Opinion/Editorial

We Hold These Truths

Truth is a huge shrinking and expanding rope of warm taffy. It’s sticky, can be painful,  it’s too hot, and you can’t get it off once it’s on. The other thing is that the taffy rope is all but invisible. We are bombarded with information today, but the word information has been converted from a word intended to convey that it is made up of valid conclusions, formed from facts and delivered with integrity, into something else entirely.  The ability of the Internet, which was once called the world wide web, has been severely damaging when it comes to the interpretation and testing of the submitted information. This result has been caused by one simple factor, other than that the average I.Q. of the public has been un-reassuringly confirmed once again. That factor is anonymity. Anybody can say anything on the Internet and do so without producing identity, credentials, or any other thing that might support the truth of the data. Anonymity assures that there will be no attribution for passing bad data and that instead of such garbage being immediately tossed out it is instead considered as a potential alternative for elements of reality that might seem impregnable and proven over eons of time.

The assembled and divided cultures of the world have gone from striving to accomplish movement toward an advancing civilization understanding and realization, but that’s now changed. Advancement is built upon the integrity of the scientific method, whether applied to physical experiments or social presentations. The United States treatment of the vaccinations currently being administered to the public (25 percent of the population of this country has received both dosages), is a perfect example of the Internet run wild when it comes to the rationality of taking a vaccine that is now certain to cause immunity from getting the dreaded viral disease, but the vaccine, in all of its current iterations, is being resisted and resisted by a large portion of the population. That large portion is not necessarily stupid. That portion of the population is deliberately and even proudly ignorant. Since the dawn of its invention, the printed or written word has proven to have more credibility than the spoken word, and that’s just as true today as it’s always been. Even more, credibility is given to videos, no matter who makes them or where they are seen.

The necessity of sourcing has almost completely disappeared. Complete idiots like Hannity on Fox, Ron Johnson in the Senate, and the Marjorie person in the House, have tied themselves like survivors of a shipwreck to vessels bearing the names of Proud Boys, Q’Anon, and so many more. How does the public come back from this long-term likely terminal result? How does the nation reel in the discussion about freedom versus staying alive, between not having to fear a disease instead of hoping not to get it? Immediately, the United States needs to end Internet anonymity, which would also end so many kinds of fraud, extortion, and blackmail, not to mention the ruination of so many reputations, needlessly and many times committed only for the nasty enjoyment of computer operators who simply don’t care. We require the population, all of it to have licenses to drive, so we must require them to get vaccinated and also to register with real Identification to get on the Internet. These issues are not small. Drunk driving, reckless driving, and worse will not kill us all, even a good portion of us all, but the other two dangers, the virus and this electronic anonymity will. Those two things are killing us right this minute, although nearly half the population will not believe it.

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