Monday, November 26, 2018

Too Much Gloom


Dave and I took the bus over to Notting Hill yesterday to have lunch with our friends Chris and Linda. Chris has been in the hospital having a pacemaker installed, and he's looking much more frail as a result. I think he'll be fine but he needs some recuperation time.

We went to a nearby pub where the food was so-so and talked about medical ills and the political ills of Brexit and by the time we were done I was quite ready to Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive, as Johnny Mercer famously wrote.

But then I came home and kept reading "The Sleepless Moon," in which nobody is particularly happy. So it was just one of those days! Dave and I ended the evening watching "The Romanoffs," which I really like so far -- the second episode was better than the first, I thought.

Yesterday one of my Facebook friends -- a woman I knew when I was a small child in Florida -- re-posted a meme crediting Trump with restoring the White House nativity scenes after the Obamas "banished" them. Of course, I could not let this balderdash stand. I sent her a link to a Snopes article refuting the ridiculous claim that the Obamas got rid of the nativity scenes. She actually seemed appreciative, thanking me for "the correction," but I doubt she took it to heart. People are going to believe what they want to believe. Still, I'm glad I said something, and I pointed out to her that anytime she sees things like that online, she can check their accuracy on Snopes. You can give a person a fish, or they can learn to fish on their own, right?

(Photo: Part of the not-at-all-gloomy Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey. I only walked past, but one of these days I'll have to visit!)

12 comments:

  1. Truth is hard to pin down these days. Blaming Californian forestry people, Trump said he'd been talking to the president of Finland about fire prevention and in Finland they do a lot of raking and clearing up to prevent forest fires. It turns out that President Sauli Niinistö had not spoken to Trump about this matter and besides 75% of Finland's land area is forest! How the hell could that be raked up? In short, Trump was once again blatantly lying - this time to have a nasty dig at the California Forestry Department. And please don't ask me about his disgraceful Puerto Rican lies.

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  2. I've been directing 'friends' to snopes since the 'Obama wasn't born in the US' party, begun by one Donald Trump, I believe. I usually don't get a reply, sometimes get a short thank you, and once even got the retort that snopes is a Democrat-run website and therefore unreliable. These days I usually just scroll by because arguing with an ignorant person is futile.

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  3. Good for you for sending the Snopes article. I think it's less about stamping out the lies altogether, an impossible task, than taking every opportunity to maintain cordial contact and make fact-based information available to those who are vulnerable to the lies. Catriona is right that arguing is futile, but I don't think making the effort to gently correct is wasted.

    Which you did admirably well. She may not stop believing and passing on these memes but you have planted a seed. Thank you.

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  4. I've gotten the same reaction before as Catrina- that Snopes is not to be trusted.
    People who believe in Trump are just going to believe in him no matter what.
    One time a woman I know posted a thing on FB about how wasn't it wonderful that Jesus was welcome back in the White House again? She's an evangelical Christian, of a sort, and I commented, "I don't understand what this means," which I thought was fairly nonjudgemental. Another of her friends went off on her post and then she removed it. So. I guess sometimes other people's opinions are at least recognized.

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  5. I don't know why people believe some of the outlandish things. well, I do. they do because they want to. they'd rather believe than know the truth. during the midterms campaigns a woman posted one of the falsehoods going around about Beto to which I responded it wasn't true and perhaps she should do some research about what he stands for before passing along lies and she acknowledged my comment and that perhaps I was right. but then later she passed along another piece of crap about Beto. so, obviously she was not trying to find out the truth.

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  6. I thought you might have flown off to Florida when I saw that photo. It has such a modern and tropical look to it.
    Good for you for pointing out that false story. How people can believe such nonsense is beyond me.

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  7. Sometimes you can tell the right wingers something and they get it but not very often.

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  8. I have repeatedly referred people to Snopes also but they never seem to learn.

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  9. Good for you. Maybe you may a small dent in that woman's ignorance.
    Yes, things are looking pretty darn dismal Brexit-wise.
    People like the ex-pat blogger in France, Cro Magnon, and blogger Tom Stephenson have spelled out how very dark it could become.

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  10. I'm glad you referred them to Snopes. But I am reminded of a few lines from Paul Simon's The Boxer, "Still a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest..."

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  11. I wouldn't trust myself to comment on a FB post spouting nonsense. And I've seen how people can do as Catriona and Ms Moon mentioned, i.e., calling Snopes a left-wing, lying site.

    That building is such a peculiar but lovely shade of orange! It seems bright at first glance, then the colour just becomes richer and deeper the more you look!

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  12. The Washington post wrote a piece about the real fake news industry. It’s a thing. Sadly people believe the lies. I’ve been thinking about trying the romanoffs and will be curious to hear how you find it as you get further in.

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