Bait and Switch

You would think I would have lots of material, because I was visiting with a friend and we were talking about politics for about two and a half hours (in between holding her kids upside down; kids love that), but it’s almost like I got everything out. Still, I have some sense of commitment here.

I remember seeing at least one of those masked magician specials once, back in the day, and although I never actually figured out how they did the trick before it was shown, I usually got pretty close. Sometimes it was was because there was something different, like the assistant was wearing loosely draped clothing instead of tight revealing clothing. At other times, it was just so clear that they wanted your attention in one place, then obviously something important was happening in the other.

With magic shows, there is an expectation that it is a trick, and the fun comes from not knowing how they did it. This is a mutually agreed upon bargain. The audience is there to be mystified, and if they are not, the magician is a failure (or perhaps a success as a comedian).

In non-entertainment venues, this should be more frowned upon, but it isn’t always. Let’s take a look at the work of Andrew Breitbart. It’s not that he never contributed anything valuable, necessarily, I guess, but there were big things where he lied.

He selectively edited video of Shirley Sherrod’s speech, taking a story about overcoming prejudice and turning it into a story about celebrating prejudice that could have ruined her career.

With ACORN it was worse. This was a group that was doing good things, and through deception, it was brought down. The deception was not just a sting operation, as it was initially portrayed—it was selective editing and lying to make it look like the organization was corrupt in ways that it was not.

Now, ACORN had organizational and leadership problems, and that probably made it easier for them to fall under adversity than to rise again. However, you have a group that is working to empower the poor, and they are brought down by lies that people don’t even remember are lies for the most part. The lies win over the truth because the lies had better publicity. And even though Breitbart himself is dead, the organization lives on. I don’t know that they have pulled off anything major lately—perhaps they needed their leader for that—but really, either one of those things should have taken away all of their credibility.

As education loses funding, there has been a tendency to focus on only the most practical skills, to prepare people to be good laborers, but what about being good citizens? Yes, I want people to have exposure to arts and music so they can be better able to appreciate beauty and find means of personal self-expression. Yes, physical education is important so that people can be healthier. But also, civics is important. Rhetoric is important. Texas GOP notwithstanding, critical thinking skills are important. Yes, sometimes knowing more about the world and life may cause children to question their parents, but if they are good parents, that can probably be worked out amicably. And if they are demon seed children, well, they will be questioning authority regardless, so at least give them the tools to make it productive.

Maybe it’s just the nerd in me talkng, but I think facts matter. I would like to see facts used more in decision making. I even get that in a free country people can peddle lies. However, I would like to see more people quit buying them. The burst of smoke is over here because there is a trapdoor over there, and this is not a show.