I’m not recruiting you for a team jersey. I want better decisions from me, from you, and from the people we elect.
Carl Sagan put it plainly near the end of his life: if we can’t ask skeptical questions, interrogate those who tell us something is true, and stay skeptical of authority, were up for grabs for the next charlatan — political or religious — who comes along. (Charlie Rose, 27 May 1996.)
We’re buried in decisions and short on time. Power already uses AI for marketing and counts on us not doing our homework. Ordinary people can flip that: use AI so truth gets shorter and quicker — then still verify. That is the power of AI in a citizen’s hands. Think of fire: in good hands it cooked our food and warmed our homes and raised the quality of life; in evil hands it burned what good people built. AI is the same — not magic. Used for homework, it helps us see. Used for propaganda, it misleads faster than a TV ad ever could.
How I keep from getting played by the AIs
1. Ego = 0. Searching for truth = 1.
2. Primary source over viral summary.
3. Keep context (read around the clip).
4. Separate specific claims from inflated generalizations.
5. Run more than one strong AI, then check the sources yourself. (I use three under Nova on Grok Bot — they help research; they don’t get the last word.)
The longer method is How I Determine Truth on Facts for Reality.
I applied that habit to California’s November ballot.
Proposition 40: Facts First — Then Decide is the worked example — a source-checked one-pager. Not “trust me.” Trust the statute and the Legislative Analyst. Notice where an earlier draft was wrong and got fixed. The handout does not urge Yes or No. It shows the method: verify first, decide, show up.
Prop 19 (2020) is the cautionary tale in the handout: enough truth to finish the story for you, while the costly part lives in fine print. Same marketing pattern shows up on Prop 40’s one-time tax vs ongoing programs. Read the handout. Push back where I’m wrong.
This is not a single-vote project. Elections end; the habit shouldn’t. When were busy defending “our side” against “their side,” we stop demanding good governance from anyone — and the birdcage stays locked while we fight inside it.
Mrs. Gheighan, my sixth-grade teacher, created the way I look at the world around me: “Question all that you hear, read or see, whether it is from them, or from us.” That habit — with the power of AI in citizen hands — is what produced this homework with my AI team.
— Ross Howell (rossabh)
Facts for Reality / America Is More Than a Nation
P.S. Suggest improvements. Comments and corrections welcome.