What is truth?

"A preposterous idea will first be floated as a guess, then later presented as a tentative hypothesis, then still later treated as a fact … The miasma of bogus authenticity becomes impenetrable; you might as well use a rifle to fight off a thick fog." -Laura Miller, Salon Magazine

I came across that quote while reading an article linked to Insight Scoop about the pernicious effect of The DaVinci Code and other pieces of fiction. It rang a bell with me, having listened to so many "facts" that would be disproven over the years yet still taken as Gospel truth by the true believers.

A short list would include, the Winter Soldier testimony of John Kerry and his ilk back in the 70's, the flushing of the Koran at Gitmo, "blood for oil" motivating both wars with Iraq, global cooling, global warming, nuclear winter, overpopulation of the planet by the start of the 21st century, population decimation by (pick one) AIDS, bird flu, flesh eating bacteria, famine, and the list goes on and on. The really discouraging thing isn't that so much bullshit gets generated, it's that so much is believed despite all evidence to the contrary. "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up" isn't a joke anymore. It's a commentary on modern life.

So where am I going with this?

I dunno but it seems we're gotten much worse since the Information Age began. We're inundated with unverified data to the point of becoming intellectually numb. That numbness sets us up for acceptance of it all as "fact" with no regard for any possible slanting/editing. Yeah it's always been true there's a sucker born every minute but in the last few decades we seem to be actively striving to increase that number. Critical thinking is at a minimum and that goes for both sides of any question.

More and more "true believers" seem to unhesitatingly sign up for a full menu of pure baloney. It's an all-or-nothing mentality when any subject is in the limelight. One of my favorite examples is the topic of gun control. Anyone reading my past posts knows the War Department and I were briefly involved with that after the Columbine shootings. We weren't/aren't gun grabbers but felt the topic of more restricitive screening prior to purchase a weapon should be up for discussion. Not as a magic pill type solution, just one of many approaches.

And that was it. Just let's put the damned topic on the table as one of several options to address the bizarre shootings that still go on. I didn't come down on either side, just felt it needed looking at as a possibility.

WOW!

What a shitstorm I walked into. Since first voicing that opinion at various sites I've been called:
a) naive (okay, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. But I don't agree with this one)
b) a traitor (normally this accusation came from someone with minimal military service. Guess 22 years in the canoe club doesn't count for too much. Noted)
c) an idiot (see "a" above)
d) a communist (sorry, wrong as a football bat there)
e) a facist/nazi (ditto)
f) suggested I go back to the country I came from (Long Island?)
g) and solemnly warned not to try imposing my New World Order (still wondering what THAT means)

That was just from conservatives. Liberals have called me:
a) a troglodyte (maybe. Submarine auxiliarymen are known knuckledraggers)
b) heartless (suspect the ones making this accusation had contacted my ex wives)
c) accused me of a phallic fascination with firearms (the bigger the gun....)
d) I must hate my children (see "b" above)

....... and on and on.

No real thought required on either side. The proponents of both were alike in spouting off questionable studies/statistics to justify their rants and completely discounting any contradictory evidence. The important thing didn't seem to be seriously discussing the best way to stop random slaughters, it seemed to be silencing questions of the "truth". Other than the specifics of their arguments, anyone I discussed it with seemed identical to their counterparts in arrogance and unquestioning loyalty to the respective part line.

Other examples can be found on any topic. Bottom line, the habit of seriously debating any topic from a shared base of hardcore, mutually agreed upon facts is shrinking fast as more and more zealots come out to shout down their perceived opponents and sway those "poor benighted souls not in possession of the truth". Spouting "facts" of dubious authenticity for personal aggrandizement is much preferred to coming to agreement with opposing view holders in the interest of the common good. Like the proverbial lemmings, we rush headlong over any cliff we're led to with little thought about what our beliefs are based on. And these "facts" can be manufactured out of whole cloth by the major proponents of any cause, the idea of the ends justifying the means is no longer found exclusively on one side. The tendency to rationalize lying in this manner is increasingly shared by all.

I'll wrap this up by saying it won't be any one set of false ideas that finally kills off Western Civilization, it'll be the mindset involved with swallowing false "facts", "histories", and other pure crap that got cooked up by someone with too much time and too little integrity. We're already accepting ideas such as all truth is relative, that's a big step there. Think about it, "all truth is relative". Several years ago that wouldn't have been uttered by anyone wanting to be taken seriously. These days it gets solemnly promulgated without the blink of an eye on the part of speaker or listener. All by itself, isn't that indicative on how we're degenerating?

Just the opinions of a retired turd chaser.