As a journalist, I'm all about the truth. "Just the facts, ma'am" and all that jive. Had it drilled into me by an often-grumpy but exceptional educator in my first radio News Director, Chuck Dent at WIOD-AM in Miami, FL. He took a stunningly wet behind the ears young kid and turned him into a broadcast journalist in no time. Part of that reason is because I wanted to learn everything, and also saw myself in broadcasting for the rest of my natural life. Then, along came corporate ownership and that dream died fast. Again, something for another day and time.
We reside now in a time when truth is no longer paramount. Thanks in large part to social media, specifically platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and more recently the nonsense overload of Truth Social, a good portion of Americans no longer value the truth. A recent survey found that almost half of the adults in America get their news from the often disreputable sources of social media.
These are people who see facts as noisy bugs whizzing around their skulls doing little more than providing aggravation. That faction eagerly and with zeal rejects the facts in almost every form, as it's just inconvenient and troublesome to spend time seeking to ascertain facts. This despite the fact, (there, I wrote it), we live in an era where facts and truth are easier to find than at any time in history. However you are reading this, you hold in your hot little hands or atop your desk the most powerful truthsayer since Cro-Magnon man burned his hand on that orange glowing thing and learned all about playing with fire.
We're playing with fire right now, and our fear of being burned is turning us into conversational cowards.
It's bad enough we have descended into a morass of mental muck when it comes to truth and facts. Things are even worse when we factor in social media.
Not simply what people are writing, but what the platforms themselves are doing to stifle the single most important thing when it comes to making a more rational and intelligent society.
The ability to converse honestly. The chance to do more than peddle dribble and propaganda, rather the actions of using real words in real conversation and letting the chips fall where they may.
I find it interesting that so many people, in the attempt to spread simple truth and facts on social media, have to misspell certain words so they don't get "picked up" by the bots and moderators and then have their accounts curtailed. Facebook and Instagram are prime offenders here.
It's been that way on Twitter for some time, since Elon X'ed out free speech and basically destroyed the platform.
I find that also on TikTok, there are certain trigger words that may get an account suspended or deleted. I'm not even talking about the usual word suspects or invectives, rather factual descriptive words.
I've got a running list of those who have discussed news elements, real news, by using real and descriptive words such as "genocide", "killed", "assaulted", or those who have seen their lives touched by a hideous disease and written out "FUCK CANCER". Those who have been picked up by the automated review system on the platforms and either been threatened with suspension or deletion, or told they will be punished with some social media system of demerits should they dare to repeat said words. Sometimes, you don't even know if it's really the platform warning you about language.
Ridiculous.
I had my own battle to fight recently. As part of my "Speaking of Everything" video commentary series, I authored a commentary on the number of thoroughbred race horses that have been killed to date here in 2024 for doing nothing more than running at race tracks across North America and losing their life for failing to win. I am a fervent opponent of horse racing in the USA, as the use of drugs and other unnatural stimulants, including man-made devices, puts so many of these magnificent animals either in an early grave or sees them shipped out of the US for butchering. The original commentary used words such s "killed", "dead", "butchered" and "drugged". I pull no punches in this arena, and believe that is exactly how it should be. Stop coddling people with soft language. Use the words, the real words, which make an impact and force us to have those difficult conversations.
It took less than 30 minute for me to receive my first warning from TikTok. Another one came later from Meta. Due to the language used, I could be in "violation of Community Standards" and was at risk of having my account either suspended or deleted. In actuality, my TikTok account disappeared for several hours as I fought back the only way I could. It wasn't until I recut the commentary and "softened" some of the words that my account reappeared, and the various warnings went away.
Here is the edited version for your perusal. It will be rather obvious where the words had to be made more worthy of "Community Standards". All I did was opine using perfectly sound words and grammar. Indeed, I was seeking a reaction. Damn right. This is an issue close to my heart, and I have been fighting it for years.
Even the pictures used were changed out. In the original, I used pictures of horses breaking down on the track. I used pictures of dead horses who had given their life for a $2 bet. I brought the actual issue to the fore without fear or favor, and for that, I was threatened with censorship and losing my ability to author on the platforms. I bristled at the thought of changing my words, but did so only because the message was important, a battle that needs to be constantly fought. The commentary went viral, and started a lot of conversation. It would have started more had I stuck to my guns. Then again, if I did, the message would never have gone public. I only modified in order to just maybe make some points and save some lives.
Taught me several lessons, one of those being I will never again discuss anything controversial on social media platforms, but will use my owned platform here to opine and seek to have real conversations. Sadly, not everyone has that possibility. For most of you reading this, you will either knuckle under to the platforms or lose your ability to converse in this medium.
The discussion of difficult subjects is paramount if we're ever to climb out of this butt-hurt hole we've dug for ourselves over the last decade or so. It can and should be done without profanity. However, when a conversation is dubbed "dangerous" or has that insipid "Trigger Warning", it removes all understanding of a topic and the ability to break it down, make sense of the issue, even argue a little. In the end, nothing is solved unless we talk about it in rational and honest terms.
Granted, that in and of itself is difficult, as people are more want to screech and scream at each instead of holding factual and honest conversations. That's because it's easy and doesn't take much thought. All I seek is to make people think and lift their conversation to a level of seeking answers instead of more incendiary babble.
George Carlin said it best when he pointed to his infamous/famous "Seven Words you can Never say on Television" as just being words. It is often the intent behind the words that makes them dangerous, and on many social media platforms and personal conversations, people knee-jerk at certain words as being insulting instead of being informative. In the social media world, you might get your account suspended. In the real world, the outcome could be much worse.
Never fear using the right words, the proper words, the descriptive words. Start by calling a lie a "lie". It's not an "untruth" or "misinformation". It's a lie. A falsehood. A concocted version of someone else's subterfuge.
Do what needs to be done to start a conversation. Stop living in fear or allowing yourself to be boxed in by those who deal in censorship.
Strive to do that one thing that could change one person, and maybe even, the world.
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