22/02/2023 00:36
Facts don't take sides
Like, a cop’s knee on George Floyd’s neck.
How terrible is the inter-web? Disseminating ‘fake news’ that makes us do nasty things?
Journalists rail at the decline. Neuro-Psychologists write self-help books. Lies causing all sorts of bad behaviour. Riots. Guns. Terrorism. Confusion.
We need a plan. To make people nice again.
But see, lying hasn’t suddenly started. It’s not a recent phenomenon
Call me hard but when in history were lies not told?
Or better still, when was the news ever neutral? There are facts and there’s opinion. Opinion provides meaning. And people crave meaning.
Facts. Opinion. They intersect.
Of course, there are outright lies. Like the earth being flat, or the U.N. secretly planning to steal your money, or that Hilary Clinton is a lesbian Paedo.
There’s some pretty wild shit flying ‘round I’ll grant you that, but hey, how hard is it to tell when you’re having smoke blown up your arse?
Are you stupid or what?
See, the dissemination of news is as much a part of the political process as voting, industrial action, war and well, pretty much all of human activity.
One way or another, news gets manipulated. Facts are assembled in certain ways to tweek your bias because when it comes to bias, I’m afraid, you’re probably already there.
Ready to be lied to.
There are sides in politics and you will eventually find yourself on one or the other. Whatever the issue, you’ll have an opinion. No matter how mild, benign or reluctant.
In the meantime, the smart money is on looking for the why.
What’s in it for the liar?
The power to run things to your own advantage and that of your close personal friends.
Trains, companies, schools, mines, cities, armies.. etc..
The only danger really is when you the punter, yearn for stability above all else. To make all the noise go away.
But see that’s the thing about Democracy. Democracy is inherently noisy because it accommodates all sides.
If it didn’t, it’d be something else. Like say…
Fascism.
A bloke asked me the other day if I thought the so called ‘radical left’ would be deflated and fall apart if Trump won another term?
One of those speculative chats you can get into. Fairly useless but fun.
Sort of.
See I wasn’t sure who the ‘radical left’ were. So I looked it up. As you do. Typed.. ‘Radical left’. ‘America’…
Apparently it’s got something to do with
People in dark clothing getting on aeroplanes, going places to do bad things.
Also, ‘Dark shadows’, then, ‘ BLM’. Then, anarchists, communists..
At risk of pulling the age card.. do you know how long I’ve been hearing that last trope? Try the Vietnam war.
I said, well, I’m not sure what the radical left is exactly but when in doubt, look for the facts.