End of Truthful Communication: The Misinformation Highway
Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart
Inciting anger, hatred, and violence. Dividing a nation’s
people. Brainwashing the uninformed. Ending intelligent conversation. Winning
elections based on lies and misinformation. Foreign nations deciding the
outcome of elections.
The former situations are used every day around the world. Misnamed
“social media:” Facebook,” “Twitter,” now known as “X,” and the most misleading
of all, “Truth Social,’ are some of the tools used by desperate politicians and
other despicable groups to control the minds and therefore the actions of
subscribers.
ALL GREAT INVENTIONS/CREATIONS ARE EVENTUALLY ABUSED AND
MISUSED
The telephone, the automobile, television, wireless phones,
computers, the internet: these are a few of the greatest inventions of the 20th
century. However, all of them have been abused and misused. Each is a tool used
every day for unintended and negative use more often than for the reasons they
were created for the masses.
One undeniable fact is that the wireless phone, and the
internet, are the most misused and abused. With the internet came voice mail,
texting, and the social media. I find it very upsetting when I see a group of young
men and women sitting at a table in a restaurant talking, texting, or on social
media instead of engaging in conversation.
AMBITIOUS MEN, WOMEN, AND BUSINESSES FIND A WAY TO USE WHAT
WAS ONCE GOOD FOR THEIR OWN, EVIL PURPOSES
As an original “baby boomer,” I have witnessed inventions
and changes to our daily lives unimagined by the most popular science fiction
authors. I can safely say that men and women under the age of 35 would be
incapable of existing in the 1960’s or 1970’s without their electronic devices.
From personal experience, I can offer enormous praise and complete
disgust with what I believe is the greatest and worst invention of all time:
the wireless telephone.
Sadly, the most seldom used application for today’s personal
phones is conversation. The most frequent use for wireless phones are features
which include its camera, and access to the internet. The reality is clear, if
you own a wireless phone, you have a computer in your hand, offering unlimited
access to information from millions of sources. Unfortunately, facts prove that
in the 21st century, as much as 90 percent of all information available
on the internet is false, based on blatant falsehoods, distorted facts, and
conspiracy theories.
The fact that I am no longer forced to wait at home for an
important phone call from my doctor, an employer, or an auto mechanic continues
to amaze me. I also enjoy the reality that regardless of where I am, I can make
or receive a phone call from anyone, anywhere in the world at any time of the
day or night.
However, the fact that these devices are all too often used
to spread lies, including misleading the voting public in each election year
are extremely worrisome.
One of the prime reasons Trump was gifted the presidency in
2016 is greed by the owners of various social media networks. Vladimir Putin
spent millions of dollars throughout the 2016 campaign to mislead facts about
Hillary Clinton, and offer undeserved praise for Trump. It is no secret today,
that the orange buffoon remains Putin’s most valuable asset.
A FEW FACTS YOU WILL NOT LIKE
Electronics have another byproduct. The American people have
become the most obese in the world. A large part of this fact is found in a
decline in physical activity related to a lack of free thought and the
acceptance of what we see and hear on television and the internet. Most
Americans decline to use their ability to find the truth. They are far too
eager to accept and believe misinformation they receive on the “boob tube,” or
on social media.
Fact: most American voters cast their ballots based on ads
they see and hear on television. They are too lazy to vet the candidates and
therefore make informed choices.
Even more upsetting, is the fact that they actually believe
what they see and hear on social media.
One last fact. If every American with a right to vote would
have closely examined the truth about candidates including Trump, Jim Jordan,
Moscow Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and
every other member of today’s “Republican Party in Name Only,” the government
of the United States would have not become what it is today: the most corrupt
and incompetent government in the world.
Be informed, and then cast your ballot for the man or woman
who will work for your needs and wishes, not for their own or those of their
Fuhrer.
Op-ed by James Turnage
Follow my blog, and be an informed voter, an informed
American
My 10 novels are available
on Amazon’s free Kindle App
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