So Much for Trying to Help

I’m not going to help answer rock related questions on Facebook anymore. I’ll use FB to report on Quartzsite next week and I will keep posting cat pictures to my personal account. But helping is done.

I got dragged into a political discussion yesterday and I am ashamed. Trolls are stupid, of course, but I obviously have a deep character flaw that made me respond.

I cited an Australian newspaper article in defense of my view. The troll responded by citing a NYT article critical of the that newspaper’s reporting. The Australian is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

No researcher or reporter would give credence to the NYT criticizing a Murdoch publication any more than they would accept the criticism of Murdoch against the Times. You may believe the Times on the facts of a story but you cannot accept their criticism of a hated rival’s reporting of the story as proving those facts.

Instead, you step away from the decades of hate between these two groups to determine the facts from other sources. This would be like siding with the National Review when they criticize the reporting of Mother Jones. Check the facts first, then decide. But realize that any information presented from two bitterly opposed groups will probably be in favor of that publication’s editorial positions.

Orwell wrote that “All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”

How I could respond to such idiocy still upsets me. Trolls are everywhere, trolls are stupid, trolls are a waste of time. I have tried to help people but I can’t allow myself to get drawn in again to ungoverned, hateful thought that works against careful research and analysis.

People can e-mail me if they have a question. Otherwise, I am out.


Follow me on Instagram: tgfarley

https://www.instagram.com/tgfarley/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *