History is an interesting thing. Yet as I grow older many of the things I would be curious to know about in the past might not actually be written down anywhere. This is a shame as I really would like to know some things that are mostly in the realm of behavior, perception of thought, etc.

I was speaking with @littlescribe again today and that got me thinking. My mind was circling this idea of cycles. I can feel these times as I feel like a lion circling a prey animal right before the pounce. When I pounce will I find my mark, or will it escape my grasp? Both have been known to happen.

Right now if I look at this entire fake news, and fake media movement I find myself thinking. "What is fake news?"

As I ponder it for awhile it seems like the answer to that is easy. That should be "Not reporting the truth". This can in turn lead to the concept that truth is subjective. Truth IS subjective based upon what information you have available to you. Yet, if people intentionally leave out facts and steer thought towards an objective that is not the truth.

Source: social-engineer.org

If any of you have taken Journalism classes (I have) you will learn that the goal is to present unbiased information and allow your readers to make informed decisions of their own from that information. The concept of bias can appear in a couple of different ways. It can appear as you the author telling people how they should interpret your information. "X is an ass! X is a racist! X is wonderful!" all are biased if your goal is to be a journalist. That is one way and it is very common these days.

Source: EMGN

The other method is to intentionally omit information with the purpose of steering your audience a different direction. Please permit me to give you a quick made up fictional example:

"Yesterday John smith was found dead at the bottom of Knowitall Falls. There are those wondering if perhaps it was suicide. At this point we are not sure."

Now let's consider that part of the testimony was that someone saw a man waving to John Smith to go down that fork at a fork in the rivers, when the other fork of the river was totally safe. If this information was known to the journalist and they chose to omit it then it lends more likelihood of suicide, or the man being a fool. With the information about the guy waving John Smith that direction it leans more towards conspiracy to commit murder.

Source: The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

One thing is for certain, by omitting known facts to paint a specific narrative it was not the truth.

Fake News

In Journalism when you write a piece where you have bias that is an opinion piece, and sometimes referred to as an editorial. It is not necessarily fact. In reality, it is often NOT the facts. It is an opinion.

If you watch, read, or listen to the news from virtually any source these days you will hopefully realize that almost all of it is editorial and opinion pieces. There is very little unbiased true journalism going on.

Source: Dot Earth - New York Times

So when the term "Fake News" is used then that term would appropriately label virtually every news source on the planet during this current era.

I mentioned circling the cycle about to POUNCE

I do believe more and more people are starting to notice this propaganda. They are noticing the fake news. They are noticing the biased journalism. This is what people react to and eat up. Fake news is popular. It is all they've really had to relate to for a couple of decades now.

Source: Pinterest

Are we in a cycle that perhaps we will hit a point where OPINION PIECES might be immediately noticed for what they are and find disfavor? Is this a cycle that has happened before?

Source: Wikipedia

When the protestants and other religious pioneers were pushing certain things and intolerance we eventually had an age known as the Age of Reason, and Freethought arise. It was during this age that the Founding Fathers of the United States were active. It was during this time that many amazing ideas came to exist. Some of these things such as Deism are almost unknown though they were truly radical in concept. In reality, Deism is not dissimilar to the current idea that perhaps we are living inside a simulation. That concept actually can fit nicely in Deism. So it is amazing that many prominent figures and founding fathers practiced it during the Age of Reason and now it is all but forgotten.

Source: study.com

So could we view this plague of political correctness, and biased news to be similar to the era where the protestants and other religious intolerance were active and lead to things such as burning witches? Could we near the end of such a cycle where people start to recognize OPINION and SPECULATION as exactly those two things rather than treating them as fact? Could we near the end of that cycle and go back to people reacting to events rather than treating imagined future events as real?

Source: PBS

Who are the witches today that you would burn? Think about that. If you could come up with some examples, consider how you might be viewed in history if you do get to burn your witches. Likely, much like the fools we view those that burned witches in the past. If you need a more recent example. Check out McCarthyism from the 1950s. I believe you'll find many similarities with how people are acting today. Those were also times where political correctness became too powerful.

Source: Wikipedia

Steem On!

EDIT: Lyrics for this suddenly started going through my head as I thought about this post.