Tonight, I heard a guy being interviewed on the news. At one point, he was asked about the recent allegations concerning connections between our government and Russia’s.
His response was, “Well, no offense, but I don’t trust the media. False news, you know.”
And trust me when I say this… there is no offense intended here, either. But use your darn noggin for a time or two.
I am not saying that every major credible news outlet gets the story right. Sometimes, they attempt to “scoop” their rivals, and they get overzealous. On rare occasion this happens.
Yet. When five or six of the major news networks are reporting the exact same information, and you have one that is not…. doesn’t that seem a little odd to you.
Let’s say you are a third grade teacher. Johnny gets in a fight on the playground with Kathy. A real brawl. You the teacher, breaks it up, and says…”Okay everyone! What happened here?” Five or six kids standing around, who saw the whole thing…. say… “Johnny started it. He shoved Kathy.”
Oh but wait. There’s Freddy. He and Johnny are best friends. And he says…. “No way. Kathy started it.”
Uhnnnnn. So who do you believe, MisterMisses Teacher?
We believe what we want to believe. That is true about all of us. But sometimes, we have to try discern fact from fiction…. and put our notions on the back burner.
Or, we can stay in denial.
And then everyone else around us looks like they are Edvard Munch’s The Scream.
All I can do sometimes… is look just like The Scream.
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“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
― Flannery O’Connor
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“I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?”
― John Lennon
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“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
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