- Credits:
- Image, Dalle-2 AI | Helen’s Place LLC, Benjamin Franklin’s ghost echoing why “half a truth is often a great lie.”
Helen’s Place LLC Update: January 22, 2023
“Lying” will be the top issue of 2023 affecting America’s emotional fitness – causing chaos, confusion, and distress to the American people.
This was the consensus of The Ladies Group meeting on December 9, 2022 in Dallas, TX. One member suggested:
“Hang on to your hat, it’s going to be a rocky road, so pace yourself!”
Others in the group suggested turning on the T.V. captions or reading the news instead of listening to the inflamed rhetoric. One person asked, “What would Benjamin Franklin have done about all this lying? He was a doer.”
Censorship and Adversity Avoidance:
American education and society are suffering under the weight of lies, leading to a decline in civility and mental reasoning. The lie for example, that censorship is needed to protect people, including children from social ills, is creating misery for educators and librarians.
At the root of the faulty censorship argument, is the notion that people, especially children, shouldn’t be exposed to unpleasant aspects of reality because this could hurt their self-esteem.
Statistically speaking, mental illness, violence, and suicide rates are up, which clearly indicates that censorship to create happiness doesn’t work. However, that doesn’t stop people from continuing to act on the lie as though it’s true.
In public school curriculums, words like “slavery,” for example, are being replaced with terms like “involuntary relocation,” and books that portray people or historic situations in a bad light are being eliminated from libraries in favor of “feel good” only stories.
In some cases, libraries that contain books that people don’t like are being defunded.
Censorship is about avoidance because it teaches people to believe that difficult or uncomfortable things are bad, and to be feared and vanquished as “woke.”
This action goes beyond a “fight or flight” response to survive danger – to an extreme level of adversity avoidance at all cost.
Perhaps the notion that it’s ok to lie if it makes you feel good or gets you what you want, is the biggest lie of all. America used to be a more emotionally fit society able to handle adversity and differences of opinion, as exemplified by our resolve to band together to fight against fascism in World War II.
Today, we can look to the Ukrainian people fighting Russia, to remind ourselves of who we once were as a nation, before so many started down the path to avoid “wokeness” (pain). Ironically, the lies we tell ourselves have the worst effect on our health.
Behavior scientists and psychologists have correctly identified how Americans are purposely dumbing down language and culture right when we are need to smarten up the most to fight the real threats to our wellbeing and our democracy – namely, social media and the spread of disinformation caused from our addiction to “likes, shares and retweets.”
Researchers have found that social media personal comparisons are causing people to become so fearful of ridicule and threats, that they’re less likely to brainstorm and solve problems with other people.
Exploiting the Gullible:
In addition to internal threats, It’s not an accident that the Chinese government is collecting data on Americans through social media application like TikTok and other platforms. They’re capitalizing on the addictive quality of social media by selling TikTok to the U.S. while limiting its use in China for educational purposes.
Evidence also supports that foreign adversaries like Russia and China are working hard to stir up the culture war in the U.S. Putin, for example, has an army of hackers spreading disinformation daily through social media postings to undermine and destroy our democracy from within, without firing a shot.
An example from the Putin’s playbook is to accuse his critics of being pedophiles and scumbags to destroy their lives. We can see similar tactics being used against U.S. citizens by QAnon and other right-wing conspiracists and politicians.
Keeping people in fear and anger through lies and disinformation, makes them more gullible and exploitable. In this way, bad actors and organizations are active around the world, assaulting democracies to benefit themselves.
Astonishingly, people don’t realize how they’re being manipulated, and/or don’t care. Perhaps this is due to the times we live in, or the lack of resistance education and training against false information. Too often, people just want to believe the lies and so they do.
Teachers and Librarians Raising the Alarm:
Just like medical professionals are on the front line fighting Covid, teachers and librarians are on the front line dealing with disinformation. It takes guts to tell the truth and lay out facts in a matter-of-fact way to children and adults, and this makes them role models and beacons of light to Americans during these tough times.
Most teachers and librarians know that dumbing down language and banning books is the wrong approach, because teaching people to face reality and develop skills to navigate through life is critical to the nation’s health and democracy.
They know that you don’t have to be debilitated by reality, you just have to figure out what you can do about it and take constructive action.
What We Can Do Personally to Restore America as an Emotionally Fit Nation:
For starters we can become more aware of how social media manipulation works and start resisting it by limiting our time on social media platforms.
- We can start watching and listening to a variety of news sources so that over time we have the ability to identify facts from disinformation, including all of the inflammatory buzzwords like “woke.”
- We can protest and vote out QAnon and other spinners of disinformation.
We can remember Benjamin Franklin’s words: “Half a truth is often a great lie.”
- We can see the embodiment of what Franklin meant in Republican congressman, George Santos, who “embellished” his resume to the point of a great lie in order to get elected.
- We can tone down our rhetoric, and stop name calling.
- We can recognize that emotional fitness allows us to care without being excessively angry or emotional. This means that when we feel we are losing control, we can step out to give ourselves time to calm down and then go back in to deal with a difficult situation.
- We can learn to discuss difficult subject matter in a matter of fact way with basic dates, times, and facts, without alarming people.
- We can stop asking “How are you feeling today?” and instead ask, “What happened to you today and how are you dealing with it?” The difference between these two questions is huge; the first deals with feelings, and the second focuses on construction action to follow your best lights and strive upward.
- Most importantly, we can face our fear, and let people know we will be with them so they’re not alone to face theirs.
Getting involved to Protest and Create a Better America:
It’s not enough to tear down our world. Instead, we need to build up and be involved in what’s good about America.
It’s not enough for news sources to exaggerate and harp on problems without furnishing views on constructive solutions; we can hold them accountable.
Standing up for teachers and librarians will be important in the fight for truth and independent thought and expression. We must fight for them because too often when they stand up for themselves they’re marginalized or fired, and we can’t afford to lose them in their classrooms.
We must work with teachers unions, local and federal officials and school organizations, to prevent educational systems from being dumbed down with censorship, including banning books and creating word lists.
We must work with associations to fund libraries to keep them open, as well as provide teachers with more money and encouragement to keep working.
Summary:
When we allow freedom of thought and expression, and teach facts and the true meaning of words and history, children grow up with life skills critical to success. They also become more empowered and less fearful than those who don’t get this educational training.
When people understand the real world, they have a better chance of taking effective actions to fix problems rather than feeling powerless to do anything.
Constructive action is the best way to combat lying and misinformation.
Additional Transcript/Quotes:
Helen’s Place LLC, “Benjamin Franklin Quotes and Meaning: Search for Truth”
Related audio/video recording:
Answers the question why China is selling a different brand of TikTok to U.S. consumers.
YouTube, 60Minutes, November 8, 2022, “TikTok in China Versus the United States”
Other related article you may be interested in:
CBS News, Bill Whitaker, November 22, 2022, Social media’s role in America’s polarized political climate
Helen’s Place LLC is an information and educational materials company celebrating English Language Arts, Cognitive Science and the love of birds. It is the maker of printed instructional, educational, and teaching materials for children and adults in the field of English Language Arts and Cognitive Science.
Your comments are greatly appreciated. Send them to Helen’s Place LLC via email to info@helensplacenet.com. We’re always interested in learning more about you and the issues that are important to you.
