In a comment to one of my recent posts the commenter (whose name is also Michael Mort, but he is not me, and I am not him) said, “You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.”
I LOVE that phrase. I’ve heard it used by both Bob Beckel and Sean Hannity. Whenever you hear that phrase, you just know the speaker is certain that his facts are better than your facts. You should read the comment I refer to above. It is written with total sincerity. But the problem with the commenters “facts” is that they are simply not true. And the surprising thing is that can be said of almost everyone’s “facts” (not mine, of course).
Look, everyone agrees that politicians lie. Republicans says Democrats lie and Democrats say Republicans lie. (I do know that lying was not only condoned but promoted as a tactic by Barack Obama’s mentor, Saul Alinsky. As a matter of fact I have heard it said that Lying is part of the approved tactics in the Democrat party’s hidden platform for all political campaigns. There I, have made the accusation, now it is up to them to disprove it—I say taking a page from the playbook of Harry Reid.)
I could go on and on, debating each claim of fact made by the commenter to my post. The so-called news media does that all the time. I watch both Fox News and MSNBC. When one of them makes a claim of fact they often add that “anyone could check this out.” Sometimes I do check them out with a simple google search. My personal experience is that every single time I have checked out a claim made by MSNBC “news” hosts the “facts” turn out to be the opposite of their claim. And progressive fact checkers probably claim they find the same discrepancy with Fox News’s “facts.”
Facts are never what they seem to be, no matter who is the source (except when I’m the source of course). Scientists are presumed to be immune to the temptation of lying, but scientists tell whoppers all the time. The hoax of man-made global warming is only one example of fibbing on a grand scale. Scientists are humans like all of us, driven by the same passions of greed and the lust for power and influence. It’s not only the global warming fanatics who call their opponents names and use dirty tricks to conceal and alter data. The revered Thomas Edison did the same thing against Tesla in the fight over direct current versus alternating current as a delivery mechanism for electricity. Having been educated in mathematics, science, engineering and law, I know people in all those “noble professions.” And I can tell you they all will lie just like used-car salesmen if it suits their political or financial needs.
Fake facts have been with us for as long as their have been people who want to control other people. Democrats have learned how to use fake facts to their advantage. Conservatives are so busy trying to find real facts that they lose elections. Conservatives are too brainy for their own good. They’re missing the real question in their search for the “truth.”
The real question is not whether a certain statement is a real “fact” or just another distortion or lie. The real question is how do we use the human propensity of lying and believing convenient lies to generate more wealth for society? The answer to that question has been deduced over thousands of years of recorded human history:
Don’t think of it as a lie, think of it as marketing.
You see, it does not matter that the following statement is a complete fib:
If we don’t stop man-made global warming right now, humans will suffer catastrophe within a decade.
I could tell you all about historical global temperatures, the resilience of humankind in all temperatures, the enormous effects of the sun vs the minuscule effect of carbon dioxide, the fact that atmospheric carbon is a result of higher temperatures not a cause, etc, etc. But your eyes will glaze over. You cannot connect with facts. You connect with presentation!
What matters is whether the person who utters that statement above connects emotionally with his listener. The speaker knows that people who religiously believe in bigger government will always believe a whopper of a lie like that one because it furthers a cause they already embrace—government control of more lives. But the speaker hopes that his emotional conviction, his boldness in assertion, his apparent concern for the on-the-fence listener will all motivate more people to ignore real science (or not bother to learn any in the first place) and religiously believe the marketing message.
The same analysis applies to statements like, “More oil has been pumped since Obama took office than during Bush” (not a lie, but not the whole truth); “Taxes don’t matter to real business leader” (ignores what many people say by disparaging their abilities or intentions); “Obamacare is a free-market approach to healthcare that creates more competition” (Counts on the listener not knowing the difference between a mandate and freedom, between competition and coercion); “Jesus would treat poor people the way Democrats try to” (a speculation that ignores the needs of the total person who happens to be poor in order to effect the very non-Christian motive of controlling that poor person and buying his vote); “Republicans hate Blacks and gays” (ignores the fact that Republicans are the party of Lincoln and Democrats are the party of slavery, and that all of society—not just Republicans—have chosen for decades to promote traditional marriage through tax breaks that discriminate against renters, the unmarried, the childless, and widows). The veracity of these and many more statements made during political campaigning simply did not matter. All that mattered was the perception those statements created in the minds of the listeners.
So there you have your marching orders: Be emotional, not factual. Be bold, not correct. Be assertive, not studious. In order to give the people more of what they want (which is one way of defining wealth), you have to create businesses and market your version of the truth in such a way that you connect at an emotional level with listeners to convert them into customers. It has never been the veracity of what you say that matters, it has always been the way you say it that turns people to your cause or product. Sway them, don’t convince them.