Fake News
For over a decade I have been hearing about fake news. The Republicans blame the media; the Democrats blame the Republicans. Personally, I blame them all. But my problem, while stemming from what I am seeing in my newsfeed on Facebook, has mushroomed into a much larger issue.
ART IMITATES LIFE
During one of the recent seasons of the series Homeland, the story developed into one of the characters (a CIA operative) going undercover to an IT job interview where he is rather quickly hired and escorted five stories below the main level of a building to an open floor plan room filled with computer generation staff. What are they generating? Those posts we see on Facebook. He reports back to the lead agent and informs her that while he was aware that this type of thing was being done, he was unaware that it was on this large a scale and worse, that it was being done in the US. So we have art imitating life.
POWERPOINT 101
I have suspected for quite some time that I could take a picture of anyone, insert some would-be quote and post it to have it circulate throughout my newsfeed on Facebook and if it were sensitive enough material, incite people to actually hate the individual in the picture. It’s not hard at all.
BEING IN PRINT DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE
I was born in the 50’s and although taught to not believe everything you read – it really doesn’t work that way. If you see it in print, people tend to absorb it. However, now, students are being taught “critical thinking” so that we all make an attempt to discern just what we are looking at. Does it make sense? Is it a reliable source? Etc.
The quantity of fake news or propaganda has reached overwhelming proportion. I cannot scan anything anymore without at least every other piece leaving me questioning
- Who posted this?
- Why am I seeing this?
- What is the goal of this?
I have concluded that the content is all but meaningless. If both the left and the right have these propaganda machines manufacturing the news in an attempt to stir the pot – the only thing it could accomplish is making it to where no information has any credibility. Therefore, if I say that this person did something dishonest….true or not, it cannot be sold anymore because no source of information has any credibility. When this happens, people second guess everything.
WHO ARE YOU?
As if this not enough, friend requests are coming to me from those I am already friends with as well as those I am not. I have adopted the practice of responding via messenger and asked “How do we know each other?” It’s a simple enough question – tell me anything that will let me know that you are who you say you are. In over 90% of the cases, I get no response back. So much for them.
TURNING THEM LOSE
Now combine this information with the new policy in NYC to release so many offenders without bail, and the ‘news’ that these offenders will be issued Metro tickets, vouchers for living expenses, etc. We are smack dab in the midst of a society where we cannot trust any piece of news we come by and we are unable to convict anyone of breaking any of our laws. Everyone must fall under the same measurement of law. Without it, anarchy is just the tip of the iceberg.
WHY?
Ask yourself why? Why are rules no longer being enforced? Why are those who break the law being rewarded with assistance that those operating within the law are not granted? Why is our airwaves and internet being flooded with fake news?
Let me hear your thoughts?
R-O-A-R!!!!!!