Masha Gessen again, this time on the importance of journalism and attempting to separate fact from fiction. The seemingly simple and indispensable act of distinguishing reality from fabrication involves vital stakes for determining our well-being in this an age of increasing mendacity and fake news. At the rate that we're going, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" will soon be back in circulation. We need dedicated journalists like Gessen to help us sort through the shifting and perplexing realities created by the information hurled at us daily. For all of her obvious loathing of what Trump does and stands for, she was willing to call out the weakness of the intelligence community reports on election interference--and specifically Putin involvement in the project--as weak and virtually worthless. She helps keep my crap detector calibrated.
Also, of note, she mentions Hannah Arendt's "Truth & Politics," written in 1967, during another crisis of credibility (and one from which we've never fully recovered.) Arendt's essay is next up on my (re-)reading list.
