(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Demystifying Project 2025 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-10-02 We’ve all heard about Project 2025, but many people have not taken the time to look into it. No wonder, at over 900 pages it makes great reading when you are suffering a bout of insomnia (assuming that you don’t end up with nightmares). It would be more approachable if each chapter contained an executive summary outlining the major points or plans, and then briefly but clearly expounded on those points in the text. The major stumbling block to accessing information in the volume is its organization. The table of contents lists 5 main sections: “Taking the Reins of Government; The Common Defense; The General Welfare; The Economy,” and “Independent Regulatory Agencies.” Each section has a listing of government departments or agencies responsible for activities related to those topics. A reader unfamiliar with the US Government’s organization who is looking for information on the Project’s plans for the National Weather Service (14 mentions) or abortion (198 mentions) must do a text search of the PDF document to find information. Unlike most educational resources, such as the open access college textbook American Government, 3e, Project 2025 lacks an index, which means that users cannot quickly find information on plans for a government agency, much less a particular issue, such as abortion or tax policy. Two indexes have been developed by outside organizations to make Project 2025 more accessible. The Autonomy Institute, “an independent, progressive research organisation [sic]” has developed the Project 2025 Index. This alphabetical index contains over 4,700 entries from A-share (mainland China), to ZTE [a Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer] as well as a list of entries starting with numbers (e.g. 5G). Each entry includes one or more links to the topic Project 2025. When a user hovers over a page link in this index, a pop-up window shows a brief summary of information on that topic in Project 2025. For example, hovering over the link to page 455 next to the words “aborted fetal cell lines” shows the following text: “The document criticizes the CDC’s use of aborted fetal cell lines in COVID-19 vaccine development due to conscience-based objections, recommending research alternatives to these cells.” In essence, this site provides the executive summary that is missing from Project 2025. Another index that provides access to Project 2025 is 25andMe. This site was developed with AI by Rajat Paharia, a former Google project manager. The site states that it “was created to help you quickly understand how Project 2025 could affect the things you care about.” It is divided into 25 categories that people might be concerned about, such as reproductive rights or health care. In addition to these indexes, several guides to Project 2025 have been developed by organizations to help demystify and explain the ramifications of its proposals: The People’s Guide to Project 2025 was developed by Democracy Forward, a national legal organization. The Guide is a 48 page summary of how Project 2025 would impact the lives of ordinary Americans. Project 2025: Exposing the Far-Right Assault on America is from the Center for American Progress, a non-partisan policy institute. It contains interpretive summaries of how the Project would impact various Federal programs. It also contains state fact sheets on how Project 2025 would impact individual states; there are no fact sheets for US Territories. Project 2025 Explained is available from the American Civil Liberties Union. This guide provides a brief description of Project 2025 and a brief summary of how various aspects of its agenda could affect civil rights. All of these sites might be of interest to people who want to learn more about Project 2025, but are reluctant to read the complete 900 + page tome, which is summed up nicely by the old saying “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, you baffle them with [manure].” If anyone else has some suggestions for additional sites that provide a more accessible summary of Project 2025, please feel free to contribute them through the comments. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/10/2/2274317/-Demystifying-Project-2025?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/