The Potential of Critical Damage of Disinformation
By Ron Signore
It has been nothing short of an interesting year. From March of 2020, every minute until the rest of 2024 is going to keep the interest of all of us. The closing out of 2023 may be a relief for some, but for others, it is just the beginning of the reality that many of us hope is coming.
The world we live in is constantly changing. The ability to go from hero to villain is an incredibly thin line with the public. If we look at someone like Johnny Depp, or even Kevin Spacey to some regard, that line becomes very close for people, and in America, the story of people at the top falling tends to give some sort of satisfaction to many.
The problem has several variables contributing. It is easy to say ignorance and intelligence, or lack thereof, is part of it. When you realize we live in a world that is growing dependent on “truth” seeking, we have enabled outlets for information that pose opinions as facts. This alt reality of facts or opinions has given credence to people who are no closer to any given situation than you or me.
History has become a source of dysentery. My default mode due to book burnings, pride in continuing to hoist the lose flag of the south, and obnoxious noise to conspiracies has led me to lean in blaming the right. In many regards, I am probably right. In others, I may not be. History is a great showing of dichotomy to the public.
This country, continent, and surrounding land all has a history that led us to this current state we live in. Believing that we had to progress as a society as time continued forward, we cannot forget where we came from; we cannot ignore documented events; we should not judge history like it is present day.
Early explorers and conquers did unimaginable things. Raping and pillaging to claim stake in land that we have come to learn intruded on natives, propelling the dominance and entitlement of the white man. Of course, in 2023, we do not condone these heinous acts, but like a well written movie, sometimes one person’s villain is another person’s hero. Where, or who, would we be if these horrible things didn’t happen as a product of their time. With little to no information, ignorance drives fear, fear drives fight or flight responses. In 1492, there was no internet. These unchartered territories from our ancestors from the other side of the pond reacted how their time dictated survival.
The problem is we hit a vicious cycle of history repeating itself, and amplified outlets to create widespread paranoia that drives the fight or flight notion. Throughout history, people learned that they could rebel. We learned we can make society what we want. With great power comes great responsibility and right now, in America specifically, we are as irresponsible as can be. This time in history, we have allowed once again a fight that could be portrayed as good versus evil.
Due to the fact we have the freedoms our constitution provides, we have consistently provided a shield for the villain as much as the hero. Once we learned to rebel against the norm, the chain of obedience broke. It used to be a liberal notion to question everything with conservative opposition to change. The liberal way was to defy control of authority and push for a better way. Progress has always been met with resentment, creating hostile tension among us. Many of us were brought up to challenge everything, ask questions, and understood consequences could come from our actions.
Currently, we seem to have seen a redistribution of that balance between liberal and conservative. It almost seems like we have gone to a country that was once dominated by a generation that truly had to live with the motto of “pick yourself up by your bootstraps,” in time periods where higher education was only available to a select group of people, to a large/growing population who had the ability garner an education. The conservative population, who has benefitted from many progresses time has made in this country, is now seen as the rebellious group against the liberal agenda.
Seeking the truth in that mindset is truly finding opinions that one agrees to. The ability to allow being gaslighted and pandered to. The stagnation of reality has caused an uncertainty to truth. The right has taken on a role to be like a defense attorney. They don’t look for the truth, they look to poke holes in the truth. They focus on potential “why’s” as they peel a metaphoric onion to position their opinion as fact to those who will believe. They want so desperately to be right, they ignore the meat, the “what” of the topic.
In 2024, I believe we have the greatest example that can bring irreparable damage to this country. The orange Humpty Dumpty is a topic that fascinates us all. While those of us who sincerely hate the man understand he is a criminal, there is a reality that there are people praise him as the second coming of Jesus. Everything is a deflection, a conspiracy, or a victim play. While it should be cut and dry that law enforcement through the Department of Justice (of the State of Georgia, or any other authority who has prosecuted this fraud criminally or civilly) presented FACTS of first hand accounts of these broken laws to a grand jury, and a grand jury determined there is enough to put someone on trial for the infringement(s), the echoes of deflection fill our media, social media, and everyday conversations.
When we have an irony that the Turd who cries election interference is actually being prosecuted for that amongst other things, we have a rising tension. The law has become another truly politicized element for them in the conspiracy to make progressive thinkers the villains. They belittle education and intellect as indoctrination. What I find funny is the lack of engagement from the liberal side to stoop to their level. While cries of President Biden using the DoJ as a weapon to keep his political opponent down, many of us will sit here and say, “maybe, but it doesn’t change the fact he broke the law.” We seldom see the left try to be the loudest voice in the room.
Like history, we get select excerpts provided to us through documenting events. Those who engage in first had accounts can draw somewhat logical conclusions to reality, though we never really know the exact truth. While the right tries to villainize with theories on “why,” the left proceeds on like a well calculated game of chess, trying to predict the next outcome based on what we know as facts provided by sources we were taught to acknowledge through our academic experiences. Taking random JOE-BLOW opinionated sources that one may like pander to their view has allowed the expansion of our greatest enemy, disinformation.
The right blames the government for what information is available to outlets like X, Threads, or Facebook. They cry 1st amendment violations when they are halted from continuing to spread misinformation. The average citizen, most specifically on the right side of the spectrum, doesn’t always have a grasp of the constitution, and they fall into belief that there is a conspiracy of hiding the truth, ultimately leading to control us. Pro-tip, the 1st amendment of the constitution’s right to free speech is what protects us from government prosecution for the things we say, within limits. The famous example of not being protected is when you can cause public harm like yelling “bomb,” in a crowded theater. The 1st amendment does not protect from censorship on non-government operated, public forums. While those platforms can shape their forum how they see fit, the next layer of the onion is that the government controls the leadership/direction of what is allowed on the platform. Again, I say “if so, so what, your opinion isn’t a fact.”
While we will continue to see pushing and pulling between the left and the right through 2024, “half” the country is going to be deflated to a point of enragement. If Humpty Trumpty is found guilty of major crimes as part of the indictments, the America we will see may mirror the image of America during the Civil War. I cannot say “unprecedented” because we already saw the ignorance grow violent on January 6th, 2021. Many supporters will exponentially raise the volume on election interference, deny there could possibly be any wrongdoing, and will inspire more acts of hate. The law and order party will continue to ignore the law when it impacts them.
The odds of all charges against him getting convictions, or getting acquitted, are small, there will be some decisions on both sides of guilty versus innocent. If the major crimes in the indictments come back as not-guilty, our patience will be tested with claims of complete and utter innocence, cheers of victory. Many of us anti-orange turd citizens will feel defeated. We will feel anger and resentment, because we still know he is indeed guilty of criminal activity. We may protest, but undoubtedly, we will feel an unforgiveable lack of faith in our government and legal system.
While we are in what I am calling a “Cold Civil War,” this next year will be very telling for the future of our country and our democracy. The criminal-saga of the Cheeto could dictate if we lose the word “cold” and add a II after war.
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