, One Story at a Time
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu
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Awake in the Margins @awakeinthemargins.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Dissecting the 60 Minutes Trump Interview: Edits, Lies and the Vital Role of Fact-Checking - No-Spin November Day 4 Challenge: check your facts before posting, sharing, etc. There are many fact checking sites out there to utilize! I list a few of them here.
open.substack.com
Dissecting the 60 Minutes Trump Interview: Edits, Lies and the Vital Role of Fact-Checking
On Nov.
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