Three Kinds of Lies
November 13, 2011 in Opinion
Over the past year, I’ve learned to question everything I hear from anyone who communicates with me. This includes mainstream media, government, religion, and individuals.
I’ve learned to do this because spinning a story to fit an agenda is a skill that everyone has and everyone uses.
Let’s look at some examples.
The attendance for the General Strike held in Oakland on November 2 was reported by mainstream media at seven thousand people. Those not in mainstream media reported it at 30,000 and up. Some even said there were 100,000 participants. This picture in this article is a from from helicopter footage taken that day. If you want to research for yourself, go to YouTube and search for “100,000 Oakland.”
This is what Mark Twain meant when he said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Mainstream media wanted to downplay the importance of the event, so they didn’t count everyone. Those who reported larger numbers wanted to increase the importance, so they counted people all day. They may have counted some people more than once. From each side’s perspective, the reporting was accurate even though there was a vast discrepancy between the reports.
Here is another example.
The White House issued a statement a couple weeks ago that officially said “we have no credible evidence of extraterrestrial presence here on Earth.” This was in response to a petition, signed by tens of thousands of people, to ask the United States Government to release information on UFOs and ETs.
The response was written so carefully - click here to see it - that it is obvious the writer believed the opposite of what was said. He said there is “no evidence” while listing several ongoing research projects. Either someone believes there is evidence or this is the most foolish search in mankind’s history. The actions speak louder than the spin of the words.
This happens in most communication.
This is why I am attempting to access my straw man bond. This is why I often question “conventional wisdom.” Every story has another side, even when that side isn’t being told.
Let’s look at one more example.
The United States Geological Survey is usually considered to be a reliable source for earthquake research. Over the past couple of months, they have reported no earthquakes for the Canary Islands even though the area has experienced thousands of earthquakes due to volcanic activity. There is so much activity that one island has been evacuated and undersea eruptions are building a new Canary Island. It is fascinating.
Just this past week, the USGS posted a couple of articles with links to another site that has a little bit of information. However, they remain strangely quiet on the subject.
The reason is simple. They want to downplay the activity because it has been rumored for years that a large earthquake or eruption would cause a tsunami that would impact major Eastern United States cities. Many scientists disagree with this scenario. However, no one knows for sure. Therefore, the official government response is to underreport the situation, even if it means erasing earthquakes from the map.
I’ve realized that learning to question everything is a major step on the path to responding to news and life from a peaceful perspective. I’ll tell you why in my next article.
