We seem to have coined brand new categories of concern in 2016. The terms “Fake News” and “Russian Hack” have enter the public vocabulary. But are these items representative of something real?
What is “fake News”? This term points to Internet news sites that pretend to present incorrect or false information as news. The intention is for the reader to believe that the site is reporting about something that existed, or that happened. However, in fact, “Fake News” did not happen and the reported item does not exist. “Fake News” is itself fake. It does not exist. It did not happen. The connection of the word “fake” and “news” is not logical. If it is fake, it is not News. If it is News, it is not fake. So what is this thing labeled “Fake News”? It is a lie. We need to stop using the term “Fake News” and call it what it is, namely, a lie.
This leads to the second item that is being bantered about in our media, “Russian Hack.” What is a Russian Hack? More specifically, what is meant by the concept that the “Russians hacked the USA elections.” Is this news? Is it a lie? Did it happened? What happened? Did it have an effect on anything? If this is “Fake News” than it is simply a lie. If something happened, what is the “something” that happened? It is not obvious to this writer that anything happened. It is not clear that if something happened, that the “Russians” did it. By the way, who are these Russians supposed to be? Is it the government of Russia? Is it some citizens of Russia? Is it Americans who speak Russian? Is it the bogeyman? None of this is clear, and it is suggested that none of it may have happened. It may all be a lie?
But you respond, “How can you be so foolish to deny that Russian government “hackers” invaded the Internet Servers of Americans?” After all, the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) says it happened. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it happened. Some people have reported that all the intelligence agencies of the USA government say that it happened. But still the question is, “What happened?” The answer is that Emails and internal correspondence of the Democrat National Committee (DNC) were retrieved from their Internet Servers and these Emails and correspondence were publicly shared by an organization named Wiki Leaks. This reported retrieval of data from the DNC servers was done by someone using a process called “hacking.” This “hacking” could have been done by a DNC insider, one of billions of Internet users, or someone else, including the intelligence agencies of the USA or the Russian Republic. And how do we know this? It is because the intelligence agencies of the USA, who are themselves expert hackers, tell us it happened. So, we are recipients of information from our intelligence hackers that other intelligence hackers hacked us.
Where does all of this convoluted information leave us? Nowhere! However, the hysteria of what is called “Fake News” and what is called “Russian Hacking” has created a precedent that directs news agencies and even whole departments of a government to pursue something that does not exist. What to do? Slow down! Investigate, examine and evaluate information presented and seek to answer the fundamental question. “Is this truth or is this not truth?” Until these two questions are answered, all of the insistence by the various political groups that a person MUST accept the concept of “Fake News” or “Russian Hacking” should be considered propaganda worthy of Goebbels of the Hitler era.
Progressive Politics 