(I will begin this post by stating to the reader that this post will be unlike most other posts on this blog. I will not necessarily be talking about my children. I will be discussing the world in which my children will be growing up. And since I cannot post this stuff on any other forum I will do so here. Because I can do whatever I want here.)
... the truth? Whatever happened to research?
I spend a majority of my days - primarily between January and April - doing research. I read and research things nonstop. And as it turns out it's been the perfect job for me because I love researching. I love either proving or disproving something right or wrong, respectively.
This decade has seen the come-uppance of Facebook and the Internet like no other decade. Information - right or wrong - is available to anyone at the touch of a keyboard. A person can find information on the Internet that agrees with their positions - truthful or not - and then send it out to their friends, post it on Facebook, post it on their blog ... and then the word is truth. And then if someone cares to, they can open up the Internet and type in even just a few words into a search engine and, typically, the article that incited the search will appear, along with several other articles stating how accurate or inaccurate the information is. I'm not sure that my words are clear, so allow me to show an example -
On Friday, September 7, 2012, a "friend" of mine on Facebook posted this article:
Exclusive: America Warned of Embassy Attack but Did Nothing
When I read the headline I thought, man, that sounds terrible. And it sounds kinda weird. Why would our president and his cabinet members ignore a warning about an attack and ignore it? I hope this isn't true. I'm going to have a hard time continuing to support (publicly and personally) our President if this turns out to be true. I noticed it was from a publication I'd never heard of, but I'm not up on ALL the publications out there. What difference could that possibly make.
So I went to a search engine and typed in some key words within the headline and the article. As expected, the original article appeared. And then, so did this one directly underneath of the original:
Right-Wing Media Echo Story Attacking Obama on Libya
Without boring you with all the details, the article I found goes on to state that the original article is from a conservative rag in Britain (not even a local = American) paper that printed an article without any matter of fact. So then, the conservative base saw it and ran without doing any of their own research and BOOM!!! It turns out that it's completely false.
So as a conservative American I would have LOVED to read the headline of the first article - as I'm sure my "friend" did, too. But what would have struck me as odd would have been the source. So I would have researched it. And discovered that no matter how much I dislike our president and no matter how much I wanted the original article to be true, I wouldn't have posted it to my Facebook page as though it were true because then, I'm continuing the lies that are out there.
But that's not what people do. People don't take the time to research things. They hear something, overhear something, and restate it as though it's fact. They take no time to figure out if it's accurate or not. Because in this decade whoever gets to it first gets it first. And that, for some reason, is important. Not the truth, not getting it right, but being first with ANY information out there.
One more -
Another Facebook "friend" posted this picture:
I hope I've made a point and not just ranted continually on and on.
I understand that not everyone is on the same side politically. I understand that some people don't like the president. I didn't like the previous administration, but that doesn't mean I told lies about them or the president.
It's called the truth. It's called research. It's called honor. If you think your candidate is the better choice and can do a better job running this country, than allow him to run on those merits. Don't make shit up just because you don't like the other guy.
And one more thing - just because I'm not a conservative doesn't mean I'm unpatriotic. I love America. I don't like that the conservatives have found a way to make it unamerican to vote opposite their beliefs.
Seriously. I'm done on this one. And in keeping with the theme of this blog, how cute is THIS?!?
... the truth? Whatever happened to research?
I spend a majority of my days - primarily between January and April - doing research. I read and research things nonstop. And as it turns out it's been the perfect job for me because I love researching. I love either proving or disproving something right or wrong, respectively.
This decade has seen the come-uppance of Facebook and the Internet like no other decade. Information - right or wrong - is available to anyone at the touch of a keyboard. A person can find information on the Internet that agrees with their positions - truthful or not - and then send it out to their friends, post it on Facebook, post it on their blog ... and then the word is truth. And then if someone cares to, they can open up the Internet and type in even just a few words into a search engine and, typically, the article that incited the search will appear, along with several other articles stating how accurate or inaccurate the information is. I'm not sure that my words are clear, so allow me to show an example -
On Friday, September 7, 2012, a "friend" of mine on Facebook posted this article:
Exclusive: America Warned of Embassy Attack but Did Nothing
When I read the headline I thought, man, that sounds terrible. And it sounds kinda weird. Why would our president and his cabinet members ignore a warning about an attack and ignore it? I hope this isn't true. I'm going to have a hard time continuing to support (publicly and personally) our President if this turns out to be true. I noticed it was from a publication I'd never heard of, but I'm not up on ALL the publications out there. What difference could that possibly make.
So I went to a search engine and typed in some key words within the headline and the article. As expected, the original article appeared. And then, so did this one directly underneath of the original:
Right-Wing Media Echo Story Attacking Obama on Libya
Without boring you with all the details, the article I found goes on to state that the original article is from a conservative rag in Britain (not even a local = American) paper that printed an article without any matter of fact. So then, the conservative base saw it and ran without doing any of their own research and BOOM!!! It turns out that it's completely false.
So as a conservative American I would have LOVED to read the headline of the first article - as I'm sure my "friend" did, too. But what would have struck me as odd would have been the source. So I would have researched it. And discovered that no matter how much I dislike our president and no matter how much I wanted the original article to be true, I wouldn't have posted it to my Facebook page as though it were true because then, I'm continuing the lies that are out there.
But that's not what people do. People don't take the time to research things. They hear something, overhear something, and restate it as though it's fact. They take no time to figure out if it's accurate or not. Because in this decade whoever gets to it first gets it first. And that, for some reason, is important. Not the truth, not getting it right, but being first with ANY information out there.
One more -
Another Facebook "friend" posted this picture:
... and when I saw it I thought, man ... that's TERRIBLE. WHY would a president take away from the military early voting? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard! So I typed into a search engine some key words and found this article ... he's not OPPOSING the rights the military members have to vote early, he's just hoping to restore those days to ALL residents of Ohio, unlike the republican-led legislature in Ohio, that passed a law to close early voting in Ohio for local citizens:
I hope I've made a point and not just ranted continually on and on.
I understand that not everyone is on the same side politically. I understand that some people don't like the president. I didn't like the previous administration, but that doesn't mean I told lies about them or the president.
It's called the truth. It's called research. It's called honor. If you think your candidate is the better choice and can do a better job running this country, than allow him to run on those merits. Don't make shit up just because you don't like the other guy.
And one more thing - just because I'm not a conservative doesn't mean I'm unpatriotic. I love America. I don't like that the conservatives have found a way to make it unamerican to vote opposite their beliefs.
Seriously. I'm done on this one. And in keeping with the theme of this blog, how cute is THIS?!?
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| DECEMBER 2009 AUGUST 2012 |