With the election coming, this post is timely.
First of all, I want to be clear about what I mean by a lie.
A lie is something that someone says that is factually untrue.
A lie is an untrue statement that is meant to manipulate or deceive you.
But, a lie can also be a lie of omission. If I make 10 statements, all of them factually true, but omit truths from the other side……and if I do it with the intention of misleading you and manipulating you, then the sum total of my work is a lie.
This bears repeating:
A lie does not have to be factually untrue. It only has to be intentionally misleading.
Journalists are masters of the lie of omission.
If you want to see a lie that is factually untrue, scroll down your Facebook page. You will find one on every other screen.
If you want to see a lie of omission, watch Fox or CNN.
Taken together these two categories of lies could very well account for half of the “information” that we consume every day. The people, the journalists, who spread these lies are highly skilled. They want you mad. They want you to attack THEIR enemy. They want to manipulate you into making their enemy into your enemy. They want to turn you into a “hater”.
Judging from the quality of our current public conversation, they have been highly successful. And it will just get worse until the election. Hopefully, this will improve after the election. However, it didn’t improve after 2016.
What to do?
First, we must critically assess the things that we are told. If a “talking head” or an internet post makes you mad, that is a red flag. The probability that you are being manipulated is very high.
The factually untrue statement is fairly easy to deal with. There are fact checking sites on the web. They are sometimes biased, but they are better than nothing. Use them on every post that you share, especially the ones that make you mad.
The manipulative but factually true lie, the lie of omission, is much more difficult. It is hard to spot, especially when it supports something that you believe, something that agrees with your appetites. We love the lie of omission, because it tells us that we are right and that the other guy is evil. The key to spotting the lie of omission is to look at the body of work of the journalist in question. If Jim Acosta has nothing positive to say about Trump, ever, then he is an omission liar. If Sean Hannity has nothing positive to say about Biden, ever, then he is an omission liar.
Ideally, we should stop consuming information that comes from factual liars and from omission liars. If we all did this, then their sponsors would go away and then they would go away. This is going to be hard to do without cancelling our cable TV subscription and our internet service.
This sounds hopeless; but, I find that when I am facing a confusing and difficult problem, there is often good advise in the “owner’s manual”, the Bible.
When all else fails…… Read the instructions.
Love God
Love your neighbor
When you are in the process of reacting to a piece of information, run it through those two filters first. Does YOUR reaction reflect both a love for God and a love for your fellow man? If not, you may want to change channels…..or better yet pull the plug and go for a walk, play with your child, pet your dog. Maybe you need to get a dog. Trust me, his reaction to the “talking head” is far healthier than yours.
An evildoer listens to wicked lips,
and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.
Solomon, NIV
No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.
David, NIV
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
John, NIV
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
John, NIV
But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person.
Jesus, NIV