Our Failed Democracy; Life Without Facts

To quote Edgar Allan Poe from The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, "...but the time will arrive when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is going on in the world, without trusting to the gossip of others. Believe nothing you hear, and only one-half that you see."1

Edgar Allan Poe

And then there is this quote from Sergeant Schultz of Hogan's Heroes fame.

          General Burkhalter: Enough! I don't want to hear any more of your lies.  

          Sgt. Schultz:  That's the only one I had. 

Ah, if only the White House would run out of lies.  Truth represents one of the cornerstones of our democracy.  Without truth, our democracy cannot stand.  Truth is essential for our citizens to make informed decisions when selecting our representatives.  Truth is paramount for our voters and elected officials to make the tough choices that guide our democracy.  Truth is truth.  Facts are facts.  Lies are lies.  Half-truths are lies in disguise.

Separating fact from fiction used to be one of the functions of another cornerstone of our democracy, a free press.  What was once represented by words written after careful thought and then printed on paper, has evolved to words spewed ad nauseam and without verification.  These words come at us from computers, cellphone screens, and televisions.  What should you believe?

Getting back to the Poe quote, Sergeant Schultz would have added, "I see nothing."  But closing your eyes and ears is not a solution to finding the truth in order to make sound decisions.  We are assaulted today, not just by careless individuals and sloppy journalists, but by organized groups, some state sponsored, who knowingly disseminate falsehoods in order to further some agenda or to make money.  

Computers are compromised and conscripted as robots known as "bots" that are used to flood social media with misinformation.  Their sheer numbers then skew social media statistics to show signs that a certain idea is "trending".  This creates a chain reaction that further spreads the disinformation.

Adding to this assault of lies, half-truths, and disinformation, are individuals who firmly believe that their cause or agenda is so important that the ends justify the means.  Whether it is a religious cause or principal, a search for power and influence, or just plain greed, no lie is too great to conjure.  Lies are a means to an end.

In our current environment we are compelled to now fact check everything.  Not just once or twice, but several times.  You must know your sources and only use those that have been proven trustworthy.  If you are not diligent in this effort, prepare to be deceived.  The adage to take something with a grain of salt goes back to at least 1647.  The dosage was modified in 1948 to a "pinch of salt."  I believe that the current condiment dosage must be up to at least a pound of sodium chloride.   These are devious and treacherous times.

Trump "wires tapped" Tweet

If only our Commander in Chief would use common sense.  Ignorance is not a virtue.  He has, after all, access to some of the world's most sophisticated intelligence services.  For him to make a serious criminal accusation against a former president, without any evidence beyond what he heard on Fox News, is not just reprehensible, it is idiotic.  He later claimed that he heard it from "a certain very talented legal mind," ..., "and so you shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox, okay?" 

You should never repeat anything of importance without verification.  If you repeat it, you own it, and should be held responsible for its accuracy.  Our democratic process will not survive the current onslaught of disinformation.  Individuals need to be more responsible and social media needs to use better algorithms to identify actual "trending" topics.

On-the-job training is fine for some positions but, for the leader of the free world, we should expect at least some level of  competence.  The want ad for the president's position should not read, "No experience necessary, will train."

The president of the United States has joined the ranks of news sources that can't be trusted.  He should have never placed himself in a position where he makes a serious accusation and then has to look around to see if he can prove it is true.  He should have known at the time he made the statement, beyond any reasonable doubt, that his statement was valid and would stand up to scrutiny.  You can't blast the media with "fake news" accusations and claim that, "The public doesn't believe you people anymore," and then use them as your claimed source for important information.

This is a sad commentary of our current situation where we can't trust our president to tell us the truth.  Our democracy needs and deserves better than what we have seen from Donald Trump.  As we used to say in the Navy, shape up or ship out.

1.  It should be noted here that the  quote from Edgar Allan Poe was from the short story titled, "The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether".  The story takes place in a mental institution where it turns out that the patients are running the asylum.  They are "permitted to roam about the house and grounds in the ordinary apparel of persons in right mind".  With their System of Soothing, "The doctors have "humored" their patients by never contradicting their fantasies or hallucinations."  This would seem to be a timely and appropriate reference when we are talking about the occupants of the current White House.  We need to begin the contradiction.