Truth isn't truth.
What you're hearing and seeing isn't what's happening.
These are statements made by either 45 or someone who represents him. They demand that you not believe what you hear and see. They demand that you accept their reality based on whatever they say about whatever they wish.
A dictatorship of the mind, that is. They can only control what you believe if you let them. It's their only way to legitimacy in an open society--open as well to nonsense and the twisting of reality to fit their needs. They can't control access to information; they can only try to dissuade you from wanting to access it.
That they have persuaded anyone is testament to their abilities to intimidate and obfuscate. With those talents, they bring conversations and progress to a screaming halt. No one can proceed if no one really knows anything--which is their goal, to make you think so.
Don't pay any attention to Elijah Cummings, Chair of the House Oversight Committee, 45 says. His district is rat-infested. Nobody would live there.
Oh? More than half a million people live there. Nice image, huh? Half a million people live with rats. Elijah Cummings is black. His district is in Baltimore. Baltimore is a large city. Large cities have lots of black people. Of course they live with rats.
But Baltimore's Inner Harbor is also part of Cummings' district. Ever been there? It's a delightful mix of shops and restaurants. The ship U.S.S. Constellation, one of the most important ships in the War of 1812, is anchored there, and you can tour it. Maybe there are rats on it. Old ship, you know. A superb aquarium is within walking distance. Rats? I don't think so.
But 45 isn't racist. Never meant to connect any of that with race. Uh-uh. No way. He's the least racist person you know. He said so, right? All the rest is strictly coincidental.
It's that way because 45 says so. Don't go check on any other information; that wouldn't be the truth. Don't remember or even think about anything else he's said that would suggest it. The truth is whatever he says it is. Stop reading anything else right now. Stop watching anything else but Fox News. That is, if you want to fall prey to their quasi-informational trap.
Now, you don't have to believe this, but--Washington, DC, has rats. I've lived there. I've seen them darting between the rails of the Metro, below the waiting areas so they can't be accessed but make delightful viewing. Black people live there, too. Some have plenty of money. So do lots of white people and other people of color who are very well-to-do.
The president lives in the White House. It is anything but rat-infested. Or maybe it isn't. Who knows? Has anybody asked yet?
The White House is in Washington, DC. Washington, DC has rats. Therefore the White House has rats. Okay?
See what I just did? I said two true things, then concluded a third thing that in all likelihood can't possibly be true. It's false logic. It's fun. It's also dangerously irresponsible.
I asked questions that imply that something is potentially wrong when it might be considered absurd by others. Do you trust my authority to ask such things? Do you think that that indicates analytical skills that others lack? Or do you think I'm just making crap up to get back at a cruel jackass?
If you believe absolutely everything I've ever said, whether or not it's been researched (which I try to do), then you've locked yourselves into a vacuum in which the truth is only what I've said it is. Don't do that. Don't even do it with me. If you aren't sure, look stuff up. It's okay. Maybe I deserve to be corrected about something relating to the facts of a matter. If so, there's room to write it. That's what it's there for.
Hell, I don't know everything; no one does. But I know a few things. And this regime needs alternative thinking to oppose it. We get to the truth by sifting through and absorbing what we wish to absorb. It's up to you. But the more, the better. You can just watch the weather on the local news if you want and skip the rest. You can create your own dictatorship of your own mind: no alternatives allowed. But your function as a citizen is, sorry to say, very inadequate should you do so.
I don't want to own a dictatorship of your mind, either. I want to present reasonable responses to the nonsense, exaggerations and lies that a strangely-elected monster puts out there. We get at the truth with a wide variety of reading, writing, discussion and acceptance. I don't want that kind of power, because that kind of power is, in the end, phony and conquerable. It's snake oil. People do get a kind of illness on it. It takes a long time to cure, too.
Everybody must, at some point, get on with their lives and stop absorbing information; people have to go to work, make dinner, take care of the kids, see a movie, too. If you focus on it, you can get overwhelmed. But for heaven's sake, don't stop until you're satisfied that more than one reliable source tells you the same thing for verification. Take the time to know. Take the time to be sure. And take into consideration where the information is coming from, too.
It's about voting. You can't cast an informed vote if you don't inform yourself. The more you do that, the more importance it has, and the better people we can elect. Do we do that enough? Look what we've done. There should be your answer.
Never be satisfied with one source. Never allow yourself submission to a dictatorship of the mind. Your mind belongs to you. We life in a society and a political culture in which it's still all right to think what you want to think. Don't lose the one freedom you need most of all: Your search for the truth.
Be well. I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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Truth or Something Like It
ReplyDeletetell me what is true
what you see,
or what I say
or is it something else?
perhaps it is what is past,
but if past be prologue
what then?
perhaps there is no truth.
are we assuming truth is fact?
fools we be then!
for fact does not know
the truth,
only what is
and that we cannot know.
for truth has shaded fact
And colored it to suit itself.
Not to belabor the point, but what you see and what I see, will never be the same thing. The most unreliable testimony is eye-witness testimony, simply because no two people can see the same thing at the same time. Blue dress, gold dress, what did you see?
You warn against false equivalence, then you do the same thing, to wit, and I quote: "Baltimore is a large city. Large cities have lots of black people. Black people live with rats." DUH?! I grew up in Chicago's inner-city in a predominantly white neighborhood. We had rats bigger than a chihuahua. Something is wrong with your hypothesis.
Trump isn't a racist, he says racist things. He doesn't care enough about anyone or anything to formulate an opinion on race or anything else. He says those things to turn the attention away from what he considers an area of discussion that doesn't center of him and him alone, or it does center on him but in an unflattering manner. SQUIRREL!! And it works. Everytime…
We don't get to the truth by sifting and winnowing, we can't know the truth. Perhaps we can ferret out the facts, but then, unless we were there and done that, we cannot do that either. We must trust what is inside of us. Good verses evil. If what you see and hear goes against everything you believe in, then that is all the truth you require.
So read, and read some more, listen to what people you admire have to say, then look inside yourself. That is where you will find your truth.