Fake News and alternate realities.

 

Fake News and alternate realities.

When I was little the place to learn the news was the barbershop in town. Another place was the garage where the guys were waiting for their vehicles talking about the news. In the evening the men would come home and tell their wives the news, and thus public opinion was formed.

When I went to school additional news became available from newspapers and a few people even had radios. The mass media began to generate public opinion. Media became regulated and forced to express opinions and counter opinions. I remember clearly that time, but shortly after the regulations were removed. For a while, we had rules regarding presenting provable facts, and that changed. The market and self-regulating were assumed to do the job, but didn’t. People quit believing the news.

Fast forward a few years and advertising became an industry. Now the whole civilized world was connected, and the “professionals” understood more about human nature and how it could be manipulated. The Nazi party in Germany, the Communist party in the USSR, and the Fascists in Italy understood it sooner than others, but the rest followed closely behind. Coca Cola did as well.

By the time I become an adult marketing, statistics, and mass media were established and corporate entities could manufacture consent legally and efficiently. What we thought was “democracy” changed into a race of who can purchase most influence, and the people didn’t even notice. All major aspects of our lives fell victim to manipulation, often for monetary gain or political power.

Soon after, the age of Artificial Intelligence dawned, and people’s emotions became hackable. A small fraction of people with the right kind of knowledge can influence the masses while only being checked by similar groups competing against them. The folks who are manipulated don’t even know the name of the game they are playing.

I get irritated by people around me who become emotional about their families and brag about their kids while disregarding the future of the world. They wish to have the economic benefits that come from the “throwaway society” and the eternal economic growth while knowing that their kids will pay the price. It is not the monetary debts that will kill our kids and grandkids, it is the ecological debts that will do it. The quick profits from genetically modified foods, expanding carbon pollution, and eroding democratic systems are the enemy. Yet the highly politicized voting public is eager to face off against each other, each claiming that the other is fake news.

The field of marketing and shaping public opinions grew mostly with minor consideration for ethics. The business side paid for the discoveries and growth. People were the product, and later personal information became a commodity. Lying is now a strategy and opposing it is called fake news.

Just recently the masses have been introduced to something called alternate reality. It has been discussed in physics and philosophy, and in the hands of the less intelligent people became a tool for lying. The concept existed for thousands of years, yet now under the heading of Quantum Physics made a comeback. We can prove in modern laboratories that the most minute particles of reality are subject to human thought. Bang, we have objective reality, time, and space, behaving differently when observed or acted upon by human thought.

Alternate realities existed forever and still exist in primitive cultures. It is not some popular figure spewing lies pretending it is truth; it is the hardcore reality upon which religions and past civilizations were built and thrived. It is an alternate reality.

The Hellenistic Greek culture that we mimic, was living in what we call an alternate reality. Their reality comprised a model in which individuals didn’t exist separately but as a part of their family. Our capitalistic rugged individualism mixed with that culture where Gods were real, at the beginning of the industrial age that later became the technological era.

Now I watch some rich and famous people destroying the world for short personal gains. They claim that anyone who opposes them is fake news or that their alternate reality is different than the rest.

I believe in alternate realities. We don’t see reality as it is, and Lord help us if we did.

What I do know is that if I jump in front of a moving truck to grab a pile of money, my wonderful life will end. I refuse to follow those who regularly lie regardless of how big a reward they offer. They can show me money and power, tell me that foreigners are cheating or whatever they want. They can tell me they are my friends and try to bribe me. I am not jumping in front of moving vehicles or off a tall building.

I trust news that matches my reality as I see it without incredible explanations. I see someone messing up; I want them to clean it. A person is speeding around people, slow down. Someone selling dangerous goods, stop it. Cheating on taxes, prove that you didn’t. Careless about spreading contagious disease, pay for treatment, and damages. I think in simple terms. You break you pay and the rest is fake news.

I am old now and I know some simple facts. You get more flies with honey than with a hummer. You lead by good example. Children of thieves steal easily, and those who receive give help to others. You want power if you don’t enjoy working. You seek respect if you don’t act respectfully. Cheaters suspect all others of cheating. Lazy people try to force others to work more for less and so on.

Yes, there is fake news and alternate realities exist, and we can tell which is what if we are honest about it. 

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.