Editorial #117 Social Media and Society
We have arrived at a time when the truth and the facts are no longer the same thing. A presidential candidate made that very apparent when he said: “We choose truth over facts.” This seems to be the new motto of the Democrat Party and the deep state.
How did this happen? It is because of the speed of search engines and social media with this technology the new normal. It allows every minor detail to be checked and exploited to promote dishonest agendas by telling us what they want us to believe.
Fact checkers is almost a contradiction in terms. They are fact changers. They re-characterize facts by picking small matters to overshadow the spirit of the statement. An example: “He lied because he said he had bacon when he actually had ham.” They make someone into a liar while the question was simply about what he had for breakfast. Then political correctness dictates it is bad manners to talk about politics or religion. They don’t want private logical discussions to question their propaganda of exposing a liar for us.
Politicians are now trying to force social media giants into fact check every paid political message before it is broadcasted. Politicians, bureaucrats and the media realize they are losing control of the national dialogue and constantly try to insert themselves into controlling that narrative. They realize that knowledge is power and the greater control they can exert the more power they maintain. They hate not being able to steer the narrative. They want to stop the voters from becoming smarter or have more information. They accuse their enemies of collusion, obstruction and tampering while they hide the evidence showing their similar behavior. Voters are easier to control if they are ignorant.
It is ironic that politicians now want service providers to throw out advertising that exposes their hypocrisy, while all their propaganda advertising previously went uncheck when it supported their agenda. Advertising has become an arms race of who can bomb the air waves with the most lies with the thinking that if shouted enough times someone will believe it.
Their objective is to operate in gray areas of the world and make everything a matter of interpretation. This happens because they do not want the question to be perfected. They do not want our value system of truth, fairness, sustainability and integrity included in the question. If any question is asked perfectly, the answer it is simply a matter of making the question into a statement. Of course if it were easy we would not have any problems remain unsolved. It is much harder to ask a good question than to find the solution to any problem.
In the past, schools were where we learned how to address problems without having to experience the problem or do research to make the right decisions. Today, the reason for schools should be to learn how to ask the right question, usually of Siri. She has access to all the knowledge in the world. The only limitation is learning how to perfect the question.
This is Keith Kube wishing you the best in making the world a better place.
Bumper: Keith has a regular commentary on WJAG 780 radio at 7:40 on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Check his website www.keithkube.com for past editorials.