Hey kids, did you know Oprah’s a Nazi? How about the child sex ring run by Hillary Clinton? Did you hear about that one? She also had Clinton aid Vince Foster murdered because he “knew too much”.  Had you heard that vaccines cause autism?  Climate change?  Nope, not real.  It’s a hoax invented by the Chinese to hobble American greatness.  I’m sure you’ve heard about the “thousands and thousands” of Muslims who took to the streets to celebrate 9/11. I mean, we all saw that on the news.  I’m sure you’ve heard of some of this.  The one thing all of these facts have in common is they’re absolutely provably false.  This is fake news.

There are hundreds of websites and “news sites” devoted to such outlandish stories.  It’s a wackateria of false information.  There is a crazy story or conspiracy theory for every subject  You can pick and choose facts that back up any crazy notion you have. Illuminati, with an added helping of Beyonce, running the world?  You can find it.  There is supposedly a largely invisible planet called Nibiru that’s going to destroy the Earth. Need info? Plenty of it out there.  Sen.Ted Cruz’s Dad helped assassinate President Kennedy.   What about President Obama?  Not only was he NOT born in the USA but he’s Muslim!  Go look on online, there’s proof!

I love the Internet.  I’m an introvert so it brings the world right into my home.  I can get all the entertainment and information I need at my fingertips.  I can watch movies, read books, and take classes without leaving the house.  Here I am writing a blog, thanks, Internet!  It’s given anyone with access to a computer a voice.  You can communicate your thoughts to the entire world in an instant. This is fabulous, especially for marginalized people who’s voices are seldom heard.  It’s also given any nut job with a half-ass theory about anything an outlet to put it out in a public forum.  The issue is that we seem to treat all the information on the web as being equal and it’s not.  Everyone has a right to believe what they want and to voice their opinions.  Every opinion is valid.  The problem is that an opinion being valid doesn’t make it true.

There are millions of unprovable theories out there presented as facts.  “Fake News”  We’ve all heard the term. We’ve all stumbled down rabbit holes of internet conspiracy theories, ( Do NOT Google Beyonce Illuminati theories )  Most reasonable people see these for what they are.  They understand the difference between some ranting nut job screaming about “Lizard People” (google it!) and an outlet like CNN.  I would like to think that the average American is able to discern between the insane ramblings and real news.  Well…

One of 45’s favorite things to say any time he’s criticized by the media is that it’s “Fake News”. This happens almost daily as he’s the president and it’s legitimate news when he does shit. Quite often, he does or says stupid shit because he’s an imbecile.He’s an inveterate liar who doesn’t seem to ever think prior to talking. When his dumbass actions are reported he screams “Fake News”.  He sees news outlets as being out to get him because they report on what he does.  Because he is a super smart stable genius it must be a conspiracy by the fake news to make him look bad.  The news Establishment is out to get him.  I mean really…it’s obvious bullshit, right?

Remember those times I’ve talked about how gullible and suggestible Americans are?  The internet has not necessarily been a good thing for truth in America.  A lot of people believe what the read on websites.  If they see something that jibes with their worldviews and beliefs they’ll accept it as truth. How many times has someone you know said “I read somewhere…” and then spouted off the craziest shit you’ve ever heard?  You know it happens all the time. When nothing is true, everything is true.  Legitimate news and facts become opinion because nothing is true anymore.  Even if you can prove it people will deny or disbelieve it.  Trump is on tape saying “Grab them by the pussy”.  WE HEARD YOU!  He says now that it’s fake news and he never said that.  In our world of fluid and unstable truths, there are people who believe him. That’s the America we live in now.