CommentsONE MAN’S OPINION-A society that lives by fact-free emotional memes is a low information society. Since knowledge is power, ignorance can be fatal. For the Dems and the GOP, passion rules over reason.
Eons Ago, Facts Made Us Feel Good
Those of us who are ancient remember when the TV evening news was only 15 minutes and the most famous early TV documentary was Edward R. Murrow’s Harvest of Shame in 1960, showing the conditions of farm migrants. Murrow was a national treasure because he and his programs were fact-based.
Back in the Camelot Days of Kennedy, before the Viet Nam War and its lies, before deceit tore apart the nation, Americans felt confident that they could handle the truth. When we saw bad facts, we took action. We had the Civil Rights Movement and the War on Poverty, but as we all know now, there came a time when we could no longer handle the truth. Colonel Nathan R. Jessep spoke the truth in the 1992 Aaron Sorkin’s film “A Few Good Men” when he sneered, “You can’t handle the truth.” The GOP created the Silent Majority, aka Moral Majority, to combat the Hippies of the 60s and 70s. While an army moves on its stomach, social movements use emotional memes to mobilize their forces. For quite a while, we termed this meme-ization of America “the Cultural Wars.”
In 2020, Emotional Memes Rule
The Left with its Identity Politics and the Right with is White is Right creed have vanquished facts as the common ground of public policy. Not unlike the religious wars in Europe centuries ago, each side is 100% convinced that its memes are the pure word of a God who supports them in battle against the Evil Other.
We should realize that the truth shall not set you free when “truth” is an emotional meme or an article of faith. Facts provide a common ground for national action, but neither party wants unity. Because meme-ization requires demonization, neither wants the public to be united in fact-based cooperation.
Memes, Lies and Covid-19
If the power brokers had any fear that the public would react with anger and hold politicos accountable for telling us false memes, then we’d have known the facts about a gazillion social matters from homelessness, to the accumulation of wealth of the 1%, to the horrible traffic congestion and to growing inequality making it so people can no longer afford to buy homes. Low information voters, however, are passive in the face of their leaders’ lies. Low-Info people only become energized over an emotional meme about the Evil Other.
Covid-19 is Spread by Asymptomatic People
One way the authorities misled us is by pretending we only needed to worry about people with obvious symptoms. They gave out this false information for a couple really bad reasons:
(1) The government was unprepared and did not have enough test kits for the all locations that needed them. Thus, by saying only really sick people needed to be tested, they misled the public into thinking we had enough test kits and a distribution system.
(2) Protecting business was paramount. The truth that asymptomatic people could spread Covid-19 might have quickly resulted in people staying away from work. The fact that similar myopic misinformation in the past has never resulted in protecting the economy did not put a dent in the meme-makers’ mentality. How well did Wall Street react to massive disinformation? Each new fact prompted another nosedive.
Politicos’ Ploy: “Say What People Want to Hear, Not What is True”
There is no substantive difference between the GOP and the Dems in this regard. Both sides justify their misinformation by saying that they don’t want to induce panic. That too is an idiotic emotional meme.
What would panic have looked like? They’d stock up on hand sanitizer, toilet paper, paper towels, and institute social distancing like elbow bumps. Remember the AIDS commercial showing that when you have sex with someone, you’ve had sex with everyone with whom they’ve had sex? The same principle applies with Covid-19. The person’s hand you just shook may have picked up the virus ten seconds ago from the building’s door handle which had just been infected by the Uber passenger who entered before that.
A Fact-Based Society Does Not Panic
Panic is a fear reaction and when it dawns on people that they face a threat that is unknowable because the authorities continually spew out misinformation. What would people have done three weeks ago if they had known that most cases of Covid-19 are mild, yet deadly for certain other people?
(1) We could assume that everyone is a carrier, and thus, everyone must institute safety procedures. Here’s a sensible principle: “Since you cannot see it, assume it is there!” The advantage of this approach is that it quickly leads to a new social norm. It’s okay not to shake hands. It’s okay to disinfect all surfaces in your home so that family members who did not come into contact when out do not get infected by family members who did pick up the virus.
(2) Action Reduces Fear
By telling the public that Covid-19 is spreading by methods we cannot see, we provide facts about how people can take action; this is the best antidote for fear. Yes, there is a danger, but there are things we can collectively do as a society to fight this enemy. Concealing information is not wise public health policy.
(3) Covid-19 Was an Opportunity to Bring the Nation Together
Here is the most distressing social aspect of Covid-19: If we had all united around facts rather than being divided by myopic misinformation, the nation could have taken collective action and stopped the spread. Political leaders are so accustomed to doing what is best for themselves in the short run that none of them wanted to abandon the chance for fleeting political gain by denying they have made mistakes.
Politicos behave badly because We the People defend our side without regard to facts.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
