Truth and fiction
TO THE EDITOR:
I was thinking today how many of my nephews and nieces have contracted the Covid-19 virus. Some have had it pretty bad and ended up in the hospital and others not so bad, but still felt the effects of it. So far, my wife and I have been lucky and haven’t contracted it.
I don’t know how they contracted the virus, so I can’t say if they were at fault by not wearing a mask, or if they were cautious but just unlucky. We’ve now had over 375,000 people in this country die from this thing. And I think a lot of it has to do with the disinformation that was so prevalent on Facebook and elsewhere this past summer, that added to that number. How can that be, in this information age? We can look up anything on our phones in an instant and get information literally at our fingertips. But we have to be able to screen out content that is false or we won’t survive.
The election was another event that got distorted by misinformation. Every election has some talking points tossed around by both sides, accusing the other of wrong or misleading information. But when it’s over, one side concedes and you move on. But not this election. You see, the misinformation didn’t stop. The idea that the election was stolen from Donald Trump was seared into the minds of his most ardent followers. Now, he had the right to question any of the votes. But he filed over 60 lawsuits and almost all of them were thrown out including a couple with the Supreme Court. His own Attorney General declared the election free and fair. Every state certified the results. Donald Trump lost. But still he persisted and continued to claim that the election was stolen from him without any evidence. It finally culminated in a riot that almost cost us all our freedom, not to mention the lives of those men and women who work in the Capitol. This misinformation campaign was dangerous and quite scary. And unfortunately, it may not be over.
The point I’m trying to make, is we all need to be vigilant and watch how we take and dispense information and make sure it’s true if you’re going to pass it on here or elsewhere. We will be a better society for it.
Randy Mauldin Texarkana, Arkansas