Check out this beautiful bird. Nothing seems wrong, right?
Wahr Verdad
But wait, we see only what we are shown... Look, this bird is blind in one eye - poor abused animal! Something MUST be done - we should mobilize for action right away!!
Wahr Verdad
...Or should we? The previous photo captured the nictitating membrane mid-blink. The bird is completely normal. All three photos were taken within 30 seconds of one another.
Wahr Verdad
What is True? What is Real?
The Disinformation Age
We like to believe what we are shown - especially when it validates our beliefs, feelings, prejudices and opinions. Media outlets profit by selling "infotainment" masquerading as news - so we watch what we enjoy, reinforce our biases and neglect to see the bigger picture.
Humans have traversed Prehistoric Times, the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. In each instance, new technology was eventually militarized and used to subjugate and oppress. We entered the Information Age a half century ago. Never before have we had access to so much information at the click of a mouse or tap on a phone.
Militarized manipulation of information flow for political gain and oppression is not new but has never been carried out on as large a scale as currently. It has become the new global norm. We find ourselves squarely in the Disinformation Age. Each of us must consume information critically, skeptically and with an eye (pun intended) towards real truth or true truth (Wahr Verdad). This involves constantly reevaluating whether our beliefs are based in actual reality or the manufactured pseudo-realities of others.
-- WV
