Open Our Eyes, Lord!

In Part I I began an extended-play rant against internet disinformation. I’m against it for two reasons: I don’t like false information; I don’t like to look foolish when I fall for it.

Here are other areas where we need to show some healthy skepticism:

ECHO CHAMBER EFFECT

In 2015 the social media were packed with people reporting that Pope Francis had announced that Islam and Christianity were equally valid and that the Koran and the Bible were basically the same message: “Jesus Christ, Jehovah, Allah. These are all names employed to describe an entity that is distinctly the same across the world.”

“I’m the pope, but I’m broadminded!”

People were outraged! The Vatican denied it which, for some of us, was evidence that it must have really happened. It appeared on the bogus Washingtonpost.com.co, conservativebyte.com, also civictribune.com (which altered the story, so that the pope supposedly said this at the White House). So, I have seen the same exact story, usually quoted verbatim, on four websites. Does this mean there are four “sources”? No, only one, and that original source (National Report again!) said they were just joking! But the echo effect means that the reader senses that, “It must be so, because everybody is talking about it!” The National Report was also responsible for the spoof that the Pope wants everyone to be micro-chipped by 2017.

I am not a Catholic, and once in a while people criticize me for overturning false rumors about the Pope. And every time, it takes me by surprise: after all, shouldn’t I stand up for truth, even if by debunking a lie it aids a group I don’t belong to? Shouldn’t I stand against lies about Republicans and lies about Democrats?

Here is a recent example: Paula White supposedly promised that if you pledged a certain amount of money to her work, then when you died she would raise you from the dead! Now, in my opinion, White is a scam artist and her teaching is a hot mess. And yes, she actually was trying to vacuum an additional $1144 dollars from each of her devotees. But when I looked it up, I found that she had promised that the money would clear out whatever was dead in each person, but not that she would physically raise them from the dead. Far be it from me to defend Paula White, whose message I find reprehensible on so, so many levels; but truth is truth, right?

On the flip side, I did pass along on social media that story that Joel Osteen had weaseled out from opening his church to Houston flood victims. It’s because, after chasing down the story, investing way more time than I should have, I concluded that the charge was accurate, and that among other things he had posted old photos to imply that his church had in the present been flooded, when it wasn’t. But let no-one say I passed along a rumor just because I don’t like Osteen! One hardly needs this particular flood anecdote to be able to repudiate his message! But truth is truth, right?

For the Christian there is a special sort of news source, the Prophetic Site. If one blogger says he, I don’t know, saw four grim horsemen riding around in the field ‘back of his farm, then the story will spread far and wide within days, if not hours.

TABLOIDS

Ah, for the days when tabloids were clearly labeled and placed at the supermarket checkout. Then you could give a quick glance and find out when Elvis was spotted with what Venusian or how a Wolf-Boy was loose in the Maine woods.

Here’s one you won’t soon forget:

Now you just have to click on and find tabloids online, for example, WorldNewsDailyReport.com. Read all about it! “Man who spend 57 Years Counting the Bricks in the Great Wall of China.”

Of course, (more…)