Artwork by Michael DiMilo
Article by Geoff Carter
“The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.”
— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote de La Mancha (Modern Library (Hardcover))
Shit floats.
—Popular adage
We’re treading water in a cesspool of information. Flooded with theories, facts, and opinions on every subject and platform imaginable, it’s becoming impossible to keep our heads above the rising tide of knowledge. And—unfortunately—Cervantes was wrong. Truth isn’t the only thing that floats.
Our society has been transformed from a culture that once championed truth to one that marginalizes and belittles it. To some—especially those in politics—facts are not worth nothing unless they further their fortunes or careers; these opportunists muddy the water with rumors, half-truths, and outright lies for their own self-aggrandizement. They twist reality, deny it, and decry it. Their only truth is their own privilege. They lie about everything from COVID to election fraud, and even insurrection—treason against their own government.
According to an NPR article, “Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows” (NPR May 14th, 2021), most of the lies about vaccines on social media can be traced back to just twelve sources. These “disinformation dozen” trolls are anti-vaxxers, physicians, and alternative health advocates, and produce 65% of the vaccine hoaxes found on the internet. They espouse false cures, conspiracy theories, and vaccine propaganda. Facebook has finally started cracking down on them, labelling false calms and taking down their pages, but it may be too late.
As a result of their actions, a significant portion of the population are still unvaccinated. They don’t trust the companies that produce the vaccines, the vaccine itself, or cite insidious conspiracy theories, including the idea that tracking chips will be implanted into the body or that human DNA can be permanently altered by the vaccine. These assertions are—of course—nonsense, but not everyone knows that—or wants to.
Deliberate misinformation is also being disbursed by marginalized news sources like TheBlaze and ONN as well as semi-reputable organs such as Fox News. Tucker Carlson recently criticized a Biden plan for health care workers to go door to door to persuade citizens to get vaccinated. Mr. Carlson said the Biden plan was an attempt to “force people to take medicine they don’t want or need” or that college students should not get the shot, stating, “It’s not good for them.” (New York Times, July 11, 2021)
This skepticism about the efficacy of the vaccine—repeated ad nauseum in the echo chamber—erodes trust in the vaccination process. And it’s dangerous. In an essay published in The Daily Beast, Preston Padden wrote that Fox News had “contributed substantially and directly” to “the unnecessary deaths of many Americans by fueling hesitation and doubt about the efficacy and safety of lifesaving Covid-19 vaccines.” (Daily Beast July 5th, 2021)
Despite efforts to curb the lying, falsehoods persist on social media, including claims that Covid is no worse than the flu, that it doesn’t exist, or that vaccines are deadly. During the pandemic, we were told to drink bleach and shine flashlights in our bodies to kill the virus—never mind any collateral damage.
The lying doesn’t stop with Covid. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. A number of House and Senate Republicans, including our own Ron Johnson, still maintain that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump and that voter fraud is still rampant. They persist with these falsehoods despite repeated recounts in battleground states which show absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing.
Deniers also say the January 6th Capitol riot was not that big a deal—even though we saw it happen in on live TV—we saw it. According to Reuters, nearly half of all Republicans believe false accounts of the attack, that left-wing extremists were responsible. Rep. Andrew Clyde compared the riot to a “normal tourist visit”. Seventy-three percent of Republicans—millions of people—still believe this dreck rather than trust their own senses.
How did we get to a place where so many Americans don’t believe scientists, journalists, and doctors—or even their own senses? Why did a substantial portion of the American people let themselves get hoodwinked by conspiracy theorists and political opportunists? Why on Earth would anyone trust Tucker Carlson’s judgement over Dr. Fauci’s?
We know why the liars lie. Trump did it to broaden and strengthen the Republican power base with hate speech and fear mongering. Some of us became numb to Trump’s chronic lying, but because his base liked it, and listened, his lies began to become their truth. They believed him; of course, part of them wanted to believe him. QAnon zealots, white supremacists, and other extremists believed it was their duty to storm the Capitol because Trump told them to; they said he invited them.
Perhaps at one time Cervantes might have been right, that truth would have eventually floated to the surface. Maybe because our society used to value and appreciate—even revere—the truth, we felt sure it would prevail in the end. Now facts and empirical evidence seem to be lost in the flotsam and jetsam of opinion, prejudice, and arrogance. I believe the truth does float; it’s out there, but it’s getting more difficult to spot with all the crap floating alongside it. And unfortunately, many Americans don’t know shit when they see it.
People are entitled to their thoughts, their beliefs, and their opinions, but they do not have to right to endanger others, particularly my friends or family. Their inability—or unwillingness—to acknowledge the truth is dangerous. It could—will—eventually result in more fatalities or even another lockdown, once again wreaking havoc on our health system and our economy. Truth is not an absolute, and it is not an impossibility. But it is a responsibility. We build it on facts, experience, and experimentation—and on science. We need the truth.
We’re navigating a hazardous sea of information; the truth is becoming more and more obscured by the endless self-serving lies dished out by the trolls and opportunists on social media. People have the right to believe what they please. If they want to think that a polished turd is more valuable than a diamond ring, more power to them, but they do not have the right make the rest of us swim in the sewage-filled swamp of their ignorance. So please—don’t pee in the pool anymore.