It seems to me there are two kinds of people: those who watch/listen/read about the news and those who don't. Those that do, generally divide into the political teams that most news junkies play for, the liberals and conservatives, or more simply, Ds and Rs. A subgroup of each of these are the real cranks, the folks whose sympathies lie on one side or other, but who believe nothing they hear/see/etc., even if it's coming from their own team.

Our household is definitely of the watch/listen/read variety; we've taken the Bangor Daily News for 45 years, and read it from front page to comics page religiously, as well as, at various times, the Courier Gazette, Camden Herald, and Republican Journal, Maine Times (remember that one?), and lately, online Penbay Pilot, Village Soup, and parts of the New York Times and Washington Post. 

Most nights we watch local and national news on the networks, often followed by MSNBC's Hardball, etc. Ooops. I gave it away, the team we play on. Just as many of our neighbors and friends follow up with Fox, and that's their team.

According to Eli Pariser, Lincolnville native and author of The Filter Bubble: “People have always sought out news that fits their own views. But when you turn on MSNBC or Fox News you know something is being left out. And the problem with the way that this is all happening is that most people don’t even know this kind of filtering is happening at all. The idea that these companies are deciding and editing out some results isn’t obvious, and so you don’t know what’s being left out, and you don’t have a good picture of the world. The second problem is that what I call ‘autopropaganda.’ You are basically indoctrinating yourself with your own views and you don’t even know it. You don’t know what you see is the part of the picture that reflects what you want to see, not the whole picture. And there are consequences for democracy. To be a good citizen, it’s important to be able to pout yourself in other people’s shoes and see the big picture. If everything you see is rooted in your own identity that becomes difficult or impossible.” — from a 2011 interview with Techland.

As we've all become more sophisticated in the way the Internet works, this doesn't come as “news” any more. Why do I suddenly get ads for products or services I've just researched? How does Google know I'm a knitter, like cat videos, or even that I live in Maine? If it knows this much about me, then it's logical that when I search an issue, say gun control, that the first site to pop up is “Here's what you can do about gun control in America.” If one of my Fox-watching neighbors were to use the same search term, do you think he'd get that site?

The big news on the national scene at the moment is the Presidential preprimary brouhaha. You only know this if you're among those who watch/listen/etc., and even some of us (not this household, I'm afraid) manage to block out all mention of the Presidential hopefuls. It's hard, though, to avoid the Congressional meltdown or gridlock or whatever it is, the resigning Speaker, the Syrian refugees, the bombed hospital in Afghanistan, the heroin epidemic in Maine, the Trans-Pacific Trade agreement, the latest school shooting — in Oregon this time — shall I go on? Once you let this stuff into your life and into your mind it can take over. Since most of us bring our own team's narrative to our understanding of the issues, what is being left out of that narrative? How are they spinning it?

One issue that seems to beg for more clarification is the drug war. Most of us have a general sense of drugs and that knowledge includes the following: drug dealing leads to violence, using illegal drugs leads to addiction, our jails and prisons are full of people with drug convictions. A recent book, Chasing the Scream, by Johann Hari, starts at the drug war's beginning, which he dates to nearly 100 years ago, and follows it through to today, detailing the wreckage it's wrought on both society and on the individuals involved. This is the kind of book that speaks to both of my “teams”, revealing the blind spots, the half-truths and outright lies each of us, no matter our ideology, hold to be gospel.

Another recent book, this one on climate change, This Changes Everything, by Naomi Klein, is in the same category. Our librarian, Sheila Polson, got the book for me through interlibrary loan. This is a great way to get current books, ones you might have heard or read of. Call, 763-4343, or email Sheila with a request. You can keep thebook for three weeks, and just pay postage when you return it to her.

Hacked and scammed

So it happened to us. Just last Saturday the computer screen suddenly turned blue and a phone number appeared, urging that we “call this number. Don't turn off the computer or all your data will be lost!!” it warned. You think you'd never fall for it, but then you do. You call the number, some guy named Sam with a thick accent answers (but all the computer help guys have those accents, right?) and boom! He's in. Inside your computer, looking all around.

“You're completely unprotected,” he says, “This is a 2008 computer. You need a firewall. I can set you up for $399. Card number?”

And yes, you give it to him (these guys are good, remember)... and then you realize — it's a scam. You shut off the computer. You call the credit card company. In fact, the charge Sam's already put on your card is $999.99! The card company removes the charge and cancels your card. Thank goodness.

Hours later you realize your second big mistake. All your passwords are neatly arranged in an Excel file conveniently named “Passwords.” Even though Sam was only “in” for five minutes at the most, it was probably plenty of time for him to copy your entire hard drive. Including that Excel file. The information to access your bank accounts was in that file. Another frantic phone call, this time to Camden National, tells you that, thankfully, your money's still there.

“Get your computer cleaned,” the bank advises.

And so, today I'm working on a laptop (no photos this week as they're all sitting on my compromised computer) and feeling lucky to have escaped this easily from what could have been a real mess.

Apple Talk at Library

John Bunker, MOFGA orchardist, will trace the history of Maine apples at the Lincolnville Library this Wednesday, October 7, 7 p.m., including the Fletcher Sweet, Lincolnville's own variety, discovered on Moody Mountain Road in 2002. John's passion is tracking down heirloom fruit varieties, most of which end up in the Maine Heritage Orchard on the MOFGA grounds in Unity. The talk is free. For more information, call 763-4343 or email.

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