Lies and Social Media

All too often Edwin Burke is quoted as saying. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” I’m not certain if he penned those words or spoke them but many of us, me included, believe they ring true amongst reasonable men and women across the ages.

This nasty mudslinging and fabrication of lies is what will undo us as a nation and will continue to mount as the sun rises each day and we take a new breath. We wonder why good men and women shy away from running from public office every day that the sun rises above the horizon, and you can take that to the bank. Why there is a void in sound leadership within all levels of our nation and in others is no secret. It simply opens the doors for those of questionable character and flawed moral underpinnings to continue to walk through those doors without others opening their eyes to the truth that lies before them and stopping these evil intentions.

None of us have to look very far to witness it. It is visible right in front of us and it doesn’t take much to see it. Just a few election cycles ago we saw it right here as social media was used to hurt two men that have been contributors within our own community as they chose to run for two open seats on the city council. Both men had their character and reputations assaulted through anonymous sources hiding behind keyboards of cowards late in the evening from the darkness of their closeted rooms.

These types of actions may well have cost the citizens of this community the services of two wonderful individuals who only wanted to make positive contributions to the community they live in. We will never know the total extent of the damage done by these hateful actions by those seeking to do harm through false postings on internet sites.

Just a few days ago, lies and distortions in regard to efforts to help save an entire ecosystem would also be employed to stop a long-debated plan which had been approved by one regulatory agency after another. It almost worked, fortunately this time it didn’t when those lies were exposed. 

It is okay to take an opposing stance, but not at the expense of the truth. We should always support the right to defend another’s right to take an opposing view, so long as it is based upon facts and not outright falsehoods. 

At that meeting on January 9th we saw the outright fabrication of untrue statements about the facts exposed and the harm they were doing to a well thought out project, and those at fault were again exposed on January 12 at a county meeting. 

Unfortunately, a website and the goodwill of an organization which was originally created to fight for the rights of local citizens for the peace and harmony within their neighborhoods was misappropriated, causing great harm to their original goals. It is unclear whether irreparable harm has been done to those involved that sought to negatively impact this decision-making process.

Social media can be a wonderful asset to how we stay in contact with family and friends. I use it myself to stay in contact with friends locally as well as those hundreds if not thousands of miles away. It is fun to see how and what my friends are doing, while catching up on the progress of their children as they grow into young adults. 

It can be a wonderful tool as we all seek to move forward during our busy lives today. I also get to see some wonderful and often funny posts from many of my own contacts. It should not be used as a conduit to promote hate and disrespect, as such it was in this case.

We have seen social media used as a tool to bully, threaten, humiliate and harass innocent citizens. As such it can be used for great harm to the most vulnerable within society and is illegal, doing great harm to innocent citizens, children and families.

There are no worthwhile objectives for the use of social media for evil intent. No good can come from the spreading of untruthful and hateful information across the internet. Unfortunately for those using it for illegal and nefarious purposes may be of great danger to those around us and to themselves.

We must stay vigilant as to what we see across the digital highway of information. We must do our own research to ensure what we are being told is accurate and truthful. We must not accept everything we read as being absolutely truthful and instead use the rule which President Reagan adopted an old Russian proverb; “Doveryai, no proveryai,” meaning Trust but Verify.