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Telling Lies for Fun and Profit

Posted on October 11, 2013 by scott

My brother has a degree in history, and an interest in “alternate history,” where you ask “what if thus-and-such had turned out differently” and go from there. “What if the Confederacy had won the Civil War?” is a popular one.

My brother has a different approach — he’s created an entire war with Canada. And boy, he’s good at it. He tells the tales so convincingly that a reference librarian took three hours to catch on to the gag. And I am not sure the teachers at the school where he used to work ever caught on.

Short version is that if your story is reasonably consistent and you can keep a straight face, you can pretty much say anything you want and someone will believe it. Every time.

I’ve long felt this is giggle-worthy. I still do. And let’s face it, a number of people (such as S. M. Stirling) make a living telling such lies for profit — alternate history books are reasonably popular. They’re usually in the science fiction section of your local bookstore, and occasionally in the romance section. Check them out.

But lately, I’m harboring doubts. We have a non-trivial number of Senators and Representatives in the US who spout a lot of this nonsense. Many do so because they know better, but they need the votes. But an increasing number do this because THEY BELIEVE IT. Items from satirical or parodic sites such as The Onion are regularly quoted by our leaders and our news media as being true. And our leaders sometimes set policy or pass legislation based on this!

I can’t tell if it’s because we’ve become more gullible, or because the gullible now vote in more elections. But either way, I think it’s crucial that we teach critical thinking skills to our children. (Some of the aforementioned leaders are quite against this. They feel it challenges their faith. Well, yes. Duh. EVERYTHING should be challenged, including stuff I believe.) We’re becoming a nation of people who lack the skills to know when we’re being conned, and it won’t end well.

Can’t help but think this is partly how we’ve come to our current situation.

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