When Facts No Longer Matter
Building on an earlier post about how our education system has failed us, this was today's encounter:
Someone I am acquainted with through playing Facebook games posted one of those right-wing anti-Hillary Clinton memes. My general policy is I don't bother with stuff people post on their own page. However, this person and a bunch of her friends had ganged up on another mutual friend who had pointed out that it was a lie.
I went over to Snopes. Something I try to do before I share anything (and check it elsewhere if I don't get an answer there. If I have doubts, I don't share.) There it pointed out that there was a shred of truth to the original post, but as usual that grain of truth had been twisted and blown out of proportion. Trying to support the mutual acquaintance I posted the Snopes link and pointed out how the grain of truth had been twisted and blown out of proportion.
It doesn't matter. I had facts and it didn't matter. These people "know" things that no one else in the country knows. They know more than investigators. They know more than journalists. They know more than people who were involved in the events that took place. They know all these things. Facts presented to them do not matter. They are unable to produce facts themselves. Usually it's something they heard somewhere and therefore now they "know" it.
The way I see it, it's one of two things. Either they are so embodied by their hate (or misogyny, or racism, or whatever the root cause) that they have to simply believe all the bad things or it would cause the precarious foundation they have built their concept of the world on to crumble. They have to believe that teaching Creationism in schools and having prayers will somehow make their children competitive in the rest of the world when it comes to jobs. As much as I am a person of faith, I don't know of anyone who prayed to pass a test they didn't study for and succeeded. But to them, bad things only happy to people who deserve it, therefore it will never happen to them. Allowing for the fact that it could happen to them goes beyond their comprehension.
Someone I am acquainted with through playing Facebook games posted one of those right-wing anti-Hillary Clinton memes. My general policy is I don't bother with stuff people post on their own page. However, this person and a bunch of her friends had ganged up on another mutual friend who had pointed out that it was a lie.
I went over to Snopes. Something I try to do before I share anything (and check it elsewhere if I don't get an answer there. If I have doubts, I don't share.) There it pointed out that there was a shred of truth to the original post, but as usual that grain of truth had been twisted and blown out of proportion. Trying to support the mutual acquaintance I posted the Snopes link and pointed out how the grain of truth had been twisted and blown out of proportion.
It doesn't matter. I had facts and it didn't matter. These people "know" things that no one else in the country knows. They know more than investigators. They know more than journalists. They know more than people who were involved in the events that took place. They know all these things. Facts presented to them do not matter. They are unable to produce facts themselves. Usually it's something they heard somewhere and therefore now they "know" it.
The way I see it, it's one of two things. Either they are so embodied by their hate (or misogyny, or racism, or whatever the root cause) that they have to simply believe all the bad things or it would cause the precarious foundation they have built their concept of the world on to crumble. They have to believe that teaching Creationism in schools and having prayers will somehow make their children competitive in the rest of the world when it comes to jobs. As much as I am a person of faith, I don't know of anyone who prayed to pass a test they didn't study for and succeeded. But to them, bad things only happy to people who deserve it, therefore it will never happen to them. Allowing for the fact that it could happen to them goes beyond their comprehension.
The other possibility is they know they are wrong, but their egos won't allow them to admit it. Perhaps it is that they know they are more ignorant of things in the world, but they can't accept that. They, like Donald Trump, have to believe they know better than our military leaders how to handle ISIS. It's the anti-education movement that's gone on. Instead of spending your life trying to learn all they can, they decided to lock it up and call it good. Instead of saying "let me read what I can about this from different sources" they turn on the TV and let Faux News tell them what to think, or start watching Alex Jones videos so they can believe there's a great government conspiracy against them.
As if our government was capable of the kind of things these people think they are capable of. One minute we are so inept we let soldiers die in Benghazi, the next we are secretly planting chips in people's brains and FEMA is digging graves to bury people.
But I digress. The point is, somewhere in the education process, we lost the teaching of fact checking. Here is a belief. Where are the facts to support it? Simple as that. What is a fact? We've also lost the ability to admit we might be wrong about something and change our opinion. I will be the first to admit that 30 years ago, I had some very different opinions than what I have now. As time goes on, things change, you learn more, things happen, and how you look at something changes. It is a natural part of life, unless you decided when you were 20 to slap a sticker on your opinions and call them good for the rest of your life. If that's the case, it's quite an ignorant position. Everything changes through the years.
A fact is a fact. It is a fact that Columbus sailed west looking for India in 1492. However, over the years it's become more debated as to whether he really "discovered" the New World or not. That is an example of how things change. It is a fact that the Colonies and England went to war in 1776. Did France really believe in us, or were they helping themselves by helping us? These are the nuances of history where facts and opinions differ. It's okay to change you opinion. Its okay to have doubts about what you think you "know."
What's not okay is when people deny facts. That is why the rest of the world is laughing at us.
As if our government was capable of the kind of things these people think they are capable of. One minute we are so inept we let soldiers die in Benghazi, the next we are secretly planting chips in people's brains and FEMA is digging graves to bury people.
But I digress. The point is, somewhere in the education process, we lost the teaching of fact checking. Here is a belief. Where are the facts to support it? Simple as that. What is a fact? We've also lost the ability to admit we might be wrong about something and change our opinion. I will be the first to admit that 30 years ago, I had some very different opinions than what I have now. As time goes on, things change, you learn more, things happen, and how you look at something changes. It is a natural part of life, unless you decided when you were 20 to slap a sticker on your opinions and call them good for the rest of your life. If that's the case, it's quite an ignorant position. Everything changes through the years.
A fact is a fact. It is a fact that Columbus sailed west looking for India in 1492. However, over the years it's become more debated as to whether he really "discovered" the New World or not. That is an example of how things change. It is a fact that the Colonies and England went to war in 1776. Did France really believe in us, or were they helping themselves by helping us? These are the nuances of history where facts and opinions differ. It's okay to change you opinion. Its okay to have doubts about what you think you "know."
What's not okay is when people deny facts. That is why the rest of the world is laughing at us.
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