This is an appendix for the book Truth-Based: Defeat Manipulators in Debates, Interviews, and Conversations. Throughout the book, I recommend some reading and resources related to the topic at hand. This appendix is a collection of those and some additional entries. Although it appears in the Kindle edition, I omit it from the hard copy and direct readers here. This will enable me to update or expand it if time permits.
Appendix C: Suggested Reading, Resources Mentioned
Links to Sections of This Appendix
Whistleblowers, Fact Checkers, and Journalists
Outreach to Hate Group Members
Skepticism, Debunking Psychics
Mass Incarceration and its Costs to Society
Algorithms and AI as Civil Rights Issues
Political Interference with Science
Government-Based Religious Discrimination
Political Perspectives: America in Crisis
History: How America Got This Way
= = = = =
Progressive Advocacy
People for the American Way
Founded to fight right-wing extremism and build a democratic society.
PFAW.org
Whistleblowers, Fact Checkers and Journalists
Union of Concerned Scientists
Advocacy and resources for accurate non-politicized science.
https://www.ucsusa.org/
Politifact.com
Support for fact-checking, scorecards for politicians.
https://www.politifact.com/
The Marshall Project
Supporting journalists who work to overcome pressure against covering whistleblowers’ stories.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/
WhistleBlowers.org
An organization safeguarding whistleblowers and investigating governmental abuse.
https://www.whistleblowers.org/
Dr. Frederic Whitehurst
Learn about the life and work of Dr. Frederic Whitehurst (including his FBI lawsuit) at Whistleblowers.org.
https://www.whistleblowers.org/members/dr-frederic-whitehurst-whistleblower/
Outreach to Hate Group Members
Parents for Peace
This organization helps link families with ex-members of hate groups whose experience with these groups put them in a special position to communicate with the family member. This group has a hotline, site lists resources.
https://www.parents4peace.org/
Video about the group:
“Exiting Extremism”: Parents For Peace Help Hate Group Members Turn The Page | Hallie Jackson
MSNBC, Apr 16, 2021,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCDuOPuJ4MY
Scholarships
Heather Heyer Foundation
Heather Heyer, the activist killed by a White Nationalist’s act of terror is survived by her mother who, along with a very accomplished board, offers scholarships through the Heather Heyer Foundation.
https://www.heatherheyerfoundation.com/
Election Reform
FairVote.org
FairVote.org is a nonpartisan organization seeking better elections for all. We research and advance voting reforms that make democracy more functional and representative for every American.
https://www.fairvote.org/
See “Further Reading and Resources,” especially Gehl and Porter’s book The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy
Skepticism, Debunking Psychics
James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF)
Randi’s webpage provides resource links and articles. The organization offers grants to “non-profit groups that we believe are promoting activities that encourage critical thinking and a fact-based world view.”
https://web.randi.org/
Some Items from the Author
Yourell.com
The author’s website.
http://www.Yourell.com
Trump’s Georgia Call, Color Coded
Color-coded Trumpspeak: An analysis of Trump’s lengthy call to Georgia officials trying to get them to throw the election. Zoom out and you’ll see a sort of heat map of how his strategies shift over time.
Starts with snippets plus explainers, then the full transcript color-coded. Funny, yet disturbing analysis of his deep technique.
http://www.yourell.com/blog/trump-color-coded-georgia
Mass Incarceration and its Costs to Society
Equal Justice Initiative
The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.
https://eji.org/
The Hidden Cost of Incarceration
Dec. 19, 2019, Nicole Lewis, Beatrix Lockwood, The Marshall Project
Mass Incarceration Costs $182 Billion Every Year, Without Adding Much to Public Safety
The Equal Justice Initiative, Feb. 6, 2017
https://eji.org/news/mass-incarceration-costs-182-billion-annually/
Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration
Emily Bazelon, 2020
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3at52zH
Algorithms and AI as Civil Rights Issues
FairTrials.org
Fair Trials is an international NGO that campaigns for fair and equal criminal justice systems.
Related publications by FairTrials.org
Criminal Justice by Algorithm Part I: Predictive Policing
Tuesday, 13 Oct 2020
https://www.fairtrials.org/criminal-justice-algorithm-part-i
Part II: Pre-trial detention, sentencing and probation
https://www.fairtrials.org/criminal-justice-algorithm-part-ii
Griff Ferriss
The author writes on the subject.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/g__ferris
Center for Humane Technology
www.HumaneTech.com
Non-profit works to align technology with the public good. Provides public education, support for technologists and tech leaders, and informing policymakers.
Political Interference with Science
Union of Concerned Scientists
Some of their resources list abuses of science. I list three below that cover time periods beginning from 2004. They describe malfeasance such as pressure to change the results of studies to pander to industry at the expense of our health.
Abuses of Science: Case Studies: Examples of political interference with government science documented by the UCS Scientific Integrity Program, 2004-2009
Union of Concerned Scientists, Aug. 4, 2014
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/abuses-science
Obama administration scientific integrity issues
Union of Concerned Scientists
Attacks on Science
Union of Concerned Scientists, Published Jan. 20, 2017, updated Aug. 13, 2021
Includes filters for agency and type of attack.
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/attacks-on-science
Government-Based Religious Discrimination
Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods before Me: Why Governments Discriminate against Religious Minorities
Jonathan Fox, Cambridge University Press, March 12, 2020
The book, “examines the causes of government-based religious discrimination (GRD) against 771 minorities in 183 countries over twenty-five years.”
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3CyF8Y9
At Cambridge.org (access required)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/thou-shalt-have-no-other-gods-before-me/D6E81BE696A66494A28320D4480172DB#
Humor
George Carlin - Euphemisms
George Carlin’s bit on euphemisms is an extended example of using a list format in humor and rhetoric. (Trigger alert: Old-school, non-PC concepts included.)
https://youtu.be/vuEQixrBKCc?t=216
TylerVigen.com
Humorous abuses of statistics
http://www.TylerVigen.com
Paramilitary Policing
Rise of the Warrior Cop
Radley Balko
About police using the so-called no-knock warrants. The author is an investigative journalist.
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3mMTtKY
How Police Became Paramilitaries
Michael Shank
At New York Review of Books
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/06/03/how-police-became-paramilitaries/
At George Mason University, Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution
https://activity.scar.gmu.edu/articles/how-police-became-paramilitaries
Anxiety Help
Getting Past Your Past: Take Control of Your Life with Self-Help Techniques from EMDR Therapy
Francine Shapiro, 2013
Kindle: https://amzn.to/2WECJuL
EMDR Toolbox: A Powerful Strategy of Self Through Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy
Brittany Forrester, 2020
Audible: https://amzn.to/2YfCbw9
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook
Edmund J. Bourne
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3mJsLmv
Water Issues
Superman’s Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About It
Erin Brockovich, 2020
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3DznXpI
Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont
Robert Bilott, 2019
The story that inspired the major motion picture Dark Waters, starring Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway.
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3kDqmqT
Election Reform
An Immodest Proposal from Gehl and Porter
There’s no shortage of proposals for how to fix politics, but I offer this one as a model. It is clear, outcome-focused, based on successful applications in other countries or situations, and has the potential of gaining support from powerful people. One of the incentives for this proposal is that businesspeople are getting sick of the cost of competing to buy votes. There’s much more to it, but I had to mention it.
Their book:
The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy
Katherine M. Gehl, Michael E. Porter, et al. (Harvard Business Review Press, 2020).
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3wwdlDF
Hardcover: https://amzn.to/3k4bvHd
They have various resources at their website:
GehlPorter.com
https://gehlporter.com/
Gehl offers resources on her website as well:
KatherineGehl.com
https://katherinegehl.com/key-issues/
Harvard Business School posted this detailed paper (PDF):
Why Competition in the Politics Industry is Failing America: A strategy for reinvigorating our democracy
Katherine M. Gehl and Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business School, Sept. 2017
They talk about it on YouTube:
Katherine Gehl and Michael Porter: Why Competition in the Politics Industry is Failing America
Commonwealth Club of California, April 2, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XlfKkmjqSo
Power
Who Rules the World?
Noam Chomsky
Kindle: https://amzn.to/2WEC4cn
The Craft of Power: The Fusion of Eastern Mysticism and Western Pragmatism — A Philosophical and Strategic Guide to the Uses of Power
R.G.H. Siu, 1984.
Free at the Internet Archive (commercial version is out of print). Very much based on historical events up to the 1980s.
https://archive.org/details/The_Craft_of_Power/mode/2up
Influence, Rhetoric
Influence and Pre-suasion, by Cialdini, are special books in this category.
Winning Minds: Secrets from the Language of Leadership
Simon Lancaster, 2015
This book is about persuasive rhetoric. The first chapter alone was worth the price of the book.
Kindle: https://amzn.to/38nrtp4
Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion
Dr. Robert B. Cialdini, Harper Business; Expanded ed., 2021
This book delves into influence techniques. It’s very readable and full of examples and principles.
“Robert Cialdini has done the impossible: he has improved a masterpiece. The new version of Influence is a marvelously rich and engaging account of the subtle power that people exert on each other.” — Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize laureate and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow and Noise
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3jsSz4g
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade
Robert B. Cialdini, 2016
Also by Cialdini, this includes priming.
“The acclaimed New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller from Robert Cialdini—‘the foremost expert on effective persuasion’ (Harvard Business Review)—explains how it’s not necessarily the message itself that changes minds, but the key moment before you deliver that message.”
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3juDi2V
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know
Malcolm Gladwell, 1st edition, 2019
“Another Gladwell tour de force... intellectually stimulating... Readers expecting another everything-you-think-you-know-is-wrong page-turner will not be disappointed.” ― Kirkus Reviews
“Inspiring and motivating...Gladwell is a wunderkind and a saint...He takes on racial division, incompatible perspectives, and emotional dissonance without ever sounding preaching or proud. The stories make you think.” ― John Brandon, Daily Beast
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3t1A4XZ
Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds (Leadership for the Common Good)
Howard Gardner, 2006
Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner explains what happens while changing a mind—and offers ways to influence that process.
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3gMqeEh
The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge
Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann, 2011
“In this seminal book, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann examine how knowledge forms and how it is preserved and altered within a society. When first published in 1966, this systematic, theoretical treatise introduced the term social construction, effectively creating a new thought and transforming Western philosophy.”
Kindle: https://amzn.to/2WzvRhZ
Red Pill: Radical History
A People’s History of the United States
Howard Zinn, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, reissue edition, 2015
Now updated, this classic has sold over two million copies. Tells the history you don’t learn about from mainstream sources.
Kindle: https://amzn.to/2SZUHGm
Hardcover: https://amzn.to/2UFifAH
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
James W. Leowin, 2018
“Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book. It is both a refreshing antidote to what has passed for history in our educational system and a one-volume education in itself.” ― Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3AM6ol8
Hardcover: https://amzn.to/3hSMc8n
Political Perspectives: America in Crisis
America: What Went Wrong? The Crisis Deepens
Donald Bartlett and James B. Steele, 2020
The best, most famous, long-lived investigative journalism team of Bartlett and Steele have over four decades of experience documenting issues undermining Americans’ well-being. It was updated for 2020 and includes recommendations for action.
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3AIYSHP
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3k2qT77
Predatory Leadership: Are Nations Getting the Governments They Deserve?
Chris Simms PhD
Dr. Chris Simms teaches at Dalhousie University, Faculty of Health, School of Health Administrations. He has contributed to international health on various boards including the International Journal of Clinical Practice.
This reader consists of articles drawn from publications that the author produced over the last 20 years. The focus is on healthcare inequities but describes a network of forces that coalesce into bad outcomes for the populations they affect.
Kindle: https://amzn.to/2T0apkL
Political Terrorism: A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data Bases, Theories, and Literature, 1st Edition
A.J. Jongman, 2017
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3DujrJl
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3kAqHLa
What’s Wrong with America? How the Rich and Powerful Have Changed America and Now Want to Change the World
Jonathan Neale
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t1hmzD
History: How America Got this Way
Washington’s Nightmare: A Brief History of American Political Parties
B. Scott Christmas
This book gets a lot of raves from being interesting but brief, considering the scope it takes on. The author has a degree in European History. Readers feel they gained a lot of insight.
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3AQRQR0
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3xvVePp
The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
Barbara Wertheim Tuchman
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Barbara W. Tuchman, author of the World War I masterpiece The Guns of August, grapples with her boldest subject: the pervasive presence, through the ages, of failure, mismanagement, and delusion in government. Readers say her work is engaging and suspenseful.
Kindle: Random House, 2011 (originally published in 1984)
https://amzn.to/36rANqR
Hardcover: Knopf; 1st edition, 1984
https://amzn.to/3hPZUZM
Who’s Running America?
Thomas Dye, 8th edition, 2015
Thomas R. Dye is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Florida State University. He was formerly McKenzie Professor of Government.
This book has been updated over decades, using statistics and other means to identify who is running the government and how. His model is described as oligarchical.
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3htzRsk
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3e5NQCB