Often truth has been hijacked for political or anarchist reasons. There are hundreds of false reports each day that make it into the media. These false reports are either called out or assimilated into the culture of our society. Often they live as slogans, “Bush lied and people died.” Or, “America did not land on the Moon.”
It is now possible to “prove” or “disprove” any fact or theory. There is probably a blog chronicling that Elvis is alive and playing golf with Michael Jackson who is also alive. If not, wait a minute, it will be up shortly.
The best and worst of the Internet is the speed by which information is available. I get tons of data such as: Mr. Rogers was a decorated Marine in WWII. Nope, that is a hoax someone made up and laughs every time it circles the Internet.
Over the years I have stuffed that hoax and hundreds others. Every day there they are again and another group of people on FaceBook or somewhere else are taken in by the attack on truth.
My first connection to a wider world was in 1988 when I was a tester for Prodigy while living in California. At first it was opinions and advisories and in the 1990s it changed to data repositories.
In 1992 I was using email at NMSU such that I was on a project with a women in Jamaica and a man in New Zealand. We never met face to face but worked a year together. The data we sent back and forth stayed true on the worksheets and it was great.
Certainly I was aware in 1998 of the Y2K scare which came from the Internet to the media and back. Now it seems mildly humorous that so many people believed that life on this planet was going to end due to a programming problem when the clock strikes the year 2000.
Scam after scam tied to the Y2K problem had people petrified that the planet was in for a hard time because almost all business had a computer connection. Billions of dollars were needlessly spent because we could not get to the truth.
Well, not everyone was freaked out and worried including myself, but the media played the concern to the hilt. People started stocking up on food, water and generators. However, I did not stock up or hoard above my normal two weeks or so of stuff.
In 1999 I wrote a column asking: how were these hoarders going to deal with their neighbors when they have the only warm house in the neighborhood? It was going to get ugly, especially when the lights came back on. Neighbors will have long memories of you shoving a gun in the faces and telling them to scram.
In the last twenty years the instant communication has also driven some political events using the political commodity, FUD. Now FUD stands for Fear Uncertainty and Doubt. In 2014 there is an avalanche of untrue and partially true stories both in the media, social media and in our email with access to truth missing.
Some people opine what is needed is more government control of us to assure the truth. I cannot imagine how bad it would get if government was in charge of the truth.
Consider with this government we have conspiracies to explore or if you are on the other political side to keep people from exploring such as what happened in Benghazi, the IRS targeting conservatives, Fast and Furious and the demolition of the civility impulse in society. Enquiring minds want to know.
Then comes the worst FUD, the Fear Uncertainty and Doubt about climate. The truth is if we survey all scientists we will find that there is not 97 percent of scientists affirming Global anything.
How odd it is that we have Global Drought in New Mexico while Global Wetness hits the East Coast. We have lost our access to the truth.
Dr. Michael Swickard hosts the syndicated radio talk show News New Mexico six to nine a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
The best and worst of the Internet is the speed by which information is available. I get tons of data such as: Mr. Rogers was a decorated Marine in WWII. Nope, that is a hoax someone made up and laughs every time it circles the Internet.
Over the years I have stuffed that hoax and hundreds others. Every day there they are again and another group of people on FaceBook or somewhere else are taken in by the attack on truth.
My first connection to a wider world was in 1988 when I was a tester for Prodigy while living in California. At first it was opinions and advisories and in the 1990s it changed to data repositories.
In 1992 I was using email at NMSU such that I was on a project with a women in Jamaica and a man in New Zealand. We never met face to face but worked a year together. The data we sent back and forth stayed true on the worksheets and it was great.
Certainly I was aware in 1998 of the Y2K scare which came from the Internet to the media and back. Now it seems mildly humorous that so many people believed that life on this planet was going to end due to a programming problem when the clock strikes the year 2000.
Scam after scam tied to the Y2K problem had people petrified that the planet was in for a hard time because almost all business had a computer connection. Billions of dollars were needlessly spent because we could not get to the truth.
Well, not everyone was freaked out and worried including myself, but the media played the concern to the hilt. People started stocking up on food, water and generators. However, I did not stock up or hoard above my normal two weeks or so of stuff.
In 1999 I wrote a column asking: how were these hoarders going to deal with their neighbors when they have the only warm house in the neighborhood? It was going to get ugly, especially when the lights came back on. Neighbors will have long memories of you shoving a gun in the faces and telling them to scram.
In the last twenty years the instant communication has also driven some political events using the political commodity, FUD. Now FUD stands for Fear Uncertainty and Doubt. In 2014 there is an avalanche of untrue and partially true stories both in the media, social media and in our email with access to truth missing.
Some people opine what is needed is more government control of us to assure the truth. I cannot imagine how bad it would get if government was in charge of the truth.
Consider with this government we have conspiracies to explore or if you are on the other political side to keep people from exploring such as what happened in Benghazi, the IRS targeting conservatives, Fast and Furious and the demolition of the civility impulse in society. Enquiring minds want to know.
Then comes the worst FUD, the Fear Uncertainty and Doubt about climate. The truth is if we survey all scientists we will find that there is not 97 percent of scientists affirming Global anything.
How odd it is that we have Global Drought in New Mexico while Global Wetness hits the East Coast. We have lost our access to the truth.
Dr. Michael Swickard hosts the syndicated radio talk show News New Mexico six to nine a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
