Sometimes I look out across this strange experience called "life" and I can't help but think that the people in it are living in an assortment of parallel universes... at least if what they claim they hold to be "true" is anything to go by.
I have long been someone who prefers questioning the mechanics of things, rather than the visible effect they are having.
A while back I got interested in gaining a better understanding of propaganda and manipulation, not because I was outraged by anything specific I saw, but because certain broad-based inconsistencies between words and actions were baffling to me.
How do people so fervently believe two quite different things about the ostensibly same reality, and yet will defend their perspectives to the last drop of blood... even when the tangible evidence demonstrates that neither party is actually right, or even close to being right?
For no particular reason, it brings to mind a particularly toxic ex whose life revolved more around BEING right than around whether "it" (meaning whatever was under discussion) was right.
It is all but impossible to function in a world where a simple dialogue or conversation is about who "wins" the interaction, rather than on the actual exchange of ideas and information.
Perhaps this seems obvious to (some? many?) readers as it points to the fact that most people with strongly held "beliefs" or opinions don't really care about knowing the facts of a situation. And they also don't care about adjusting their reality to fit actual reality.
One of the fascinating core concepts in manipulation is that if you keep repeating a falsehood enough times people become less and less likely to dismiss it offhand as false... even those who purport to disagree with the premise being debated.
Consider something like a "stolen election." Even those who dismiss the suggestion out-of-hand gradually end up going from immediately saying "hogwash!" to "we need to PROVE that it was not stolen." Constant repetition — in some way — works like sowing "seeds of doubt" and even if we categorically know that pigs don't fly, if enough people keep talking about flying pigs, enough times... a substantial number of skeptics gradually "soften" slightly in their conviction.
Of course, there's an old truism that just because a majority hold a falsehood to be true does not actually make that falsehood true. I think it was Gandhi who said that. But there's also an old truism that "the Devil may use 99 truths to get ONE lie across."
It demands considerable personal resolve to stand up against the (potentially truthful) statement "Look around you! Most people believe this is true!" History shows that it's not impossible for a majority to be completely wrong in what they hold to be true.
What's interesting about this day and age is that we live in a uniquely SELF-ish time in history that has not previously existed.
Somewhere in the 1960's, this whole SELF-actualization, SELF-improvement, SELF-help movement began and lots of people traded in such things as "civic responsibility" and community for a focus on themselves.
It is significant in the sense that there has been been a gradual societal shift towards more people feeling entitled to their perspective being the truth... even if it isn't.
And so, "flying pigs" abound.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great Friday!
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2026.07.31 00:55 PDT
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