Fake News (Again)

My YouTube watching has settled down from the obsessive negative conspiracy truther sniping back and forth to something better.

There are several words I don't think I have to ever hear again.  "Shill" tops the list. 

I've been so used to Republicans and Democrats pretending like they can find no redeeming qualities in one another.  Do they really now know that each keeps the other in business?

But it took me a little while to understand how pervasive that idea that "the other guy" is the problem is within the Truther community.  Instead of half the country being right, truthers think they stand alone or with one or two other people.

Apostle Laura Lee gets that.

There are many things she says that well... let me stop.

But I love how she clearly states that truth unfolds and no one has all of it.  People change their mind and it doesn't mean they are the enemy.

Jungle Surfer can't stand to be questioned.  Now how is he going to say a new idea that no one has ever expressed before, that is so far out there... and expect anyone who hears that for the first time to just go along with it?  His whole set of channels is built upon skepticism and Il love that; but no one is allowed to be skeptical of him?  Dave J or Johnson is the same.  And they both have some great points.  But I can't imagine anyone else on earth agreeing with either of them more than 90 percent of the time and they both seem to require 100 percent allegiance or the other person is dismissed completely.  It must be a lonely life.

Today I listened again to Dr. Tarrin Lupo's video about not living in fear and it echos some things I've been told recently from someone who has personal experience in escaping a fear-filled life.  It's to avoid "What if" and to do that by asking oneself "What's the worst that can happen?"  I was talking to someone else who wants to start a cabaret show- I think he said nightclub act- and he described once when it didn't work.  Why are so many people afraid to fail?  This guy just played a part better than I've seen anyone on YouTube do it- ever.  And he's questioning his ability to pick his own songs, find an accompanist and play successfully in public?  Of course he can do that.  And so can I.  It's just that not everyone is going to like me.  Or him.  And why would anyone want to be liked by everyone anyway?

So this fake news thing is making the mainstream media and that's great.  It's about time news organizations admitted that they tell us what to think with the facts that they want to give us.  But that's what we're doing ourselves when we live out of a place of fear.  We fit the facts into the framework to reinforce the negative.  And this is what being free right now is helping me to learn.

There is no need to get caught up in the whirlwind even if it is constructed of true; not alternate, facts.  There is no need.  And like my aunt says- there is no need to worry about a problem that hasn't happened.

I once or twice or ten times heard the acronym for Fear as false evidence appearing real and that's true of the fake news designed to scare us that we hear from within ourselves or anywhere else.  But the problem of that acronym is that it assumes that there is nothing to fear.  But there is.  It's just that we fear too many things and too often.  I think there is a place for fear.  But there is not a place for worry.

I heard once or twice that the word worry- probably in the Greek, I think- comes from wiggling on a splinter and that thought gets lodged in there.  I'm not sure if wiggling on a splinter might not help it dislodge but listening to the recording over and over of something bad in my head is certainly some fake news I can get rid of.

Thank you 45 for pointing out that CNN has been the Clinton News Network.  It takes a liar to know one I guess.  Can we admit that we all misrepresent ourselves?  Can we start there?  If a news story is told about a mother that's a particular beginning.  If it's told about a single mother that's another.  If it's told about a daughter... or employee... or manager.... or Floridian... all of those facts can be true at the same time about the same person, but how do we put the idea forward?  Have we already decided that mothers are supposed to be nurturing so presenting an accused murderer as one makes it a better story?  Have we already decided that a single mother is virtuous so that puts a certain image in mind?  Well I'm sure there are some single mothers who are not victims of circumstance but flat out evil, right?  Probably a few.

I actually like the idea of alternate facts- probably not at all in the way that the phrase was coined in news stories I try to avoid- but the world is full of facts.  Which ones make the best story?  And what are newscasters- story tellers or investigators?