So I've decided that the "worst" thing about this country these days is the idea that people can just make shit up and pass it off as fact--and that clueless yahoos with no critical thinking or analytical skills will just blithely accept and swallow it all.
There was a recent article in The Atlantic entitled "Truth Lies Here" (click HERE for the article--it's short by Atlantic standards!), that was both illuminating and appalling in terms of the current war on truth. They started with an example of a Tea Party rally in DC in September '09 where approx. 60K-75K people showed up. But conservatives weren't happy with that low number and right-wing bloggers distributed a photo showing that there had actually been 2 million attendees!
The only problem is that it turns out the photo was of another rally some years earlier--and was easily proved due to the absence of a new, major museum.
And then there's ACORN. As you probably know, this group was forced to disband last year after virulent and basically racist attacks led by Glenn Beck and Andrew Breitbart. Unfortunately, even after numerous investigations showed that the "secret sting footage" had been heavily doctored, it didn't keep the agency's doors open. Just before the group was shut down, ACORN Director Bertha Lewis said, "Our vindication on the facts doesn't necessarily pay the bills." What, you say you never heard they were vindicated? Oh well, who cares about that?
Even more amazingly, when pigs like Breitbart are called on their shit, they don't back down. Breitbart was also the one who led the charge to get rid of USDA official Shirley Sherrod after another conveniently "re-engineered" video made her appear to be a racist. Most disgustingly, when the white farmer and his wife who were discussed in Sherrod's speech came forward to defend her and clear the air, Breitbart had the gall to respond, "You're going off her word that the farmer's wife is the farmer's wife?" Um, what?
A final recent & appalling example comes from that wretched Gretchen Carlson on Fox "News." She ran with a story about a school "banning" the use of red & green for the holidays. Poor Gretchen almost choked on her indignant outrage--even though it turns out the story was completely made up. (Click HERE for a fun, brief report on this from "The Colbert Report").
And of course STILL there are ignorant people out there who believe Obama is a Muslim, or was born in a foreign country. These are simple fallacies, easily discredited, and yet people continue to believe it just because some slobbering ignorant racist said it was so!
The only "plus" side to the rampant swallowing of obvious lies amongst so many people is that it helps me finally, FINALLY understand--to a small extent--how so many German people could have been so "easily" duped and manipulated by Hitler. The question is, how far will we let it go before we stand up and do something? I guess I'll see when I start working next year on my own party/group.
Anyhooo, the Atlantic article is nicely balanced as it also discusses the role of Wikileaks regarding exposing truth and talks about how with so many people (c'est moi!) having access to the internet, and able to post and share and make up stuff, well it's just all very exciting!
Especially when you have openly mocking sites like ChristWire with people actually believing the obviously ironic things like "gay marriage promotes pet-on-pet rape!" As one of the founders told New York magazine: "People believe anything they read on the Internet."
So I'd like to try a little "social experiment" and am asking folks to help me spread a made up, but just plausible enough, "fact." I've polled a few friends and they came up with some suggestions. I'm asking you to vote via commenting on this blog post, or e-mail me, or Facebook me or whatever. In a few weeks, I'll let you know which new made up fact won and ask for help in spreading it. Feel free to offer other choices for folks to vote one:
1) Glenn Beck blew one of his fraternity brothers during a hazing episode--only he did it WAY longer than he was "required" to do and, in fact, said he'd be willing to suck another guy off. But only to "prove" how much he wanted to be in the frat!
2) For something maybe a tad more believable, but not quite so risque, a suggestion was made that Beck is having a kinky affair with Ann Coulter.
3) Mark Zuckerberg has webbed feet
4) The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is trying to kill your grandchildren and/or seeking to quietly repeal child labor laws.
5) Sarah Palin had a lesbian "fling" in college.
6) Rush Limbaugh (or Glenn Beck or Andrew Breitbart) is on Social Security disability (for paranoid schizophrenia)
7) A disgruntled Hidden Valley Ranch factory worker has been....um...."pleasuring himself" into the vat of Ranch dressing for 12 years.
Once we choose one, your job is to work this "fact"/story into any opportunity you can find. Mention it in response to FB postings, bring it up at cocktail parties, write outraged letters to Fox demanding Beck be dismissed for his "perverted" behavior, etc.
It'd be fun to see not only if this gets picked up, but if you hear it from someone else!
Finally, click HERE to see this year's list of the top political lies! (thanks Brian!)
If I read that the US Chamber of Commerce was trying to repeal child labor laws, I'd probably believe it! That's got my vote.
ReplyDeleteWhen you listed the lies of the recent past, you forgot the biggest lie campaign of them all: the efforts to convince people that global warming isn't happening. And I'm not surprised this didn't occur to you. The vast majority of people who have NOT fallen for the lie ignore the issue.
ReplyDeleteIt's incredible how many people have fallen for that lie, despite the mountain of evidence proving that warming has been happening over the last few decades, despite the undeniable effects of the warming, despite virtually every scientist in the field saying it is real, despite prediction after prediction coming true (often ahead of time). How is this possible?
People ask the same question about Nazi Germany. Hitler duped the German people partly because he told them things they wanted to believe (that they were superior to everyone else - the master race, for example) and partly because Hitler borrowed sophisticated American advertising techniques for his propaganda methods. The same thing is happening here and now, with techniques that have been honed for decades more. People don't want to believe the world is warming and that it's because of our activities. People don't want to believe the horrible things that are coming because of this. People don't want to believe we are all responsible for this. Most who aren’t in obvious denial want to ignore all this and hope ignorance will make it go away. That makes the job of the deniers so much easier. That is exactly how Hitler did it. But this time the lives of billions are at risk, not just millions.
The Chamber of Commerce is one of they key powers behind the campaign to confuse Americans about the greatest threat we face. So I vote for the story that the Chamber of Commerce is trying to kill our grandchildren. They literally ARE trying to kill our grandchildren, by delaying the fight to stop global warming until it is too late. I'm voting for this one, because it is completely true, yet it’s so outrageous that nobody will believe it, any more than Germans believed they were responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people. In the future, those that survive will ask themselves how we could let this happen. This is how.