misinformation | The Direction of Intention

Ours Is Yours [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on March 3, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

Nothing brings people together in these un-United States like a natural disaster. When the forest fires rage, when the hurricanes destroy, people – at least for a few days – forget their politics, reconnect with their essence, transcend their religious doctrine, forget their biases, and reach a hand to anyone in need. Anyone. People run into fires to help other people. The only other catalyst with the power to temporarily unify us is an attack on our nation*. September 11, 2001 made us remember that we are one, a community. People ran into tall buildings without a second thought to help other people.

It’s called community.

It’s easy to use a word. It’s far more difficult to fulfill the meaning of a word. To live it. Community.

Communities divide and dissolve when the attacks come from within. Currently, we are witness to the attempted dissolution of our nation, the power of misinformation at transforming neighbors into enemies. The demonization of the “other”. To date, it seems to be working.

I wonder when the devastation of the blazing fascist fire – currently consuming democracy – sweeps across the land, from sea to shining sea, burning all in its path – if it will bring us back together or drive us to total destruction? Will we run into the fire to help or turn our backs and say, “Not my problem.” I suppose we must first see through the lies and recognize that there’s an arsonist in the White House delighting in watching our democracy-house burn.

We had to pick up a few things at Kohl’s. The tagline printed on the shopping bag stopped us in our tracks. “Your community is our community.” There couldn’t be a more potent message – a more powerful wish – for our rapidly disintegrating nation.

Yours is ours. Ours is yours. It’s called community.

“I’m keeping the bag where I can see it,” she said.

*I wrote this post before the Peep and Vice Peep, in a festival of embarrassment, ambushed Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House. Their blatant alignment with Putin is an attack on this nation and I am heartened to witness so many of us come together in support of Ukraine – which is to come together in support of our democracy and all that we value. Theirs is Ours. Ours is Theirs.

read Kerri’s blogpost about COMMUNITY

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Filed under: Identity, Merely A Thought Monday, Metaphor | Tagged: artistry, community, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fascism, help, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, misinformation, September 11, story, studio melange, support, the melange, together, unite, unity | 3 Comments »

Stay Clear of the Avalanche [David’s blog on saturday morning smack-dab]

Posted on January 11, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

It’s a strategy. “During a typical Gish gallop, the galloper confronts an opponent with a rapid series of specious arguments, half-truths, misrepresentations and outright lies making it impossible for the opponent to refute all of them…” ~Gish Gallop: Wikipedia

We have, of course, unbelievably, elected for the second time, a champion galloper. A liar extraordinaire. The Gishiest of gallopers.

It’s a strategy. Chaos is a distraction. When it’s impossible to cut through the daily avalanche of hooey, be certain that what’s happening behind the crap-curtain is ill-intended, deliberate and self-serving.

As Heather Cox Richardson suggests, the only thing to be done is not get caught in the avalanche. Stand back and look for patterns. In this case, we have a lifetime of pattern available for study, easy to see. A career criminal. A bankrupt soul. A parasite in a baggy blue suit.

And so, we canter the other way, just far enough to stay clear of the avalanche – and do as journalist Mehdi Asan suggests to counter the Gish galloper: Call it out. “…do not be fooled by the flood of nonsense you have just heard.”

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE GISH GALLOP

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Filed under: smack-dab | Tagged: artistry, chaos, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Gish Gallop, Heather Cox Richardson, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lies, MAGA, misinformation, nonsense, story, strategy, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

The Fallout [David’s blog on saturday morning smack-dab]

Posted on January 4, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

The Economist magazine cover story, Oct 17, 2024: America’s economy is bigger and better than ever. The cover headline blared: The Envy of the World. The subtitle question: Will politics bring it back to Earth? Now we know the short answer: Yes. [check out the link*. You’ll need to sign in to read the full article but the bit you can see actually tells the full story].

The truth of our economy couldn’t penetrate the MAGA misinformation bubble. The truth of the Biden administration – in an effort to restore the middle-class – finally stimulating the economy from the middle out instead of the long debunked trickle down. An economy that is the envy of the world. Too bad. I suppose it’s possible that the promised tariffs, Project 2025, the economics of mass deportation and the full impact of the oligarch’s DOGE will pop the MAGA fantasy. We’ll see.

What’s certain is now it all starts. The fallout of mass-misinformation, the plummet back to hard reality. The full impact of the nation landing hard on its mind-bogglingly-self-destructive choice.

*The Economist is a published in Britain. It has no skin in our game.

read Kerri’s blogpost about FALL OUT

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Filed under: smack-dab | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, DOGE, economy, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, MAGA, misinformation, oligarch, self destruction, story, studio melange, The Economist Magazine, the melange | Leave a comment »

Our National Meme [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on November 11, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

This weekend while I was busy elevating Neil Postman to prophet status I realized I was also putting to rest a debate that began with my business partner during the dawn of social media. Her contention was that meaningful relationships were possible over social media. I held – and still hold – now more than ever – the opposite view. Our latest election is all the proof I needed.

Meaningful relationships are complex. They require time. They require presence – slowing down and paying attention. Listening. They are expansive as well as intricate. They are investments in the other.

The medium is the message. Social media is reductive. It is immediate. It does not slow down, rather, it speeds us up. It affords only simplistic exchanges. It’s great for memes, for sharing photos, for updates. It is self-centered. It is limited in characters and increasingly relies on emojis. It is a great medium for the superficial, the tit-for-tat. Jabs. Clever comebacks. And, if you don’t like what you are hearing, a touch of a button unfriends the annoyance. No investment required.

Social media has become our public square.

Our ease of unfriending creates information eddies, impenetrable echo chambers. We sort to bubbles of agreement with nary a nod to fact or uncomfortable truth. We do not have to listen to each other since insulting and negating each other is within the reduction-capacity of the medium while listening, questioning, discussing and debating is not.

Our medium inhibits complicated in-depth conversations or layered debate of ideas which, in-turn, inhibits fact-based conversation while promoting gossip, conspiracy, accusation and misinformation. I am haunted by a piece Kerri included in her Smack-Dab post on Saturday:

“…Catherine Rampell and Youyou Zhou of the Washington Post showed before the election that voters overwhelmingly preferred Harris’s policies to Trump’s if they didn’t know which candidate proposed them. An Ipsos/Reuters poll from October showed that voters who were misinformed about immigration, crime, and the economy tended to vote Republican, while those who knew the facts preferred Democrats. Many Americans turn for information to social media or to friends and family who traffic in conspiracy theories. As Angelo Carusone of Media Matters put it: “We have a country that is pickled in right-wing misinformation and rage.” (heather cox richardson – american historian, professor of history – boston college, previously MIT, university of massachusetts amherst )

The info-bubbles generated by our social-media-public-square are fortresses. Inside the walls we are capable of demonizing the other, ramping up our rage, but are incapable of promoting or encouraging the sharing of policy ideas, a comprehensive discussion of competing visions for the nation’s future, the character of the candidates, the possible impact to other nations and the ramifications of our choice…

The info-river is fast-moving and keeps flowing with little or no regard to the worth or truth of the information it carries. Not only are we pickled in misinformation and easily distracted, we are also incapable of tracking the tsunami of information that washes over us each day. We scroll and forget. Our attention span is a long as what rolls through our screen.

The voters of this nation have forgotten the train wreck of the despot-elect’s first time in office. “Trump’s own staffers, subordinates, and allies frequently characterized Trump as infantile…The number and scale of Trump’s statements in public speeches, remarks, and tweets identified as false by scholars, fact-checkers, and commentators were characterized as unprecedented for an American president, and even unprecedented in U.S. politics.”

“In the 2018 presidential rankings by the Siena College Research Institute, Trump ranked as the third-worst president in history. C-SPAN’s 2021 President Historians Survey ranked Trump as the fourth-worst president overall and the worst in the leadership characteristics of Moral Authority and Administrative Skills.”

“Trump ranked last in both the 2018 and 2024 surveys of the American Political Science Association Presidents and Executive Politics section, with self-identified Republican historians ranking Trump in their bottom five presidents.“

And so, we willingly walk behind the mule for a second time. There is nothing new to be learned except perhaps how damaging or fatal a second kick will be. Maybe, just maybe, if our democracy survives, we will have learned to stop tweeting at each other and step into a real public square for our most important conversations. I know, I know. I’m an idealist.

I have a suggestion for our new national meme: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SECOND KICK

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Filed under: Edges, Merely A Thought Monday, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, autocrat, conspiracy, conversation, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, debate, democracy, discourse, gossip, heather cox richarson, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Mark Twain, Marshall McLuhan, misinformation, Neil Postman, politics, public square, social media, story, studio melange, the melange | 2 Comments »

A Little Bit. A Lotta Bit [David’s blog on saturday morning smack-dab]

Posted on November 9, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Apparently social media is smoking hot with maga-voters who finally decided to look-up the word “tariff”. It seems that they are astounded to discover that they (we) pay the tax, not China. Or Mexico. They are somehow puzzled to learn that the cost of living under their candidate’s tariff plan is – and always was – promised to escalate the cost of living. Also on the info-grill: the reality of the phrase “mass deportation” is beginning to dawn on the red voters. It’s just now occurring to them that their vote has actual consequences that impact their family and friends.

A little bit of illumination a lotta bit too late.

This quote from an NPR interview with Republican strategist Sarah Longwell is worthy of a laugh/cry. It’s crossed my screen a few times this morning: “When I ask voters in focus groups if they think Donald Trump is an authoritarian, the #1 response by far is, “What’s an authoritarian?”

What’s an authoritarian? Good question. Well. I guess we’re about to find out.

ignorance (noun): lack of knowledge and information*

*dear trump voter: authoritarians rely on your ignorance and exploit your rage.**

**It may feel good up front to vote your rage but that good-feeling rapidly dissipates when a little-bit-of-knowledge-and-a-lotta-bit-of-reality sets in. Next time, if there is a next time (look up the word “authoritarian”) you might want to pull your head out of the fox-misinformation-hole, ask a few relevant questions and look up a word or two before you fill in the bubble.***

***informing yourself is a relatively easy thing to do and as you may have just discovered only takes a few minutes (for instance, how long did it take to look up the word “tariff”?). On the other hand, cleaning up the horror created by an authoritarian takes generations. Look it up.

read Kerri’s blog post about IGNORANCE

Filed under: smack-dab | Tagged: artistry, authoritarian, consequences, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, ignorance, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, mass deportation, misinformation, Rage, Sarah Longwell, smack-dab, story, studio melange, tariff, the melange, vote | 3 Comments »

Ponder Pure Action [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on September 27, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” ~ Rumi

Although now it’s ubiquitous in the social media sphere, to be an “influencer” is a relatively new term of in the canon of aspirations. To affect, to sway, to direct, to shape, to guide… Someone recently suggested that Kerri and I should attempt to become influencers and we both cringed. For us, there’s something shallow about that word that makes us recoil. We write everyday because we enjoy writing and are very aware that our love of writing does not necessarily mean that we have anything new or of value to say. We like to write together. We like to share what we write.

I recently read a Taoist tenet: cease trying to influence others or to be influenced by others. It’s a notion meant to speak to the pursuit of happiness. Essentially it recommends stopping the pursuit. Happiness is not a thing to be caught. It is not something to be attained. The tenet is a suggestion to stand still, to act purely according to what presents itself in the moment. To act without thought or desire of any imagined gain. Happiness is bubbling in the present moment, expressed through pure action. Taoists – as I understand it – call this non-action (as opposed to inaction). Wu Wei.

Pure action. Effortless.

When Kamala Harris became the Democrat nominee, we wondered what we could do to help. Previous to her entrance into the race, the ugly-red-tide seemed impossible to stop. She brought light and new energy. We read – somewhere – that in order to help her, people should do what they already do, do what they do best. And so, in this present moment, we write. I cannot claim to be pure in my action since I hold the hope of influencing a few hearts and minds out there, somewhere in the nation, to fully understand the power of their vote and the need to know what they are voting for.

Yesterday on our walk we crossed paths and had a chat with a friend and, of course, talked about politics. As a professor, he said each day, regardless of the topic or the lesson, now more than ever, he is trying to teach his students critical thinking skills. “They no longer know what is fact and what is made-up. They have to learn to question,” he said, “They have to learn to think for themselves, beyond what they are hearing in social media.”

Pure action. I told him that the imperative to teach critical thinking places him on the frontlines. A thinking person could not – would not – vote for the maga-candidate. There is plenty of desire in the red-tide to remove critical thinking from higher education – from all forms of education. To narrow rather than expand minds.

After we went on our way I realized that Kerri and I are doing in our writing exactly what our professor friend is doing in his classroom: attempting to inspire critical thinking. Pointing the direction to questions and to discernment, challenging those swallowing whole-cloth the dangerous-maga-fox-misinformation to open their eyes, to pop the info-bubble.

“I tell my students that it’s easy to find the truth,” the professor said. “You just have to want to see it.”

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE RAIN

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Filed under: Art, Education, KS Friday, Perspective, Possibility | Tagged: artistry, critical thinking, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, education, happiness, influence, influencers, Kamala Harris, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, misinformation, non action, pure action, questioning, questions, story, studio melange, tao, the melange, truth, voice, writers, wu wei | 5 Comments »

As Clear As The Pollen [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on September 18, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Although Dogga adamantly denies rooting around in the ragweed next to our neighbor’s fence, the evidence is as clear as the pollen on his face. Some things are just undeniable.

Of course, as we are experiencing, the overabundance of evidence, unassailable facts, do not stop deniers from denying, liars from lying. Crowd size comes to mind. Elections lost.

Against her better judgment Kerri responded to an acquaintance’s post. It was riddled with misinformation. She supplied a fact-check. “I can’t take it!” she sighed. And, as she experienced (again), present a denier with evidence and they will double-down. In this case, a tsunami of conspiracy theory rushed back her way. I counted layers of cultish nonsense.

“How is this possible?” she asked.

Cultish. Number one on the list of cultish characteristics is that the members exist in a bubble, cut off from verifiable reality. The cult serves as the only source of truth and community; an echo chamber of gibberish. Other cult characteristics include an Us-versus-Them mentality, gaslighting, apocalyptic thinking…thought control.

The cult provides a sense of belonging.

Facts and data are threatening to a cult. It threatens the fabricated-story inside the bubble. If the bubble pops then the members face untenable questions: To what do I actually belong? How could I not see it?

And so, as bubble-protection, every response to irrefutable facts must always be a conspiracy. It’s the pat answer for everything, the fortress for gobbledygook. Non-sense. Drivel. Bilge. No evidence required. Apocalyptic thinking is all that is necessary to keep the gaslight glowing and the fear-fury burning. The more outlandish the accusation – the more apocalyptic the hot air – the better. Erasing the boundaries of reason makes room for greater and greater rubbish.

Of course, I am not unique in making the observation that maga is a cult.

“What do we do?” Kerri asked, astounded at the rush of nonsense that came back her way when she contradicted the ridiculous with evidence and reason.

We vote. We get out the vote. We give up speaking sense or fact to hooey-worshippers. And then we prepare for another tsunami of lies and unnecessary violence unleashed when their sore-loser-leader cries “Foul” yet again. He’s already started. Just like the last time. And, just like last time, no amount of evidence will mollify the cult-faithful. No amount of fact or data will open their eyes. Nothing will penetrate their childlike devotion to their big daddy – yet another characteristic of a sad, dangerous cult. Who exactly is “the enemy within”?

The evidence is as clear as the pollen on Dogga’s face.

read Kerri’s blogpost about POLLEN NOSE

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, conspiracy theory, cult, data, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fact, gaslighting, information bubbles, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, MAGA, misinformation, reality, story, studio melange, the melange, thought control | 4 Comments »

Dear Momma [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on July 15, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Dear Momma,

I was awake most of the night thinking about our phone conversation. Something was troubling me and as I lay awake I realized what it was – so I want to share a few of my midnight thoughts with you. [It is important enough that I decided to change my post for today – something concerning crowns.]

It’s best to begin at the beginning. During our call we shared two sentiments on which we are in total agreement: 1) we are afraid for the survival of our nation and 2) we think the country deserves different candidates on both sides. Since we sit on opposite sides of the political divide, I was taken aback that you had not heard of Project 2025, that you had no idea what I was talking about. That was the seed of what troubled me through the night. I wondered how something so present in my information and news streams (and conversations) was so absent in yours.

So, I need to take a step back and offer some context for what’s troubling me:

Social media is ‘smart’ – which means it ‘learns you’ – it responds to your preferences by feeding you more and more of what you like. That’s a terrific thing if you are shopping for shoes or like to see cute puppy videos. It’s a terrible thing if you want to be informed about what’s going on in the world. Your stream is fed by what you like, not by what is factual or by what may offer a differing point of view. It encases us in bubbles of agreement, in tribes of likemindedness, and we confuse shared opinion with fact or truth or what we used to call news.

Television news operates on the same principle. It’s driven by ratings – another word for ‘likes.’ As a nation we no longer seek news for its veracity, we tune in to the sources that report what we “like’ and opinions with which we agree – and disparage the sources with which we don’t agree. If you think about it, news based on agreement is, in fact, not news at all. It is entertainment meant to keep you hooked, to garner likes. It is a recipe for disaster. That is why you’ve not heard of Project 2025. Inside your bubble, you would not like what it portends. Click on the link I provided and you can read it for yourself (and, since I know you won’t – it is too long – I offer this link to a Wikipedia summary. You can also Google summaries but remember, Google will sort to what you like – so I offer this 6 minute summary from the PBS News Hour for you to watch).

Since it is not my intention to lobby for one team or the other (to change your mind – I know that is a fool’s errand) – and I know PBS is generally vilified by folks inside your bubble, I want to give you two tools or suggestions that will, if you use them, make you capable of reaching beyond the prison of ‘likes’ and check things for yourself:

First, check your media sources. Here’s an example. This is a media bias chart. It rates all media according to left/right bias and fact/propaganda reliability. Note that PBS News is high on fact reliability and in the center so is mostly without intentional bias. Fox News, on the other hand, is strong right and barely above the propaganda line. Here’s an article on media bias charts if you want to know more about them.

Second, check the truth of what you are being fed. We use Snopes.com almost every day. It’s easy to use and you simply need to type in a question and will get the latest fact-checked information. Here’s an example of a question I asked – for you to see.

Like you, I am afraid for the survival of our nation and, as we discussed, it hinges on the choice we make this coming November. In a free nation we are fortunate to go to the polls and vote for our choice. I believe with all my heart that it is not enough to go to the polls and vote based on opinion, driven by our ‘likes.’ We have the obligation – if we are truly afraid (and I am) – to reach beyond the thick wall of our bubbles, ask questions, verify answers, and find out exactly what and who we are voting for.

During our call you wondered how our nation has become so divided and politically antagonistic. It’s a great question for your community’s Situation Room conversations. My belief is that we are too comfortable inside our bubbles – agreement is easy when in a room of like-minds and easy agreement is made easier when the opposing point of view is understood as the enemy. The antidote for our divide is simple but requires us – all of us – to cease living inside our lazy bubble-reactions. Each-and-everyday, we need to take the few minutes required to check the truth of what we are being fed. To stop running our affairs on likes and easy agreement – and seek substantial truth regardless of whether or not we like it or our friends agree with it. In that direction we’ll find middle ground, compromise, and the road to a healthy national – and local – dialogue.

I love you. Thanks for considering my late night thoughts.

David

read Kerri’s blogpost about CROWNS

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Filed under: Merely A Thought Monday, Perspective | Tagged: ad fontes media bias chart, artistry, bubbles, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, election, fact checking, Fox News, information, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Likes, misinformation, PBS, PBS News Hour, political divide, popularity, Project 2025, snopes.com, story, studio melange, the melange, vote | 1 Comment »

Unfurl [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on April 30, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

I’m proud of her. Twice this week Kerri has fact-checked friends on FB who posted articles riddled with misinformation meant to rile. It took her less than a minute each time. In posting a link to the fact-check, she wrote, “Please check your information before you pass it on. xo”

It seems like such a small thing but it’s lately apparent that it’s becoming everything:

We forget that democracy is not a thing. It is an idea. It is an action rather than a noun. We forget that our democracy is young. Very, very young.

It worries me when I hear politicians making laws placing limits on the discussion of ideas at school. It worries me when I read that parents want teachers to teach “only the facts”. In today’s bubble-discourse it is a valid question to ask, “Whose facts?” Discerning between fact and fiction requires minds and hearts capable of questioning, capable of challenging the “facts” they are being fed. The notion of the purpose of education as a feeder-of-facts is nothing less than a sign of moral and mental decay. This is especially true in our great age of information with its ever-present shadow of rampant misinformation.

Democracies collapse when ideas and ideals are no longer debated, when winning-at-any-cost overshadows compromise, when respect for divergent points of view is overrun by intolerance. Healthy democracies are an ongoing tug-of-war; creative tension generated by a lively and respectful exchange of perspectives. This requires a system of education that nurtures these qualities and capacities.

Democracies collapse when they aim for an end result rather than steward a living process.

The point of education in a democracy is to consciously and carefully unfurl young minds so they might become active questioners, expansive thinkers, participating citizens in an ongoing experiment in a complex system called democracy, capable of stewarding their communities forward through an ever-changing world toward the promises inherent in the IDEA: equality, inclusion, governance by the people, for the people.

I would hope that we become capable of grokking governance-by-the-people which necessitates a people educated in ideas, reinforced in their curiosity and capacity to question, to converse and debate complex issues, capable of discerning ruinous power-over-agendas from the central idea enlivening their budding democracy: power with.

read Kerri’s blogpost about FERNS

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Education, Power, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, collaboration, community, Compromise, curioisty, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, debate, democracy, divergence, education, equality, expansive thinking, facts, ideas, inclusion, information, information age, information bubbles, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, misinformation, power with, purpose, questioning, stewards, story, studio melange, the melange | 2 Comments »

Aim The Magic Lens [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on September 15, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

“That men do not learn the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.” ~Aldous Huxley

You may be as amazed as I to learn that Dogwood is not Doll’s Eye. They have a similar creepy Seussian stare but are not kin. In this brave new world, all we need do is aim Google Lens at the question, “What is that?” and, voila! An answer!

I delight that I am living in the time of easy access to information. I could not write as I do without instant access to synonym and antonym, the lighting fast check-of-fact or spelling, the interesting variations-on-a-theme that pop up the minute I jump down a thought-rabbit-hole. Technology has made it possible for me to be a writer. Were I confined to pen and paper my output would be minimal and certainly impossible to read.

Easy information means easy misinformation. It means easy mass-misinformation. If I were the wizard of the universe I’d provide everyone with a Google Lens for information. All we’d need do is aim our magic lens at a pundit, news-bit or politician and, voila!” Accurate or Absurd or somewhere in between! It would make it fairly impossible to toss a lie into the commons and get away with it.

It’s not that I am enamored of just-the-facts. I’m not. I write stories so I prize a good dose of imagination. But in our time, knowing the difference – or caring about the difference – between fact and fantasy – is tantamount.

One of the great challenges of our brave new world is the intentional passing of fantasy for fact. For instance, Florida. If you are a student of history you’ll recognize in Florida (and, now, sadly, other states) the resurrection of the Lost Cause narrative, a history bending education initiative driven hard by the Daughters of the Confederacy at the conclusion of the Civil War. White supremacy sweeping its dark-side under the rug. Lipstick on a history pig.

I’m capable of imagining that my magic Google Info-Lens would put a stop to the cycle of non-sense but it’s starting to dawn on me that Aldous Huxley had it right: at this moment in history, we have the capacity to check every story, to look up every assertion, to scrutinize every source. It may not be as lightning fast as my imagined Lens but it’s close. We simply choose not to use it. It’s so much easier to believe without question than it is to question a belief.

“Huxley feared the truth would be drown in a sea of irrelevance.” Well.

Today on the trail I learned in a nanosecond that a Dogwood is different from a Doll’s Eye. I know it is possible to assert that slavery was on-the-job-training but it takes a dedicated-head-in-the-sand – and a heart full of ugly intention- to drown the truth of history in a sea of utter non-sense.

No lessons learned. No questions asked. Oops. Here we go again.