A Social Media Fable For Our Time

Once upon a time (this morning) traveling through the land of FaceBook, I spied a post. Alarm bells went off in my head, as I circled round to get a better look.

The headline read: “Merck to add glyphosate to vaccines in huge deal with Monsanto”

What? Inconceivable! 

 I calmed my Hackles (the name of the horse I was riding in on) and got busy researching.  (I have learned a little from getting burned, humiliated and attacked by trolls on said social media...in that strange land we must remember not to trust anything at face value! Especially if the first reaction is " AHHH HA! I KNEW IT!"

Red flag territory.

The back story is that I am a science geek. When people pass off anecdotal BS as fact on social media I get triggered big time. Anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, chem trails...oh my! 

I mounted Hackles and started to ride like the Lone Ranger toward truth and the righting of wrongs. A full time, thankless job in the land of FaceBook. First I researched if Merck actually did make a deal with the devil. All I could find was this article:

Do vaccines contain glyphosate? Examining the anti-GMO claim 

Interesting serious article. Bottom line: Merck did not make a deal with Monsanto. No one is intentionally adding Roundup to anything we consume. Vaccines are good. Misinformation and outright lies are fear mongering tactics by people with either anxiety disorders, issues with authority or axes to grind.

 Ok. With that ammunition under my belt, I strode through the swinging doors, hands on six-shooters and laid my cards on the table.  I had a full house. 

Just then, my dear friend Inigo Montoya whispered in my ear..."I think you are being duped my friend." 

"Inconceivable!" I say. But I have always trusted my friend, so I slowly take my cards back and retire to a table with WiFi.

Quickly I discovered that the Montoya was right! We had all been duped. The Science Post (sounds so official) that published the article is total satire! They say they are your one-stop shop for non-award winning health and science satire. 

As if my social media life is not complicated enough, I now have to deal with a science satire??!? Apparently so. Add The Science Post to the Onion and New Yorker Andy Borowitz. 

So I got out the cards, shuffled and dealt a new hand. This is all a joke designed to "expose people's  stupidity", their words. Well, that certainly muddies the waters. 

I went back and actually read the article, something that was probably a good idea to do initially. It said Merck was altering the recipe for their vaccines to make them more toxic. Lots of people want to believe that one. Then it mentions Monsanto CEO Judas Luciferr. BINGO! Everyone knows that's not how you spell Lucifer...and the last CEO of Monsanto before Bayer bought them out was Hugh Grant...not the actor. Ha! Gotcha.

Then it got even more ridiculous...
“Most people eat glyphosate everyday, this way we get it directly into the bloodstream and make sure the consumer is riddled with it” said Luciferr. That is some serious sarcasm.  

Here's the link if you want a laugh.

We all had a good laugh. I climbed back up on Hackles, waved goodbye to Montoya and rode out of the land of FaceBook, much wiser. 

The moral to this story is when traveling in the foreign lands of social media it is wise to read more than just the headlines and have a friend like Montoya to whisper in your ear. 

I'm going to go watch The Princess Bride again. Carry on.

 

 

The Wall, Shutdown and An Epiphany!

Well I don't know why I came here tonight.
I've got the feeling that something ain't right.
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs.

Clowns to the left of me!
Jokers to the right!
Here I am stuck in the middle with you.

(Stealers Wheel. 1972)

The Democrats are flexing their new muscle and digging their heels in about Trump's wall. Trump is busy trumping up (sorry I couldn't help it) support for the wall by inflating the crisis story. This Stealers Wheel song comes to mind. Dems to the left of me, GOP to the right...here I am stuck in a shutdown with you. While having a strong belief that a wall is about the stupidest, most extravagant waste of time and money possible, I had a new thought. Eureka! I don't really know what's going on at the southern border. I don't know if a wall is what would be helpful or not. I don't know how many people are crossing illegally. I don't know how the people who live there are experiencing this situation and what they want. I don't even know what the overall true immigration issues are. How many immigrants/refugees can we absorb? Does the immigration process need to be changed? How?

Yes, I have read the news articles, listened to both sides. But much of it is second hand reporting with a bias toward one side or the other. When it comes down to really knowing, I don't. What makes many of us want to fight to the death, and lose friends, over something that we really have no first hand knowledge of? Somebody said people will believe anything as long as they like the person saying it. It's a complicated psychological drama we are in. 

I certainly know how I feel and what I believe. But a belief is, after all, just an idea we have repeated over and over until we think it is an obvious truth.  Social networking algorithms have strengthen the perception that my thought is the only true thought, because that is all we see: more of what we like and agree with. Imagine Trump sitting in the oval thinking like I do, that the world agrees with his every thought. I'm sure it's happening. It a crazy distorted reality. But that's not all. It has created such polarity between factions that there is a concern that violence will be the next step unless we can all realize...WE KNOW NOTHING.  It's not that the news is all fake, but it sure is biased. That influences each of us one way or another and then we get on facebook. Oy! Between the trolls and the bots, the fur flies! And still - WE KNOW NOTHING! 

So this new thought has caused me to soften my position, to accept that I really don't know anything about anything except what is right in front of me.  I will still have my opinions but will listen more and talk less. 

Thanks for reading.