We can’t have, like, willy-nilly proliferation of fake news. That’s crazy. You can’t have more types of fake news than real news. That’s allowing public deception to go unchecked. That’s crazy. Elon Musk (1)
A few years ago, I heard a university student’s presentation of their senior paper. I was taken aback to hear descriptions and statistics about how good life was in the former USSR.(2) I knew people whose relatives lived in the USSR at the relevant times, and their accounts of what life was like did not match the descriptions.(3) Afterwards, I asked where they got their information and was told from government publications. When I commented that Soviet government public statistics were not reliable, they countered that it was a government source and was in writing. I was stunned. Putting something in writing does not make it right.
The Soviet newspaper Pravda was known for printing what the government wanted to say, which was typically not the truth.(4) Pravda was fake news.
Fake news doesn’t have to be just lies, although there are lies. Fake news is deceptive. You don’t get an accurate picture of what happened or what’s going on from reading or hearing fake news. You do get selected portions that may or may not correspond with what happened. Or you can get false information while the accurate information is withheld.
Like the Benghazi Attack on September 11-12, 2012.(5) According to Susan Rice, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, it was triggered by a verbally violent video that attacked Muslims. My reaction was that free speech rights carry the responsibility to not harm. For example, you can’t cry “Fire!” in a crowded theatre. If your speech is defamatory, you face a civil lawsuit and an order to pay significant monetary damages. (As well as paying all those legal fees.) If what you say or write promotes hatred of or violence against various groups of people, that’s a crime, and you can be criminally charged.
However, what the Obama administration, and in particular Susan Rice, said was a bald-faced lie. When I discovered I had been deceived, I was angry. I had been led down the garden path to a place that didn’t exist. I began to take what the Obama administration and the media were telling me with the proverbial grain of salt.
With the 2016 presidential election and all the noise about “alternative facts” and “fake news,” the term gaslighting has seen a surge in popularity. (If our confidence in our trusted news sources can be shaken fully enough, it becomes easier to consolidate power and authority by filling our head with distortions. Classic gaslighting.) (6)
These days, we need to apply a bushel of salt to what politicians and the media are telling us. Check it out. Where are they leading — or misleading — you?
When it’s political, check out both sides. Are the politicians and media on one side are using the same words and phrases? Do they sound as if they’re literally reading from the same page? Are they parroting each other? If so, it’s probably fake news.
You need to get more than just one side. (Even coins have two sides.) When you start looking at additional sources, the picture may get confusing. Don’t give up. A few years back, I was talking with an insurance claims adjuster about how people “see” things. He told me that when he speaks with the eye witnesses to a car accident, he will get as many different accounts as there are people. Because each person saw the accident from their own perspective, their own viewpoint. One person might be worried about the doctor’s visit they’re going to. Another person might be reliving their wonderful night. Another might have been slightly dozing until the loud crash jolted them. However, he said that when he looked at each person’s statement and put them all together, an accurate picture of the accident would emerge. Not everyone had the whole picture; each person had their own piece of the puzzle.
I must warn you, though. Fact checking fake news can be fun. And finding out that the terrible horrible awful things they’re telling you are false can be a relief. Find out that the terrible things aren’t happening lifts a weight off your shoulders. As a bonus, you might just find out that there are things you can do to make things better for yourself. That’s not something to be sneezed at (or sneered at).
Fake news contains lies, deceit and manipulation. They all distort reality. The speaker/writer, of course, knows what is distorted and what isn’t. The listener/reader doesn’t. When it happens to you, at best you “see” things through a mist or fog. At worst, you “see” something that isn’t there. Something that’s not real. Something that’s fake.
Notes:
- as found on BrainyQuote.com found at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/deception-quotes on January 9, 2021.
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
- I will allow that life in the USSR might have been “good” for those who wrote the government publications.
- Ironically, “pravda” means truth.
- The film, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, sets out the Benghazi attack from the viewpoint of two of the security contractors. It can be found on amazon.com at https://amzn.to/3bq3Jn2 and on amazon.ca at https://amzn.to/39g4TPg.
- Stephanie Moulton Sarkis, PhD, Gaslighting: Recognize Manipulative and Emotionally Abusive People — and Break Free (New York: Da Capo Press, 2018) at p. 1. This book exposes how gaslighting works and what gaslights do to get you in their control and keep you there. It can be found on http://amazon.com at https://amzn.to/3nvZZmn and on amazon.ca at https://amzn.to/35qWirX. Gaslighting is all about control and power.
