Summary
The article sets a philosophical stage for analyzing information, questioning how to distinguish between critically important news and insignificant distractions ("nothingburgers"). It frames this challenge using a quote from Jacques Ellul about the nature of modern propaganda, which aims to create belief rather than just change opinion.
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•The central theme is the difficulty of discerning signal from noise in the modern information landscape.
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•The author poses the question of how to determine if a piece of news is critically important or a 'nothingburger'.
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•It references Jacques Ellul's idea that modern propaganda's goal is to create 'an active and mythical belief'.