America’s Two “Realities” – Truth Versus Hoax
– The Reason America’s Divided
My new term for these Gops is they're the "Alt-Real".
My new term for these Gops is they're the "Alt-Real".
American Political Issues by Tech Resist (@TecSiGuy), 2016 Dem! - was independent – used to lean “right”
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Everyone
and every organization make mistakes. No government entity, business,
individual or group is beyond reproach. My research, however, suggests one U.S.
political party favors policies, based on lies at their core, that only benefit their oligarchs and not those
significantly below the one percent.
→ Please, use this
and my other blogs as references to prove points; they’re well cited.
Please below comment to
challenge any part of this or give feedback.
(Citations may include footnotes with asterisks or superscripts, or links.)
(Dedicated to Rachel Maddow - My narrative is after my conclusions.)
Question: How do you determine what’s true? (Below I
describe how technology and science teachers teach students to determine good
sources or factual websites.) Do you believe in a reality supported by facts,
science, research, actual news and truth or one supported by those who wish to
influence your opinion through rhetoric, ideology, speculation, hoaxes, and conspiracies?
The second website group gets paid by the click through advertisers. They have
zero need to guard any truth; they desire mass appeal, fascination. They appeal
to those gullible enough to believe their conspiracy hoaxes“theories,” which are neither
scientific nor academic.
Research Conclusions:
There are two distinct political “realities” in the
United States and I suspect that strategies employed here are being used in
other countries as well. Conservatives
have major hoaxes and conspiracies that they have propagated internationally.
Progressives base their stances on science and factual data – ergo truth. Each
side has individuals who outright lie and stretch the truth; sometimes in
politics it’s believed one can get done things that are not possible within a
current system – unaccomplished campaign promises are often classified as lies,
especially by the opposition.
My
conclusion is that the “right” supports conspiracy hoaxes because they help promote
the concept that “government lies to you”. This distrust causes many
“believers” to vote Gop for “smaller government” – which doesn't happen. Conspiracy
backing is backfiring, however, on the Gop “establishment” in this presidential
cycle. They have all outsiders leading in the polls, due to their backing conspiracies.
With all
this media bombardment, telling one we’re the only media you can trust, it’s
hard for believers to learn to research and find the truth online. Gops have
supported conspiracies. They promote the concepts that government and “liberal
media”/real news lies to you. Supporting these hoaxes allows Gops to rationalize attacking a government that "doesn't work" for you and "lies to you".
Recent
Article: The death of truth: how we gave
up on facts and ended up with Trump
How This
Occurred:
The Fairness
Doctrine, which Reagan abolished in 1987, set the stage
for Fox/FAUX "news" to be created. This allowed the audience to
be brainwashed by constant repetition of rhetoric/ideology/speculation/hoaxes/conspiracies/lies.
This is now supported by talk radio, social media, blogs, and conspiracy websites on top of
the long going Gop emails that spread the same hoaxes over and over.
Partial Gop (conspiracy "supported") Hoax List:
4. Climate change * isn’t caused
by humans.
10. ACA** is a
disaster.
14. The poor are on “easy
street” and are “irresponsible”, “lazy”, “non-workers”, “unworthy”,
takers”, “moochers”, “leeches”, “sponges”, “parasites”, “undeserving”,
“freeloaders”, “the moocher class”, “the nation of takers”, “government
dependents”, “don’t want to work”, etc.
15. Unions*** are bad for our country.
16. Government**** is bad; taxes are evil.
24. The poor
pay no taxes3..
25. The
media all leans left. News is news, except if it’s reported by the “right”.
I’ve found too many items that are inaccurate, just plain wrong, suppositions,
suggestions and rhetoric being reported as “news” from the right. Slightly more media seems to lean
left in their editorials than right but news is generally researched, supported
and factually accurate. You can research many actual articles to detect their
lean. Real news outlets correct their errors, when something is misreported. Research
of FAUX/Fox
“news” retractions appear from
other sources, not from FAUX itself. FAUX/Fox “news” was rated at 68% “opinion”
in 2006. (From Wikipedia: Content analysis
studies:
The Project on Excellence in
Journalism report in 2006 showed that 68 percent of Fox cable stories contained
personal opinions, as compared to MSNBC at 27 percent and CNN at 4 percent. The
"content analysis" portion of their 2005 report also concluded that
"Fox was measurably more one-sided than the other networks, and Fox
journalists were more opinionated on the air."[44]) Read “opinion” as suppositions,
suggestions and rhetoric.
Etc., Etc.!!!
Brainwashing:
FAUX(Fox)
“News” repeats the same conspiracies, speculations, suggestions, hogwash until
people believe they’re the truth. Right/wrong wing media in the United
States suggests they’re the only media that’s telling the truth. That’s exactly
the tactic that Hitler’s media machine used to get German’s to allow them to
ban non-Nazi media from their country. The “right’s” continual attacks on media
have a lot of our citizenry doubting truth, science, history and basic facts.
That defines brainwashing. (One of my Gop Facebook friends asks, “Why do you
keep bringing up facts?” and “Why do you keep bringing up history?”)
So we have conspiracy
theories, hoaxes, fear mongering, hatred, nativism, denial of facts, denial of
science, denial of truth, denial of government data, denial of media (other
than wrong-wing media), denial of written media (only recordings seem real) and
ideology trumps truth – all supported by the conspiracy theory that “The
government is lying to us.” Who is this “government” that wants to control us? I
know Gops suggest our president want to control us and it’s not reality. We,
the people, govern our country through our election process and three branches
of government.
The “right”
wing promoting this crap through their email system, websites, talk radio,
tweets, TV, etc. has backfired. The more I listen to "conservatives" speaking, the more I realize how talk radio "talking points" have infiltrated their speech -- as part of this brainwashing. This fascinating presidential cycle shows their
giving into idiocy has won the hearts of their radical right. The outsiders
dominating the race, with even Cruz looking rational compared to narcissistic, xenophobic,
media-hype Trump. Trump has a special relationship
with conspiracy theorists, also called “truthers.” Donald’s “birther” jibes are
a large part of why this conspiracy group respects him. Their party leadership
has no idea of how to remove the monster they’ve helped to create.
In the 1980s and 1990s, my wife and I didn’t have cable TV
for about ten years. My parents were raving about Fox News a new cable channel.
Leaning right, I was excited to get the network that impressed them so. After
getting cable, I watched it for years, enjoying it and not realizing its effect
on America.
True
Research:
Factual online research is done employing reliable, objective, non-biased websites
as a basis for fact finding.
1. Wikipedia is an excellent source (There is the possibility on obscure issues of mistakes missing oversight review, but most topics are well done.). I’ve found zero
to ever be disproved on it. It may not be used by colleges as a formal source,
but it’s excellent for most purposes. Definitions and historical perspective are solid.
2. College/University websites, ending in .edu are generally
excellent sources for fact-checking. A notable exception was a Colorado
University, which was producing petroleum industry narratives from one
professor of climatology. His graphs and data weren’t showing the latest data
from NASA and other institutions, but instead were showing supposed data of
hundreds of years – just suggesting climate temperatures are purely cyclical,
ignoring all the recent date that we broken out of the cycles. Cyclically we’re
supposed to be heading into another ice age – if this prof can’t recognize that
isn’t happening, he’s either purchased by the fossil fuel/fool industry or not
a very good climatologist.
3. Government data sources were accurate and reliable with the file extension ".gov", before tRump took over and has deleted much of the science that supports truth from government sites.
3. Government data sources were accurate and reliable with the file extension ".gov", before tRump took over and has deleted much of the science that supports truth from government sites.
4. Mainstream news websites are accurate. If they error, they
issue corrections – not so for FAUX “news” or other wrong-wing media. They, at times, do not present enough controversial issues.
5. Mainstream news fact checkers are also accurate. Politifact.com, factcheck.org, and The Washington Post
Fact Checker are good examples of where to find truth.
7. A newer excellent website designed to debunk video falsehoods
from both parties is http://www.flackcheck.org/.
Fake
Research:
1. False
research links to blogs that only have links to other opinions, not factual
material.
2. False research links to conspiracy theories – hoaxes based
on manipulation of ideas.
3. False research links to “news” websites [like FAUX/fox
“news”] that only present one party’s views (or pretend to present both).
4. False research links to graphics based on absurd data –
that’s not used to normally evaluate the given situation.
5. False research links to websites which have rewritten
history or science.
Narrative Leading to My Research Conclusions:
One of my best friends and his brother, though both have advanced degrees, believe in American conspiracy theories. My friends believes aliens are real, living on earth – mostly in tunnels under ground – even moving throughout our country on ultrafast underground trains. I’m told even our president doesn’t know about them. Scientists have been search for evidence of extra-terrestrial life for decades with no positive results. SETI, Search for Extra Terrestrial Life, has found zero evidence of ETs with broad reaching studies using many spectrums of electromagnetic radiation, including radio waves, microwaves, etc.
When asked if he has seen an alien of UFO, my friend says, “No.” Being asked to produce evidence, he’s sent me a conspiracy theory website link and YouTube video clip links. I’ve told him that the video clips are either grainy or drawings; I could use free software to produce such videos myself. I offered that these people who claim to have government evidence of aliens must be doing it to sell books or give lectures.
This same friend also has a refrigerator stocked with vitamins and supplements. Having an advanced degree in biological sciences, it still surprises me that my friend believes “the government lies to us.” He claims we could live to be 200 years old, but “the government doesn’t want us to live that long, so they don’t tell us the correct amount of vitamins and minerals we really need in our diets.” This friend is obsessed with electromagnetic radiation from electrical boxes on neighbors’ houses and from cell phones and cellular towers. He wears a hat to protect himself from radio waves and takes action to prevent neighbors’ electromagnetic frequencies from interfering with his house.
This same friend may have serious health issues brewing because of believing “homeopathic doctors” instead of traditional physicians. Despite his medical science background, he has a small refrigerator full of vitamins and supplements he takes every day. When asked what evidence he has to support the use of these supplements. He’s told me the FDA lies to us – not telling the right RDA for vitamins and minerals. “We could live to be 200 years old,” he claims if we’d take the right amounts of them, but “the government doesn’t want us to live that long.” He recently he donated some memory supplements to try on my 90 year-old mother. He’s not guaranteeing they’ll work, but suggest they might help her dementia. I asked him what evidence he has that these work. He said, “Articles.”
“Articles by whom?” I asked. His homeopathic doctor writes them. “Any other evidence?” I queried.
“Yes, from my other (homeopathic) doctor,” he added.
This sounds like snake oil salesmen to me. Their evidence relies on the conspiracy basic, “the government lies to us.”
His brother, also a great friend of mine – who further has an advanced science degree – also believes “the government lies to us.” His evidence is that jet contrails last longer than they used to. He also believes the conspiracy theory “the government lies to us.” This friend also thinks believing that aliens are on earth is quite reasonable.
I hadn’t understood how two of my best friends could believe such nonsense. It wasn’t until this past week that I believe I pieced these conspiracies together. I usually record and watch “The Rachel Maddow Show”; Rachel presents factual perspective I see on no other show. Rachel was giving a different perspective on the San Bernardino mass shootings and Republican reaction. She told of a “right-wing” radio host who also had a website and labeled all mass shootings in the U.S. as government conspiracies. She told how he even suggests the government may have killed some children to make the Sandy Hook shootings more believable. The name of the website Rachel cited sounded familiar. I suspected I’d checked it out before.
Neither recalling the host’s name or his website, I did a search for mass shooting conspiracies. His website, Infowars.com, came up. When I got to the page on mass shootings, I entered “aliens” in the search box and confirmed that my best friend had emailed me a link to this site before as “evidence” of alien existence. Before going to this this webpage, I was beginning to suspect a link between the two conspiracy theories. My conclusion begins below this.
Footnotes are indicated with links, superscripts or asterisks (below):
I was an independent voter, but in 2016 became
a Democrat. In the past, I voted for Ford, Reagan (2nd term), G.H.W.
Bush, Dole and even McCain. The only one of those votes I’m now proud of was
for Ford.
After the Koch brothers sponsored the tea party
to exert excessive influence over the Republican (Gop) party, I’ve been
debating politics on Facebook and with family members, along with doing an
incredible amount of research. This might seem incredibly one-sided, but every
Gop position I’ve researched is based on at least one lie from what I can
determine. I’m quite willing to debate this phenomenon.
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