It is hard to discuss a political party's creation of an alternate reality for its supporters without discussing political issues or showing bias toward one party and its alternative reality-based community. We don't want to venture too deep into this realm for two reasons.
First, we do not want to distract from our primary mission of creating, promoting, and supporting educational programs and our cornerstone project to support the Maker Community.
Second, as a 501(c)3 charity, we promised the federal government that we would not engage in "political campaign activity."
Thus, we should not post topics about candidates or their campaign positions on issues.
However, we can discuss legislative actions, evaluate and advocate for a specific need, especially for changes that directly support our core mission.
Nonprofits are permitted to and should engage in advocacy. Lobbying and legislative activities, a small subsect of advocacy, are not the same as political campaign activity and are treated separately under the law. -National Council of Nonprofits
Virtual Reality, Minecraft, Game Design, Story Ideas
There are many topics for projects that incorporate alternate realities. My interest in AI started when I was a freshman in college. In 1977, AI was a challenging academic pursuit in a computer science field filled with theorists and a lab filled with punch card machines.
Al Williams
I wrote a MLB baseball simulator. The Mets won every simulated season. -George
That was 47 years ago. Since then, my little home on the Arpanet has become a tiny blip on the Internet. I know because I helped build it, and I have always considered the Internet a virtual reality.
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. -Peter Steiner, 1993, The New Yorker
Bush, 2004, We Create Our Own Reality
In 2004, the Bush campaign set out to create an alternate reality in which it could communicate with its supporters. The opposition could not win over those supporters by speaking to "facts" of policy positions because there were now two worlds, and those facts didn't exist as a truth in an alternate reality.
The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. -Unnamed White House aide to Ron Suskind, 2004, New York Times.
Moreover, the 2004 GOP strategists had a long-term plan. Once their opposition figured out the nature of the GOP base's alternate reality, the GOP would have moved their supporters to a new world. Catch us if you can.
And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do. -Unnamed White House aide to Ron Suskind, 2004, New York Times
Alternate Reality Elects a President?
Immediately after the 2024 presidential election, pundits jumped into action to analyze how the Democrats lost. A theory that caught my eye was that the GOP base is living in an alternate reality.
This Ipsos poll has its critics, notably pointing out that all the questions asked were correct in favor of the Harris campaign. However, I think it is entirely credible to state a thesis that the Trump base believes in incorrect positions, and it is legitimate to dive deep and examine why.
A Historical Perspective and Challenge
My wife has read articles and books published by American historian Heather Cox Richardson, but she stopped short of accusing me of mansplaining her background and her analysis of the new world order created by the election results. I stumbled into learning about Richardson through her guest appearance on Jon Stewart's vlog.
A fascinating discussion, IMHO -George
Harkening back to the 2004 statements of the Bush campaign, Richardson questions what can be done to bring our divided nation back to a world where political positions are grounded in truth.
Republican lawmakers no longer had to live in the reality-based community because they could create their own reality, and I don't know how you politically combat people making decisions based in fiction because fiction can always be changed. -Heather Cox Richardson, 2024, The Weekly Show
Our Corporate and My Personal Plan
I plan to create a watch list of legislative issues and publish our corporate position on those related to our public-benefit, charity-backed mission.
George Boyce
I plan to post about everything else on the opinion page of OurVermontLife.
George Boyce
