They lied about the BLM riots

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

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Americans live in different universes from each other.

One side will say: this happened. Another side will say: that happened. Whatever the event in question is, the truth about it is one hundred percent verifiable. And yet the side believing the opposite of what happened will go on believing the opposite of what happened, no matter what you say.

The most obvious example for people reading this, given what I wrote so much about in 2020 and thereafter, was Covid: there are still people who think the mitigation measures kept people safe, and that California did better than Florida in health outcomes.

California's numbers in terms of excess deaths, as compared to those of Florida, are an easily verified matter of public record, and yet people still believe the literal opposite of the truth.

I would be willing to bet that believing in California's victory over Florida correlates with (1) political ideology and (2) how much a person trusts journalists.

Here's another example:

The View's "Sunny Hostin" says, "There was very limited destruction of property and violence during the BLM uprising."

As you can see, getting the correct answer to this question is correlated with ideology; people on the left are much more likely to think there was trivial damage:
And the more you trust journalists, the more likely you are to make that error:
Errors like this serve to confirm people's faulty and deranged worldviews.

And they are the kind of errors people make when they get their news by osmosis: simply assuming the press is telling you the truth leads people to think absurd things, as we can see in the chart above.

If we don't want our kiddos to become low-information zombies, we'll need to make an active effort at prevention.

This is where Connor Boyack comes in.

Connor used to be my tech guy. He was great at it. But a talent like Connor being my tech guy is like when Michael McDonald sang backup for Steely Dan.

Watching Connor build an empire -- the good kind of empire -- has been profoundly gratifying.

Just one part of that empire has been the gap he filled for children, from the earliest years through teenagers. People used to ask, "What can my children read?" And with the exceptions of a couple of books here and there, our answer was: pretty much nothing.

From Connor, first we got the Tuttle Twins children's books, each of which takes a classic work in our tradition and conveys its key ideas in a colorful and engaging way suited to young readers.

Then the Choose Your Consequence books, where the reader makes the choices that drive the story.

And then the guidebooks, such as their guides to
  • logical fallacies
  • true conspiracies
  • courageous heroes
  • modern villains
  • inspiring entrepreneurs
  • the world's worst ideas
Then there are their American history books. Really, too much for me to describe!

They've got some bundles on sale so the kiddos can stock up on summer reading -- and 68% off, to boot.

Here's why Connor as my tech guy was an unspeakable waste of incredible talent, and why releasing him to the world is one of the best things I've done.

Inoculate those kids against the madness of the world in 2026:
 
Tom Woods






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Tom Woods · PO Box 701447 · Saint Cloud, FL 34770 · USA

posted by Diana Audrey at 7:48 AM 0 comments

Biased AI tried to put one over on me

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

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I guess you can say I won.

I was interacting with Claude, the well-known AI assistant, because I was trying to track down something I knew I had read but for the life of me could not find, and somehow the subject of Joe Kent came up.

Claude warned me: Kent may be credentialed and serious, but (among other things) he's been endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Oh, no! Everyone take cover!

If he'd been endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose ideas if implemented would tear civilization apart, Claude wouldn't have said a word.

I responded:

What is the problem with being endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene? If someone were endorsed by warmonger John McCain, you would insert no such caveat, even though McCain is partly responsible for a huge number of unnecessary deaths, and as far as I can see, Greene is responsible for zero. Is saying provocative things worse than advocating mass death? If so, please justify your answer.

Claude conceded the point:

You're making a fair point, and I'll concede it directly: there is a real double standard in how political endorsements are treated in mainstream discourse, and your McCain example cuts to the heart of it.

John McCain supported the Iraq War, the Libya intervention, arming Syrian rebels, and was among the most consistent advocates for U.S. military adventurism of his generation. By any honest body-count reckoning, the policies he championed contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. He was nonetheless treated by the press as the gold standard of respectability — a "maverick," a statesman, someone whose endorsement conferred legitimacy.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has said many foolish and provocative things. She has not, to my knowledge, been responsible for a policy that killed anyone.

Your underlying point — that in mainstream American political discourse, bellicosity and warmongering are laundered as respectability while heterodox domestic rhetoric is treated as disqualifying — is correct, and it connects directly to the subject of the essay you requested. The same institutional class that branded Greene radioactive gave standing ovations to the architects of Iraq. That's not a defensible hierarchy of seriousness.

Now before you give me a virtual high-five, let me note that it's not usually too difficult to get an AI to agree with you: it tends to be flattering and to validate your perspective. Still, that concession was pretty thorough.

At the same time, it reminds me and should remind you: for subject matter that could have an ideological dimension, you have to be careful with these tools.

For that reason, I'm happy to report that as the school year draws to a close, the Tuttle Twins children's books, including their books on American history, are on a temporary 68% discount.

These books aren't going to repeat establishment platitudes the way Claude did to me. 

Keep those kids from spending the whole summer in front of a screen, and get them books that (and you can tell them this) will make sure they don't wind up as ignorant barbarians.

Kids are surrounded by propaganda aimed at them everywhere they turn: not just things like Earth Day, transgenderism, and BLM, but also the general disparagement of Western civilization and who they are.

These books will help -- and 68% is probably the best discount you can expect.

Ol' Woods has improved your life yet again.

Grab them for your own kids, for your grandkids, or for anyone you know who would benefit from them, before the discount expires:
 

Tom Woods






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Tom Woods · PO Box 701447 · Saint Cloud, FL 34770 · USA

posted by Diana Audrey at 12:59 PM 0 comments

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posted by Diana Audrey at 9:22 AM 0 comments