I read, somewhere, that you have a 50/50 chance of rooting a persimmon tree by placing a blooming persimmon cutting in water. While the odds are acceptable to me, after all - what is the harm if one happens to come across a blooming persimmon twig - the source is vague, at best. See, my brain hums with scraps of poetry and madness. I didn’t write that. Virginia Wolfe did. At least, that’s what I read. Within the randomness of these thoughts lies both a great social dilemma and, hopefully, an interesting topic of discussion. What do we consider fact and from whence do today’s facts come?
Back in the olden days, by olden I think I mean pilgrims but maybe I just mean before the 20th century, facts were handed down from generation to generation. Today we call that common sense, though I fear we’ve lost the ability to decipher it. I digress. “Facts” meant that it was knowledge bestowed upon a person from their parents and those parents before them and before them. For instance, drinking brackish water will make you deathly ill. Life depended on our respect of this fact, so it was crucial to equip each generation with the knowledge. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing this because my entire lineage would’ve been wiped out by dysentery or common vibriosis. Along the way, though, we slipped. Rather than following an unwritten rule on facts, mainly that they be impartial and proven to be true through the test of time, we began to use “facts” to sway the opinion of others. Think of the witch trials. Think of the McCarthy era hearings. Think of the propagandas of practically any war. Products of this brand of facts include things like the generalized mass hysteria of the Dancing Plague of 1518, the Holocaust (Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda enabled the public to ignore the plight of the Jewish people until it was too late), and, if you want to go New Testament old school, I think we must include the crucifixion in this category. After all, did the “facts” of the Pharisees not induce a mass hysteria of the public whereby they preferred the release of a murderer over Jesus? Today, we have a new problem that isn’t really new at all. Our facts are questionable. Does that terrify you? It should. Read on.
The first fact fail we need to discuss is the scientific study fallacy. “Studies show” means NOTHING anymore. What study? Where was it conducted? How many participants were involved in this study? What were their demographics? What sort of study was conducted? Double blind? And, the question of all questions, who paid for this study? Unfortunately, while a true scientific impartial clinical study is invaluable to any research, this phraseology is nothing but sales fodder. The second fact fiasco that both puzzles and enrages me is how we obtain, process, and implement news in this modern world. Walter Cronkite is rolling like an industrial drill bit over what we present, and what we willingly ingest, as news facts in this day and age. What happened to presenting facts in an unbiased manner and allowing individuals to come to their own conclusions? Money happened, that’s what. Audience approval means better ratings which means more advertisers which means more money. What does the viewing demographic want the truth to be? Great, let’s skew these facts to placate those folks and rake in the money. Oh, and let’s do this very subtly, in extremely nonchalant nuances and with master class subliminal messages. They won’t even know why they like what they like, but they will eat it up like mice on sugar. And, finally, though there are many other soapboxes I could stand on, let’s end this exchange with the fabulosity (not) that is Wikipedia. This needs a whole paragraph.
Google a question about any topic. One of the first results you’ll receive is a Wikipedia article. At first, we thought it was weird. Wiki what? But, what is the goal of social manipulation? Here’s how someone else can make you do something you said you’d never do: repeated exposure leads to desensitization, leads to tolerance, leads to acceptance, leads to affirmation, leads to participation. Thus, Wikipedia is such as staple on internet search pages that we have begun to (gulp) trust it as fact. Yet, there it is in big letters at the top of every Wikipage. “Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” Yep, the things you’re reading, trusting, quoting, even using as your life’s mission statement, may be merely someone else’s opinion. Don’t misunderstand the value of such a search engine. If I’m attempting some Herculean task and I need the knowledge of someone else’s experience, that’s excellent! Between Wiki, YouTube, and TikTok, I’ll be an expert in no time. Let’s save the social media fury for another article, shall we? The point is, if anyone can edit a Wikipedia article, how do you know anyone is telling the truth? I’m sorry to be your Dina Downer today. You can rest assured, as soon as I get my study results from my persimmon twig rooting trials, you’ll be the first to Wikiknow.
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