If online attack confirms your biases too nicely, it just might be a fake

By David McElroy · October 30, 2012

Did you see this picture last week? I saw it posted by a number of Democrats on Facebook in order to make fun of those stupid Tea Party types who hate Barack Obama. Here’s an example of one of the many sites that posted the picture after it went viral. Here’s what the caption told us about the picture:

Student’s sign mocking Obama provides compelling argument for education reform. Well, at least a dorm room at the University of Alabama has found its constipated-looking, grammatically challenged sorority girl. This passionately misspelled indictment of the commander-in-chief, which appears to have been scrawled on a discarded pizza box (the official protest medium of college students) makes a pretty effective case for Mitt Romney, but an even better case against Romney’s plan to slash the education budget. Come on, America. This girl is one more cut language arts program away from having the linguistic skills of a Chick-Fil-A cow.

There’s only one problem. None of this was true. A reporter for The Birmingham News saw the graphic and wanted to track down this alleged University of Alabama student. She’s not an Alabama conservative for Mitt Romney. She’s a Massachusetts liberal for Obama. Her name is Kim Stafford, and she grew up in Boston. She goes to a liberal arts college in Massachusetts, not to my alma mater.

The spelling errors? Satire. The sign itself? It was her way of making fun of her notion of what a Romney Tea Party supporter might create, although she claimed in the interview with the Birmingham News reporter that she knows not all Tea Party folks are idiots. Still, the sign was an indication of her own bigotry, but because her prejudice fit so nicely with what so many on the left believe about Republicans and conservatives, many of them accepted her satire as truth.

Stafford has actually started a Tumblr site to respond to the places she finds that posted the picture, but I don’t figure most people will ever see it.

It’s easy to write this off, because it’s just one of a million idiotic political graphics that gets passed around every day. Stafford was certainly bigoted and immature, but plenty of people make mistakes when they’re college students. (It’s not actually much different from white frat boys who dress up in blackface in order to satirize black stereotypes. The only difference is that such instances are routinely punished as racist on campuses today.) The real mistake in this story was made by all the people who were eager to believe and pass along this lie as being true — all because it seemed to confirm their ignorant biases.

And that’s the real point. If you see something that pushes all of your buttons, because it seems to so neatly confirm what you already believe, ask yourself what the source is. Just because you saw it on Facebook or on some website linked from Reddit or something similar doesn’t make it true. Look for a link to the original source. If the information is vague — and if an original source isn’t named — it’s probably not true. And you’re probably hurting someone by repeating a lie.

Stafford told The Birmingham News that her experience has taught her there are extremists of every political type.

“The party I’m a part of because I’m tolerant and I think that homosexuals should be able to get married — the group of people that I associate with — can be just as cruel as the people I disagree with,” she said.

Have enough respect for the truth and for your own integrity to find out whether something is true before you pass it along to friends by email or on Facebook. Especially if something seems too good to be true, remember that it’s probably made up. Just because a lot of people are dishonest about politics doesn’t mean you have to be. Set a higher standard for yourself.

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Here’s another reason to appreciate the cats in your life: New research involving 93 countries found that places with more cats per person also tended to have happier people. The researchers say the finding fits with previous evidence that living with pets can reduce loneliness and stress while providing companionship, emotional attachment and social support. The study doesn’t prove that cats cause greater happiness, but it certainly adds to the evidence that sharing your home — and your life — with a cat might be good for you.

The company that owns Facebook and Instagram is heavily promoting its new AI-based software assistant called Muse, but people who are using it as it was designed are incredibly foolish. An early adopter of the software discovered that a few days ago when he advertised an item for sale on Facebook Marketplace — and he inadvertently gave Muse full authority to act on his behalf. The software agreed to a lowball offer made by another Facebook user and then gave that man the home address of the man for whom he was an agent. The software told the buyer that the seller was home and waiting for him. When the buyer showed up and waited angrily, the would-be buyer left an angry review for the man. And this angry man had the seller’s home address. It was only well after that that the software reported what it had done and admitted it had made a mistake. I won’t be putting that much power into the hands of any software. I think anyone who agrees to such terms is a fool. And the software’s user agreement says you’re responsible for purchases the software makes in your name. Nope.

Meet my new girlfriend. Her name is Meg. And she’s my little sweetheart. A couple of months ago, a neighbor across the street told me about a new stray in the neighborhood that she and I were both soon feeding. The cat had been very skittish about contact and she had a lot of scabs and parasites in her fur, but a trip to the vet last week revealed that she was otherwise in good health. The vet estimates her to be 1 to 2 years old. I named her for Meg Murry, the 13-year-old protagonist of Madeleine L’Engle’s wonderful book, “A Wrinkle in Time.” (Please read the book. Don’t watch the horrible movie.) Since we lost Lucy almost a year ago, it seems appropriate that we finally have a new little girl to join the household. She’s already captured my heart, but Alex, Oliver and Sam aren’t there quite yet.

There’s nothing socially acceptable that’s as dangerous as drinking alcohol. Most people grow up being told to “drink responsibly” — and all of us see people abusing this drug in one way or another — but the truth is that drinking alcohol is always a terrible risk. The alcohol in these drinks is toxic and the human liver has to work hard to filter the toxins out. What most people don’t realize is that alcohol is classified as a known carcinogen by the World Health Organization — because of the well-established connection between imbibing and various cancers. Many people have taken refuge behind the idea that light or moderate drinking might be safe, but a new study shows that drinking even one drink a day increases the risks of 10 types of cancer. When I was a teen-ager, I looked around and saw the negative effects that this behavior had on a lot of people and decided not to start drinking, so I’ve never even tried this poison. The evidence keeps piling up that I was lucky to have come to that conclusion early.

It turns out that the radical far left has been training “Antifa cats” to sabotage anything important to Donald Trump. Everything he did was perfect. Honest. It was all the cats’ fault. Arrest all the cats! This is the latest of my ridiculous satirical shorts. Please go watch it. Then “like” it and subscribe. Please. I’m begging you. (Too much?) Although a couple of the previous videos have had views in the hundreds, most have still been seen by fewer than 20 people. So I seem to be having trouble letting people know that page exists.

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