The viral lie can be defined as when a person says he/she knows a thing to be true he cannot possibly know to be true.
It is perhaps humanity’s most commonly employed lie. We almost all use it from the time, as when we say “I know what someone (will do) or (is thinking). Colloquially, it is a harmless substitution of “I believe” to “I know”, just to give our opinion some mustard. It’s a claim of a kind of clairvoyance.
It can be very dangerous.
The viral lie has been a source of aggravation with me for some time now, as with every passing year we see it grow in magnitude and potency, as we are now being treated by educated political operatives who routinely repeat rumors, or hearsay, as if they were certifiable truths, without even the least amount of curiosity, or required scientific-like skepticism, apparently based solely on the notion that they want this hearsay to be true.
This is teat-fitter.
It’s the internal cultural want-to that makes the viral lie so dangerous, for it has infested an entire generation, especially, its purported best educated, causing the critical thinking observer to go beyond questioning whether their formal education was lacking somewhere along the way, to perhaps that they are victims of indoctrination, not education.
This short bit from a CNN hostess in a roundtable has made a real name for herself as a laughing stock in circles that can still think critically, and I assume there are many on the Left who still can, but it should come as no surprise to know that she is a hero in others. I her circle she is sharing high-fives. This is CNN, after all, not a Channel 6 talk-around right after the Saturday morning farm report.
This is serious, but not as a political problem but a deep social problem which, if allowed to spread, can destroy a civilization as lethally as Ebola or a North Korean EMP blast. Ask the Third Reich.
Hearsay, or “gossip” as it’s known in small towns, is second-hand knowledge. That’s all. Someone repeating a fact he/she has no personal knowledge of. It doesn’t matter if that person is the Pope or a bank examiner. No judge will allow it to be presented into court to establish the truth of any event or statement.
A writing that purports to state a fact can be double-hearsay if no one has actually seen it.
For years journalists have used anonymous sources to lay groundwork for stories they were developing. Some anymous source are so innocuous no one cares, such as the agency spokesman who provides background to media at EPA, State or any of several government agencies. No one really questions the truth of that background in part because no one really cares.
But a few journalists, from time to time, have crossed the line, having presented to the public scoops that were classified, and then jailed by a judge until he/she gave up the source. State judges also do this. The Justice Department was never a swift avenging angel, but it generally kept he press corps in line about crossing over in this area, except for 1993-2001 and again 2009-2017, when the Justice Department became a successful political arm of the Executive. (Richard Nixon tried this, but failed because he did not have the Media as a willing ally.)
If you’re old enough to remember, the media has always had a certain amount of hostility for every Republican president since Eisenhower. Some more than others. Then, the number of anonymous sources proliferated. This is normal, so this fact should disturb no one. Some GOP congressional anonymous sources have become so commonly known that no one really cares. Senator McCain can choose when he wants to stated on the record and reported as anonymous on others, and others have been accorded the same privilege.
No one argues that Donald Trump has received a level of personal, insider reporting from anonymous sources that swaps all previous Republicans. Nor does anyone argue that he has often invited it.
But media have now abandoned all pretense of reciting facts which is a stand-alone symptom of a deep disease.
I’m not here to debate truth, but the dangerous shark-infested waters we’re swimming in because of its absence, and, if this info-babe on CNN is to be believed, the systematic denial of it even being allowed in a public news venue.
The role of free-roaming anonymous sources, now stacked on top of one another, are having a survival-endangering impact to the nation, regardless of the content.
