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I write about the lies and propaganda which we are all constantly fed by the media and the systems of authority but those are not the only means of spreading misinformation. Those in the media, the government, and other sources of information who would mislead us for their own gain, like all most con artists, are not foolish and they are not incompetent. They know that if everything they tell us is a lie, we will eventually catch on to what they are doing. For this reason, the deceivers of the world will often take a different approach. To be specific, rather than using outright lies to mislead us, they will present the truth in a deceptive manner to in order to generate their desired response from the audience. This being the case, for those of us who seek to understand the reality of a given issue, it is important to not only verify any information to the best of our abilities but also to take some time and examine the way in which the information is presented to us because there may still be lies hiding behind the truth.

With regards to weed, one doesn't have to dig too deeply to find some hit piece in the media that says this driver or that criminal "had marijuana in his [or her] system" at the time of the accident, crime, or what have you. That may well be a true statement but that says nothing about whether cannabis had anything to do with whatever negative event with which it is being associated. However, it is presented in a way that makes it seem like it does. This, of course, is not an accident on the part of the authors of those articles. They have either a personal, professional, political agenda and they use their power to influence public opinion to further that agenda. The hope of those who present information in this misleading way, is to generate a specific reaction among the audience (in this case, a fear of cannabis and its consumers). The article only states a fact (an individual consumed cannabis) but an unwary reader could easily come away thinking that cannabis causes accidents and crime, which is far from the truth.

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I, generally, don't discuss the issue of guns and gun control (it is not something I really care to wade into in most cases and I am not particularly invested in the debate so I stay out of it, publicly) but I have seen the same type of dishonesty on that front as well. Often, when gun death rates are presented in the media, suicides by gunshot are included in those numbers but that inconvenient fact is rarely mentioned. I hold the belief that if a person is dead set enough on the idea of committing suicide that he or she is willing to take a bullet to the head, he or she will find another way to die if that option is removed. Again, the ones presenting that fact (that X amount of people died as a result of gun fire) have a desired reaction in mind and they know that this reaction is more likely to be generated by raw numbers than it is by thoughtful and intellectually honest analysis. I will listen to anyone who wants to make a case for either side of this issue (though, I make no promises about accepting his or her position) but I find it both insulting and troubling that these deceptive tactics are being employed by an allegedly "objective" media in order to stir up support for a political agenda.

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Simply removing facts from their proper context is another way in which the truth is used to tell lies. Let's imagine that I hate a guy named Bill and one of the times I allowed Bill into my house, he accidentally tripped over an extension cord and while he was trying to regain his balance, he stepped on my dogs foot before falling into and breaking my television. He apologizes for the damage and for making my dog yelp but points out that I had left the cord on the floor which caused his fall. I could, then, go around telling the truth and make Bill (who is innocent of any wrong doing) look like a complete monster. "Did I tell you what Bill did? He came into my house, stomped on my dogs foot, and broke my T.V.; then he tried to say that it was my fault that he did it." I did not tell any lies in that story but I have used the truth in a deceptive manner and I would likely get the desired result. Maybe, the listener says "man, I never knew that bill was such a douche-bag" or something similar and by misusing the truth, I have led that person into believing a lie. This is all silly nonsense, of course, but try to remember that the same style of "truth telling" does happen quite frequently in reality. One need only to look at the amount of outrage that can be conjured up by an out of context joke, or tweet, that is presented in isolation with the hope of creating opposition to the person who told it or twitted it.

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When it comes to resisting this type of misinformation, the solutions are fairly simple. Most importantly, one must remember that we are not always shown a complete picture of reality. When we come to know this, we are less likely to react to things before we fully understand them. We must always search for further context. Doing this can either confirm or deny the information that we are given but it typically allows us to react to things more appropriately and that is always to our advantage. It is important to remember that just because someone tells us a truth, that it does not mean that they are telling us "The Truth." Finally, we must take some initiative and research any claims as well as we can with the resources that we have available to us. This is not a perfect method, by any stretch of the imagination, but being better informed can only improve our chances of avoiding deception.

Peace.

All the images in this post are sourced from the free image website, unsplash.com.