The hydra of misinformation

You know, I had another ugly dust up with a liberal friend the other night.  Among the things that got me to react were (and not in exact quoting):

"Trump is creating a cabinet that will unleash a holocaust on Jews, LGBTs, Muslims, and ANYONE WHO OPPOSES HIM." (Capitalization not mine)

"Trump is too stupid to write a book" (never mind The Art Of The Deal has sold over 1 million copies.)

"How much more of a economic catastrophe do we need (to prove the conditions now are the same as in Nazi Germany)?"



Wow.  Now there is one ton of baseless slander.  But you know, the person telling these whoppers isn't lying on purpose- they are regurgitating what they have been taught.  And damn shame that it is, they are so confident in the kool-aid they have drink, they refuse to do any but the most cursory research, to try to learn the truth behind these statements that THEY stand behind.

But arguing each point is like fighting a hydra of misinformation- you lop of one head with facts and figures, and three more fresh off the presses of MSNBC or Occupy Democrats spring up in their place. There is no dearth of trash to be found in each side's gutter.  I prefer to deal in historical fact.


So I can go back and look up unemployment statistics in 1930's Europe that would boggle the mind; I could remind people of the Kristallnacht so that they could see what REAL persecution feels like; I could pull up pictures of the massive soup lines here in the states back then.   But they COULD do that too.  I could ask them where the Hooverville in their town is, or if they've seen Coxey's Army camped out on the National Mall; or when last you paid 2 billion German Marks for a loaf of bread, if you could find it.  But they would just point out the "huge line" at the local food bank, or question why a latte made by a $15-an-hour coffee hop is so darn expensive anymore.  Yeah, we got it rough.

Today, Carrier announced a deal with the President-Elect that will keep 1,000+ jobs earmarked for Mexico right here in Indiana.  So why couldn't the sitting President do this?  I might postulate it is because why should he care about the economy in a red state (never mind all the United Steel Workers union hands that likely voted for him), or that he saw them as an environmentally unfriendly company whose products reduce the ozone layer, but the fact is, like in many other things- he did nothing.  Now if Trump were the Hitler look-alike that these people claim, he'd have just had the government buy the factory, fire all the employees, and get slave labor from Latin America and Syria to do it for free.  Because, children, THAT'S what a Fascist does.  Or maybe he could have bought the company as the Government, paid people half what they're making now, set production schedules with little connection to reality so that the product becomes overpriced and slipshod, and put up posters all around the factory about teamwork and pulling together.  Because that's what Communism does.  Ask anyone whose tried to run a small business in Cuba for the last, say, 70 years.


But what Trump did is what he is BEST at- he made a deal.  One no doubt beneficial to all parties, especially the 1,000+ people who don't have to spend half a day at Unemployment.  And will it be appreciated?  Well, as little as three days ago:

Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, said Friday he has not been briefed on talks between the incoming Trump administration and Carrier. But he doesn't see any chance for Trump or Vice President-elect Mike Pence to reverse Carrier's plan to move its west-side furnace operations to Monterrey, Mexico.


And why is that?  Because much of the left doesn't WANT to see any hope.  They are too busy moping that all their sacred cows are seemingly lined up for the slaughterhouse.  But are they?  Frankly, I doubt it.  EVERYone talks tough on the campaign trail.  Obama had 8 fricking years to close Gitmo- but soon found out it wasn't as easy or smart as it seemed.  The Donald is likely going to shoot off his mouth about a lot of things, only to find out reality is a bitch.  But if he can do even a few good things- like saving jobs at Ford and Carrier, and not even in office yet- isn't it worth it to set aside fear born of lies and untruths and give him a chance?

Prolly not.  Easier to just respond to everything with ideology and fear, wasting large chunks of your life that could be spent productively working with the system to make things better for EVERYONE by sharing memes with no truthful basis, attending rallies that serve no real purpose, and really making oneself look like you've just fallen off the ol' turnip truck.

And me?  Well, I'm trying here to be that guy who wants to give you that wake-up call, stop wasting your time on reverse-hate and needless fearmongering, and act in such a way that you will become happy and well-balanced again.  Or I'm just that anti-semitic, woman hating, homophobic bigot whose bent on insulting you because you LIKE it inside that fear bubble. You can decide, but I know WHY I wrote what I did.