Show 321 - Garbage In, Garbage Out

January 13, 2021·47 min·3 clips

Carlin argues the Capitol rioters made logical decisions from garbage evidence — and explains who put that garbage there.

Nixon's memoirs open the door. The host reaches back to January 1969 through April 1970, with a section centered on 1970, as more than museum history. He treats it as a warning for a country he thinks may be sliding toward another extremist stretch. The numbers are supposed to hit hard. He cites bombings, attempted bombings, bomb threats, destroyed property, and deaths to show how fast political heat can turn into real danger. Then he brings it back to now. The argument runs on a plain computer idea: false input can still produce conclusions that feel logical to the person making them. Garbage in, garbage out, folks. That line gives the monologue its shape and lets him separate routine political lying from something he sees as more poisonous. Politicians have always lied. He says that with tired familiarity, even remembering politicians who treated campaign promises as things no serious person expected them to keep. This feels different to him. In his telling, the president is not just benefiting from bad information but helping spread it. So who gets blamed? That gets messy. One false claim can move through the Washington Times, a representative from Florida, and thousands of outlets before it hardens into public certainty. The Washington Times gets named. A Florida representative gets named too. But his bigger worry is the machinery that lets weak evidence become public belief. The danger is practical. If people accept false premises from powerful people, they may decide that two plus two equals five and then act like the answer demands action. That is where the alarm comes in. He thinks a line gets crossed when misinformation from the top feeds a conflict where Americans start treating other Americans as the country's main problem. No one wins that war. The ending rejects the fight itself and asks listeners to see that a national conflict with no victory conditions only spreads damage. His remedy is less dramatic: attack the process that feeds misinformation from every side, because real information is the only way out of the logjam. The final note softens, almost turns pastoral. Truth, not factional victory, is what he says may still set people free.

As heard by us

Dan Carlin links 1970s unrest to modern misinformation with a blunt warning about political violence and civic collapse.

Dan Carlin's "Garbage In, Garbage Out" is a sharp warning about how a country talks itself toward political violence. He begins with Richard Nixon's account of 1970, a year Nixon described through bombings, threats, property damage, and deaths, then treats that period as a…

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Before you can fix where we're headed, you need to name what is fueling the fire.

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