Misinformation

Contempt before investigation is the way of the propagandist, and, well, the idiot.

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation." ~Herbert Spencer

I don’t comment on social media since it thrives on engagement in the form of negative emotion, and I have no wish either to contribute to that, or to further enrich the owners of Facebook, Google, or Twitter. Sorry, Zuck. Sorry, Elon. Okay, sorry—not sorry.

Instead, I just watched the players in the polarized social media world stake out their predictable positions. I watched no one’s favorite senator, Ted Cruz (R-Cancun) denounce President Biden for not shooting the Chinese spy balloon down as soon as it was detected in American airspace. Meanwhile, the President’s defenders said the Department of Defense probably jammed the balloon’s communications, and may have gotten more information from the balloon than the Chinese did. They say we had been tracking that balloon all across the continent, camouflaged or moved anything sensitive out of its path, and let it ride the jet-stream as an opportunity to study Chinese tactics and technology.

The idea that we didn’t shoot it down over Montana because of potential civilian casualties is almost as silly as China claiming it was a weather balloon gone off course. Montana is about as densely populated as a movie theatre playing Rocky XIII, and has more cows than people. The threat to those on the ground was a good ruse, and I hope we learned a lot between the Aleutian Islands and the South Carolina coast where we ultimately shot it down. What’s left now goes to a government lab for hands-on study.

There remained much to be learned because there’s more here than meets the eye. Nonetheless, each side was contemptuous of the other, and neither had enough facts to speak, but that has stopped them approximately never.

The Pentagon now says this is second Chinese overflight during the Biden administration, and that there were three such incursions during the Trump administration. They say they didn’t realize what they were seeing at the time of those first four incursions.

CNN reported that national security personnel told them: “The surveillance balloon's overflight of US territory was of intelligence value to us... we were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable.”

The illiberal crew of election deniers and performance artists on the right side of the Congressional aisle spent the week elbowing each other out of the way so they could get on Hannity and Alex Jones to lambast Joe Biden, the Pentagon, and of course, Democrats, for allowing our greatest rival unfettered access to our skies. Denying the possibility of the counter-intelligence opportunity the balloon represented, they couldn’t pass up the chance to “own the libs,” and fundraise like the dickens. I’m on a couple of their email lists, and my inbox has been flooded with breathless pleas to “SEND MONEY NOW!”

Of course the Former Guy led the parade. Unsatisfied with only calling out Biden, he also went after House Republicans for not demanding we shoot that thing down sooner.

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Mars) said, “Biden should shoot down the Chinese spy balloon immediately…President Trump would have never tolerated this. President Trump would have never tolerated many things happening to America.” She’s on the Homeland Security Committee, so likely received a classified briefing on all this, and might have held her tongue, but, c’mon, we’re raising money here. (If only for the sake of delicious irony, I wish MTG was on the Intelligence Committee!)

In other misinformation news, Charlie Kirk, the right-wing liar who preys on his audience’s ignorance, collected millions of views on social media when he claimed that Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin’s collapse on the gridiron was a result of Covid-19 vaccines. Untrue according to the cardiology community, but Kirk made his stand and will move on to the next lie. Sensationalism pays his bills. Let the reader beware. 

Finally, It was hard not to notice news from the Guardian, CNN, and NPR this week of a very sad tale of people who not only hate their children and grandchildren, but their great grandchildren as well. It seems Exxon has excellent scientists who, in the 1970s, discovered that burning fossil fuels would eventually kill life on earth. More concerned with shareholder value than their off-springs’ well-being, Exxon execs buried the research and spent five decades convincing the world that climate change is a hoax.

It's another study in the use of misinformation.

The truth suffers when we speak before the facts are known, and when we lie selfishly, but speak we do.

Contempt prior to investigation is sad in its inevitability.

©2023 Jon Sinton