Just the facts, please

I wasn’t going to do it. I really wasn’t. Then I did. And I couldn’t stop.

 

I’ve been trying to scroll through Facebook without responding to political jabs. I failed in that. I just couldn’t take seeing all the blatant lies about candidates. Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook perhaps saw this post on my page:

 

“As an English teacher, I teach my students about citing sources. When we write persuasive papers, they are required to look at both sides of an argument and find reliable sources to prove their side. These days, we have to talk a lot about what is reliable on the internet. We also explore biased sources.

 

“With that being said, wouldn't it be nice if we all channeled our old paper-writing habits when posting claims about political figures on Facebook? It's easy to see something which supports our view and quickly share it. But, just like a paper I grade with made-up information, low marks will be assigned when we do that.

 

“Both sides of the political aisle are guilty of this. Harris, Trump, Walz, and Vance have all been raked across the coals in various memes which are blatantly false. So before quickly sharing as you cackle in glee, maybe take a moment to fact-check. We're so divided right now, but maybe if we just take a moment to focus on issues instead of attacks, we can learn together what's best for our country. It's not false statements and it's not making fun of the other side.”

 

I just couldn’t hold it in anymore. I had started fact-checking people’s posts and it was exhausting. I would provide proof that the claim was false. Some people took down those posts. I appreciated that. It’s a form of lying if you post false material.

 

A friend reached out to me after my post. He said, “...no matter our opinion/stance on a certain political issue, even if we disagree with a reliable source, because it doesn’t match our opinion, we as humans can’t be ignorant to the truth. If we are ignorant to the truth…this leads to conspiracy theories which can be very dangerous.”

 

We want to be ignorant sometimes, don’t we? It can be startling if someone we support has said or done something that might not be great. I read last week again about Tim Walz’s DUI he had while in Nebraska many years ago. That part is old news, but then it came out that his 2006 campaign denied it had happened. Oof, that doesn’t sit well.

 

This will be used against the Harris/Walz ticket. There’s nothing wrong with bringing this forward. After all, we’ve been scrutinizing Donald Trump’s past for some time now. Driving drunk is a serious crime. So is paying money to porn stars to keep quiet so you can get elected.

 

So if you’re going to get up in arms about this part of Walz’s past, then you can’t ignore the facts about Trump’s past. That’s too convenient. 

 

The conspiracy theories that abound are just incredible. In referring to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, one segment of the population claims that the Democrats set up the hit to get rid of the opposition. Another segment says that the Republicans set it up, knowing it would fail, to make Trump look better. They both can’t be right, and it’s highly likely that neither is.

 

The old joke goes that it must be true if you saw it on the internet. I think Abraham Lincoln first said that. But so many of us seem so willing to jump to conclusions the instant we see something that goes along with our stance or the instant someone says something like that. Show me the proof. 

 

Just because many people wanted Trump to win in 2020 does not mean the election was stolen. Study after study and court case after court case has shown that there was a negligible amount of fraud in the election, really no more than in any other election, and certainly not enough to make a difference. Look it up. Find a reliable source, such as the Associated Press or the BBC. They are unbiased in their reporting, unlike Fox News and CNN. Always check your sources!

 

I saw a meme that compared Tim Walz in a favorable light compared to JD Vance. The next day, I saw the same meme, only with the names reversed. And both sides are gloating that their favorable opinion is the correct one. Meanwhile, whoever created the original one is just laughing since they probably made it both ways to start with. In reality, maybe both of the vice-presidential candidates could be viewed favorably in that respect. 

 

I remember the first time the candidate I voted for did not win the presidential election. I recall being disappointed, but after watching the winner in office for a time, I accepted that he was doing a fine job. It wasn’t perfect and I didn’t like everything, but one could see the positive things that were being done. 

 

Can’t we get back to this? Look at facts and accept them, even if you don’t necessarily like them. Find the positive in a negative situation and recognize that every president of our country has done some positive things. The negative rhetoric from both parties has infected us. And that’s a fact.

 

Word of the Week: This week’s word is grawlix, which means the characters used to indicate profanity in a comic, as in, “The cartoonist used grawlix to indicate the politician’s displeasure in the comic strip.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!