I think my dog is paranoid. If she thinks she hears something that might be a doorbell – such as, say, clinking pots together as I prepare a meal – she launches into a paroxysm of growls and howls, races to the front door, and barks furiously at nothing at all.
The same if I happen to knock on wood. If I drop a book on the floor. If I skid my hiking boots into the closet.
Her behaviour makes me suspect she’s been watching too much social media.
Most social media postings are, in my opinion, basically Pablum for adults. Bland meaningless chat. But there’s a subgroup of users who can see conspiracies under every news report.
As a journalist, I subscribe to several non-mainstream news sources. Sometimes merely following a link, to check the authenticity of a story, is enough to put me onto someone’s mailing list for a steady stream of fear, anger, and venom.
Common theme
I’m coming to a reluctant conclusion that some inhabitants of social cyberspace are a mighty dissatisfied lot.
The most common theme of these postings is that someone is lying to us. Or cheating us. Or exploiting us.
Conspiracy theories are more than catching; they’re pandemic.
Such theories used to be about suppression of the facts about space aliens landing at Roswell. Now they’re about climate change. About the machinations of big banks and pharmaceutical companies.
And especially about the mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis.
· Claims, for example, that the Centers for Disease Control have never had any samples of the coronavirus to test or evaluate. And that therefore their containment tactics are guesswork. Based on a hoax, a deliberate deception.
· Or that there is no coronavirus at all; therefore there is no pandemic; therefore there have been no deaths that wouldn’t have been attributed to some other cause at any other time.
· That mask-wearing deprives the brain of oxygen. Therefore that making children wear masks will lead to a whole generation of mentally deficient adults.
· That Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted the pandemic; therefore he must have planned it.
· Or that he’s not really a doctor; therefore his medical advice has no value.
A grain of truth
Most recently, the conspiracy media have gone ga-ga over two papers by Li-Meng Yan, a Chinese ophthalmologistand virologist, published on a far-right website, without peer review, asserting that the coronavirus was manufactured in a Chinese Communist laboratory as a bioweapon.
Unfortunately, we can’t dismiss the rumour mills entirely. Occasionally, the alternative facts are right.
Colin Powell did lie to the United Nations about Saddam Hussein’s supposed stock of nuclear and biological weapons. Michigan officials did cover up unacceptable levels of lead in Flint’s water. Reed Paper did dump 9,000 kilograms – almost ten metric tonnes -- of organic mercury into the Wabigoon River.
Despite impassioned denials.
And sometimes there’s a grain of truth hidden within the accusations. Fauci did warn three years ago that the Trump administration would be confronted by a surprise infectious disease outbreak.
That doesn’t mean he knew what it would be, or that he engineered it – only that the U.S. medical system was not prepared for a pandemic.
It’s also true he does not deal with patients in a clinic, if that’s what “doctor” means. But he certainly is an M.D. – first in his class at Cornell Medical College – though he has spent most of his professional life in research and administration.
Underlying principle
The problem is to sift that grain of truth out from the pyramid of assumptions and implications built upon it.
The internet’s many means of spreading information have exposed the raw venality of many in responsible positions. That’s good. We no longer assume that corporate executives or elected officials will always tell the truth.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are lying, either. The allegations on Twitter or Tik Tok are just as likely to be wrong. Maybe more so.
The underlying principle on today’s anti-social media seems to be that any attack must be true. Conversely, if you’re defending something, you must have sold out to the powers-that-be.
That principle is never stated. But it seems to me a good guide for assessing the validity of what you see and hear.
There are reliable sources, such as snopes.com, where you can check media accusations.
Basic rule: when in doubt, check it out.
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Copyright © 2020 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN
Tom Watson, about the media and unprecedented actions: “It seems that for the media it's not so much deciding what events to cover, it's how to comment on them. As you suggest Fox News and CBC won't see the same thing in an event. Perhaps it's like two people sitting down to write about, for example, the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Each writer comes at it with their own set of glasses on, and will likely write diametrically opposing stories.
“By the way, for any Biblical literalists out there, that happened in the Bible too -- just compare Kings and Chronicles.
“As for corporations being thought of as persons under U.S. law in 1886, isn't it interesting that corporations were thought of as persons long before women were? (Women were not declared persons in Canada until 1929.)
Rob Brown: The notion that corporations are somehow as human as you and me is simply ludicrous. It is a piece of legal "fine tuning" that the Supreme Court of Canada did not accept, with good reason. The Americans have decided otherwise, and have gotten themselves into a lot of trouble in the process. Take Citizens United, for example.
Pretty soon corporations in the US (as persons) will likely demand the right to vote, which will make American life even more interesting.
“As for TV networks cutting off the President, we have seen a lot of ‘unprecedented acts’ during the time of Trump. I think people might rejoice in a few less of those.”
Bob Rollwagen: “Good to hear that Canadian courts are not tied to unreasonable precedent and are truly independent of political favour.
“As for the sad events occurring across the USA resulting from a vengeful man whose self-importance puts citizens life at risk, I can only hope the majority understand that his party has caused this and needs to be removed from power until they start to function again as members of a civil democracy.”
A writer identified only as “B C” sent this comment: “The right to charge corporations with crimes and imprisonment as a result of a guilty verdict is interesting. You can’t jail a corporation but you can jail their ability to make a profit for the duration of their sentence.”
JT: I wondered if “their ability to make a profit” could be treated as a 100% tax on profits and salary increases for the duration of the sentence. The writer chose not to follow up.
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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PROMOTION STUFF…
To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. (This is to circumvent filters that think some of these links are spam.)
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” is an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca. He set up my webpage, and he doesn’t charge enough.
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom. She also runs beautiful pictures. Her Thanksgiving presentation on the old hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth, Is, well, beautiful -- https://www.traditionaliconoclast.com/2019/10/13/for/
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom (NB that’s “watso” not “watson”)
ALVA WOOD ARCHIVE
The late Alva Wood’s collection of satiric and sometimes wildly funny columns about a mythical village’s misadventures now have an archive (don’t ask how this happened) on my website: http://quixotic.ca/Alva-Wood-Archive. Feel free to browse all 550 columns.