I’ve discussed this in the past but it seems pertinent again.
One time during my youth I was engaged in an argument with a kid in the neighborhood. I don’t remember the subject but as the argument turned I realized I was, wait for it, wrong.
Yes, it happens to the best of us once in a while, and the liberals (communists) all day long.
Now just because I knew I was wrong didn’t mean I was going to cave and give in. I figured if I was learning something he might as well learn a lesson too.
At least that is what I told myself to soften the blow to my ego that I was indeed, wrong.
There is an old legal saying, “if you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table.”
This would have fit perfectly as an explanation but as I wasn’t familiar with this particular aphorism as a youth….
I didn’t have the facts on my side, and the “law” was never part of the equation, so you can bet the house I was pounding on the table.
In fact I pounded so assuredly that my verbal nemesis started to waver.
That’s all I needed.
One crack in the glass, one chink in the armor to focus my barrage of feigned confidence on, while increasing the uncertainty in his mind.
With him reeling I threw my favorite verbal punch.
“I’ll bet you I am right,” I challenged.
Sometimes this works, straight out of the gate, and sometimes it needs a little help. This particular time my one punch needed a second.
“I’ll bet you two bucks I’m right,” he said.
“Two bucks?” I scoffed putting on my best poker face. “Stop wasting my time. How about twenty bucks?”
“I don’t have twenty bucks,” was the answer.
I pushed forward. “If you are right it won’t matter. I thought you said you were right? Either you’re right or you’re not. If you’re right make the bet. You can’t lose.” I paused for effect and then finished him off. “Look I know I’m right. You just think you are.” I extended my arm (all bets had to be completed with a hand shake). “Take my hand I dare you.”
“Okay fine you are right,” came the dejected acquiescence.
I retracted my hand, smiled and said, “nope you were right the whole time you just let me talk you out of it.”
Welcome to today’s Media.
This isn’t a new concept.
For as long as humans have been competing to survive, the “media” has been feeding the masses information and misinformation, or more appropriately stated “lies, damn lies, and statistics”.
No one and I mean no one with a modicum of intelligence believes the unemployment rate is anywhere near five percent, that the Affordable Health Care Act is affordable and has anything to do with our health, or that CNN is actually a “news” organization.
Amerigo Vespucci had absolutely no role in the creation of the United States but it is a derivative of his name, America, that is known far and wide as the freest place in the world. Much of this was due to the usage of the printing press and the wide circulation of “information”.
Benjamin Franklin created fictitious characters and their written verbiage who took both sides of political arguments and published both views at opportune moments for himself or what he thought a worthy cause. Again the printing press.
History books are written and rewritten by the “victors”. Wars of the past are recreated by future generations to “spin” the story for many different reasons including entertainment and propaganda.
Television has replaced the printing press as the primary mover of “information” to the masses. Yes the internet is coming on fast but too many in America these days would rather sit in front of the “idiot box” and be awashed in their “news”.
It’s why the majority of the country was “surprised” when Trump was elected.
Rather than gathering factual, relevant, and available information too many continued to sit in a stupor while the television waves rolled over them feeding them distortion and dishonesty while attempting to destabilize society in order to create an even greater “need” for government intervention.
Well groomed humans with nice hair and good teeth stared into the camera and repeated whatever someone in the production room typed into the teleprompter.
It’s why many liberals think Obama can give a good speech. They are used to the continued drone of “reality TV”.
Remove the teleprompter and the vacuousness floats right to the top as the stuttering, pausing, and “uh or umms” create an incredible void even the starstruck cannot sensorially ignore.
In reality not much has changed. Men and women much less virtuous than Franklin are still creating characters and giving them their thoughts, and actors like Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama keep getting Vespucci like credit for things in which they’ve done nothing.
The reason Hillary isn’t part of the aforementioned group is simple. She couldn’t even read the teleprompter well.
On too many levels she is one bad actor.
The only thing we know about the press and our political “class” is this.
They know how to read.
So why do we bother listening to the “talking heads?”
The idea of “news” is that we are being given information that is not only factual but is also NEW.
The overall press in general is zero for two.
A while ago I wrote about a certain sports entertainment network that I stopped listening to because they stopped talking about sports. It took them a while to catch on but with their ratings in the toilet, and reportedly hemorrhaging money, it shouldn’t be too much longer before they return to the reason millions originally tuned into them in the first place.
Why will they return?
They are losing money.
Why are they losing money?
We the viewers stopped viewing and listeners stopped listening. It also might help to put people on the air that can speak coherently but another subject for another day.
We the “masses” hold all the cards.
If we want networks to give us the facts then we must stop watching those who continuously lie.
If we want newspapers and magazines to provide us the truth then we have to stop reading or “clicking” onto the garbage that is being printed or published on the internet. Search engines like Yahoo and Google and interactive experiences like Facebook will all change their algorithms or provide us better content when we require they do so.
When we stop clicking on the absurd and start searching for the truth the Invisible Hand will start to work again.
A media revolution, for the first time ever, is available to each and every one of us!
Our choices are being measured and calculated by incredible technological systems.
It’s time we eat “good food”.
It’s time to watch, to read, to share specific truths that must take place in our pursuit of happiness.
Everything is available to you, to us, in a keystroke, a remote control press of a button.
It also time to stop eating the trash. Garbage in garbage out.
One is not born with knowledge. Knowledge must be obtained. Currently there is no knowledge found in the alphabet soup of networks or newspapers save One America News.
The Nets aren’t Working.
There is nothing New in the Paper.
Your daily individual choices matter.
You have the power and authority to change the ever connected world directly from your couch.
Ignore the click bait titles from these putrid websites and networks.
Don’t bother to comment on their absurd rantings.
Simply turn the channel and watch how the world changes right in front of you…because of you.
A friend of mind called and asked what I thought of the “protests” specifically one that happened on a university campus approximately thirty miles from us.
I asked him how many students attended the university.
He said around thirty-five thousand.
I then asked how many were out protesting?
He said a couple hundred.
Less than one percent.
Frat parties have a better turnout.
However, according to the media, this sounds about right.
All of our problems can be blamed on the “one percent”.
Jason Kraus
www.aleadernotapolitician.com
