I have to write something to "clear my registers."
I drove by my local high school on Friday and was angered by the sight of anti-vaccination protestors harassing a student Covid vaccination event - but I kept driving. The local paper's report on the incident pointed out what a poor example the adult "anti-vaxxers" presented to the students. I question calling the protestors "adults." In the report one of the protestors chides the school nurse, Johnny Kell, for his "condescending" attitude, because he asked "Where do you get your information?"
It's an appropriate question, but obviously the protestors were there to serve some inner need, quite possibly other than a fervent belief that the vaccine would cause sterility as at least one sign carrier claimed. Anyway, by the time a "protest" group assembles and the adrenalin starts to flow it's not conducive to a debate over the facts. And with the ever present misuse of technology to corral "reports" from undocumented sources in the same enclosure as valid reporting, we are no longer able to winnow our information to separate the wheat from the chaff, unable to agree on what is true or false.
To continue the analogy, we are now in the age of "chaff information!" I'll dub it CI. Even stoically fair and unbiased news sources have an editorial viewpoint, in the past carefully labeled as opinion. But today's media environment leaves us adrift in a sea of conflicting, unsubstantiated data. But is it "data" if I made it up, or rewrote a piece written by my AI bot? And not everyone uses the alphabet and the written word - even recorded audio and video can be faked to serve editorial purposes!
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution gives cover to truth abusers, when the intention was to protect truth tellers and make our society stronger by sharing information. The great act of faith performed by our founding fathers was to visualize a mature republic governed by an intelligent citizenry. We are falling short of our ideals through a perpetuation of ignorance. In a literal, factual sense - not as a pejorative - ignorance! Keeping the populace uninformed and under educated serves as a prelude for those who would control us through classic emotional ploys and semantic devices.
If humans are denied access to education and never learn the art of critical thinking they may be more easily swayed by appearances, emotions, and the mood of their peer group. This allows us to be manipulated and guided by less than altruistic people who quite possibly have goals other than our well-being in mind. The manipulators seek to turn our attitudes and ideals to align with a concept or a cause when it's just a ploy to advance their program of self-aggrandizement, personal wealth creation and receive acclaim from their inner circle. One begs to ask, "what is the hidden objective here?" Who, and what purpose is served by misinformation? There certainly is a stark division of opinion evidenced by anti-vax protesting, widespread acceptance of election lies, and the sliming and trolling that goes on in online forums.
I'm not being condescending, only searching for the right word here - one that can easily be found in an online dictionary - in it's unvarnished literal definition. And I think I found it. If I become angered by the inanity of the anti-vaxxers targeting an inoculation event for high schoolers, it serves no purpose to stop the car, get out and create further disgrace by confronting my fellow citizens, because I believe that, even though within their rights, they are getting "out of line." Then I have become equally inane and out of line my own (expletive deleted) self. So I recognize the seed of anger turning toward irrational action inside my being, and temper my response to extend compassion to all concerned, witness the spinning of the tao, and wonder how humans have made it this far! And witnessing the broader contemporary descent into irrationality, I wonder if we'll make it much farther. If we lose the ability to make decisions and unify on a course of action, it will be chaff information - CI, not AI - that does us in.
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