Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them




Wonder why emotions run high in the blogsphere?  Take a look at how some conservatives are discussing the Ferguson tragedy:

From a conservative blog:

There is no innocent [sic] till proven guilty when the President of the United States, and the Attorney General keep making comments that condemn the police officer in this case. The facts do not support the original claim that the man was running away, nor that he got on his knees and raised his hands. Yet our Government is intent on making it that way.


What we have here is Reverse Racism at it's[sic] finest! No doubt about it especially since Al Sharpton, Eric Holder, and Obama are involved. Remember, "The police acted stupidly", Obama doesn't care about facts.


The above is a disgusting example of deliberate lying about the Ferguson tragedy and President Obama in order to further divide an already divided country. 

President Obama and Attorney General Holder did NOT utter anything close to what the liar wrote, but most of the people who read that pile of horseshit will probably believe it.  And we wonder why this country is seething with bitterness and hate. Here we have a example of a deliberate lie allowed to go unchallenged.  The liar who wrote what is highlighted above also put in quotes something Mr. Obama DID NOT SAY ABOUT THE FERGUSON TRAGEDY, but placing that quote from an incident not remotely connected to a shooting implies that the president uttered those words about the Ferguson shooting. The truth is not important to the person who wrote that screed.  So long as it keeps the people who read that sort of swill stirred up and feeling victimized by President Obama, we'll continue to see outrageous mendacity on these blogs.

The same trouble-making liar wrote this on the same blog:


Facts, are facts no matter if these idiotic RACIST WHITE TRAILER TRASH aka Progressives try to make up their own “Facts” another un-informed Progressive who can't read or hasn’t the ability to understand the written word, seems to be in a world of her own thinks that the Police in Ferguson were trying to kill this Animal only because of his color. 

Anyone with half a brain can see for themselves that there is nothing that says anything about that at all. It is all coming out now. I guess because we have our WONDERFUL Attorney General (“sarcasm”) on the premises. 



(Aside:  Apparently, this person never met a comma he didn't love.)

That commenter wouldn't recognize a fact if it sat on his face and farted up his nares.  He lifted words from comments I made on my own blog, then went to a conservative blog and lied about what he presumably read on my blog.  Nothing in my post about Michael Brown and Ferguson, Missouri, said anything about blaming the police.  The first post was about the police interfering with reporters at the scene, and the second post is a report about the second autopsy findings and the facts we know so far, nothing else.

But the prevaricator who wrote the highlighted comments isn't interested in facts or truth.  He's interested in spreading unrest, resentment, and hatred and, of course, his damnable lies.  The conservative blogs, thinking they are bastions of "free speech," allow these sorts of vicious lies free rein, then blame liberals for dividing the country.

Our good friend and redoubtable cephalopod, (O)CT(O)PUS, posted an excellent, insightful comment over at The Swash Zone that deserves to be seen everywhere:

"So what do people like Larry Klayman, Governor Grifter and trolls have in common? Both argue in BAD FAITH, and their purpose is to inflame, obfuscate, disrupt, and hijack public discussions and comment threads. 

 It’s not merely the dissemination of outrageous lies that offends us, it’s their method of constructing and perpetuating those lies – their toolbox of deception, defamation, denial, derision, demagoguery, and false attribution: The message AND the medium wrapped into one. 

 Politicians aim demagogic appeals at disaffected, low-information bumpkins to fragment public opinion and maintain their power. Trolls adopt the techniques of arguing in bad faith from their masters and bring them to our blogs. 

 What boils and roils my cephalopod ink is when we give audience to trolls – especially those who defame our friends without attribution or proof while hiding behind anonymous monikers: The most cowardly and dastardly of all! 

 I make this appeal to all friends of this community: DO NOT GIVE A TROLL AN AUDIENCE. LEARN TO IDENTIFY BAD FAITH ARGUMENTS EARLY AND PULL THE PLUG IMMEDIATELY. RID YOURSELF OF TROLLS … AND USE THE DELETE BUTTON LIBERALLY!"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Every life is precious according to the pro-life party except where young black men are concerned, then because they're labeled "thugs" they deserve their deaths. And people believe execution on our streets is justified because the cops are always right? How did this happen?

Shaw Kenawe said...

From "The Economist,"

"Last year, in total, British police officers actually fired their weapons three times. The number of people fatally shot was zero. In 2012 the figure was just one. Even after adjusting for the smaller size of Britain’s population, British citizens are around 100 times less likely to be shot by a police officer than Americans. Between 2010 and 2014 the police force of one small American city, Albuquerque in New Mexico, shot and killed 23 civilians; seven times more than the number of Brits killed by all of England and Wales’s 43 forces during the same period.

The explanation for this gap is simple. In Britain, guns are rare. Only specialist firearms officers carry them; and criminals rarely have access to them. The last time a British police officer was killed by a firearm on duty was in 2012, in a brutal case in Manchester. … In America, by contrast, it is hardly surprising that cops resort to their weapons more frequently. In 2013, 30 cops were shot and killed—just a fraction of the 9,000 or so murders using guns that happen each year. Add to that a hyper-militarised police culture and a deep history of racial strife and you have the reason why so many civilians are shot by police officers."

Dave Miller said...

There are many facts still to come out... many of the people in the blogosphere are much too quick to draw conclusions from parts of the public evidence, and angry when people want to take time and wait for the facts.

Everything about this incident is so frustrating as people from all sides strive for an advantage in the media and the public square.

Time and patience is what is needed... at least as I see it... and to let the facts come out...

dmarks said...

Dave Miller: Could not have worded it better...