A Threat To America

I recently wrote two blog posts here ("Truth and Facts...A Challenge for Democracy" and "Patriotism is a Virtue") in which I discussed the viral emails we all regularly receive from those who insist that America is on the brink of destruction, primarily because of our President, who they insist upon calling Barrack Hussein Obama...as if including his middle name proves that he is not an American citizen and that he is secretly a Muslim who is hell-bent on destroying our constitution and the American way of life.

For proof of this, these hate-filled emails offer up all kinds of false and misleading diatribe. The exaggerations, lies and fear-mongering propagated by these messages have necessitated the creation of rumor debunking sites such as SNOPES.com, FACTCHECK.org, TRUTHORFICTION.com and others.

Nine times out of ten, if you take the time to do a little research, you find that the emails are littered with falsehoods and misleading innuendo. Often they will contain one or two facts, surrounded by misinformation and lies. They are nothing more than the clever manipulation of the natural human tendency to trust.

Worst of all...they call upon you to forward the emails to others in an effort to somehow prove the lies are the truth by virtue of how many others receive the emails, believe the falsehoods, and then forward them on to even more unsuspecting readers.

The messages are never meant to inform, only to inflame. They are intentional redirection from reality and progress, to a paranoid delusion and the fomenting of hatred of Americans by Americans.

We see the same thing from many of the TV and online news media outlets - in particular, Fox News.

Consider these tallies from Glenn Beck's show on Fox News since President Obama's inauguration: 202 mentions of Nazis or Nazism, according to transcripts, 147 mentions of Hitler, 193 mentions of fascism or fascist, and another 24 bonus mentions of Joseph Goebbels. Most of these were directed in some form at Obama -- as were the majority of the 802 mentions of socialist or socialism on Beck's nightly report. (Source: Dana Milbank, The Washington Post)

Isn't it ironic...and utterly arrogant...that the crusade to prove Barack Obama a foreign influence is led by an Australian named Murdock and his second largest shareholder Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud of Saudi Arabia?

I don't know about you, but I have had enough.

The right to freedom of speech is one of our most cherished rights. It is also a double-edged sword: the same right that allows us to criticize our government's policies without fear of reprisal also protects those who endorse and promote racism, anti-semitism, ethnic hatred and other socially divisive positions.

And therein lies a significant threat to democracy, because voters that choose to believe unsubstantiated "facts", false innuendo and speeches and videos taken totally out of context become susceptible to voting based upon ignorance and misinformation, uniquely unenlightened by facts or truth.

Choosing the above path is a real threat to our American way of life, and it's unacceptable to me.

How about you?

Truth & Facts...A Challenge For Democracy

About two months ago I wrote a blog titled "Patriotism Is A Virtue". In it, I refer to what I call "Hate & Fake" emails from extremists with messages that are completely false and often degrading and insulting . You know the ones I mean. Then they ask you to forward the message on to everyone you know.

I ended the blog by saying:

"Patriotism is a virtue that can not exist on a foundation of lies, false innuendo and diatribe."

Now researchers also suggest that such lies, false innuendo and diatribe are a significant threat to democracy.

The Sunday Boston Globe's Idea section ran an article called "How Facts Backfire" by Joe Keohane. According to the article:

"Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It's this: Facts don't necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. And in the presense of the correct information...instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper."

This refusal to accept or admit that you are wrong is the result of Cognitive Dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors... or by justifying or rationalizing them. Dissonance occurs when a person perceives a logical inconsistency in their beliefs, when one idea implies the opposite of another.

The Globe article goes on to say:

"Rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we choose to accept. They can cause us to twist facts so they better fit with our preconceived notions. Worst of all, they can lead us to uncritically accept bad information just because it reinforces our beliefs. In other words, it's never been easier for people to be wrong, and at the same time feel more certain they are right."

So what the article suggests is that cognitive dissonance might be experienced as guilt, anger, frustration, or even embarrassment and in an effort to avoid those uncomfortble feelings many people will simply choose to ignore the truth and go along happily believing whatever tends to reinforce their beliefs.

And therein lies the threat to democracy, because voters that choose the above path are susceptible to voting based upon ignorance and misinformation, uniquely unenlighted by facts or truth.

That would be a shame.