Fact-Checking Is Killing Us
Moderators fact-check the debate and we’re worse off for it
The fact-checking obsession is dumbing down America.
Donald Trump jumps on the stupidest crap appearing in what he otherwise calls fake news, doing so because he intuits correctly that’s where people are, on their social media feeds, eating up the most attention-grabbing “news” because who doesn’t click on Hippo Finds Love on an Unlikely Bicycle Trip?
In our lives today ruled by the algorithm, hippos win. Who wants to read the latest detail about inflation when they’re experiencing it? Who wants to delve into the details of Ukraine or Gaza when it’s so depressing and no one seems to be doing anything about it?
Not ordinary people.
Because the facts are so depressing — from abortion to housing to climate change — the battle in today’s America is about the headlines. No one outside of a tiny demographic reads the actual articles, as is attested to by the massive decline in traditional media.
This drives everyone in the news media, from THE PATRIOT to the Wordle Times, to need a snappy headline, a catchy one, a breathless one, so that they can intercept and dominate the feed. It is in this way that the whole country has adopted the hippo. The powers that be are clamoring for a click, for a dollar, for a vote.
Kamala Harris — and the Washington-oriented tribe of A students she represents — love the facts. They love adhering to the law, following the rules, being judicious. They love meetings. To discuss. For the A students the process becomes as important as the outcome, which is to say that accountability is to the numbers and not to the people.
When Kamala Harris says “there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world, the first time this century,” she believes it. She believes it because she has battalions of lawyers carefully defining what a combat zone is, what a war zone is, even what active duty means, what “boots on the ground” means — even what “ground” means.
When any typical citizen might ask, ‘What about the Middle East?’ or some other region, the A students are ready to school them on why it’s not this and it’s not that, not only until people’s eyes glaze over but also to the point where they get angry.
Fact? The United States is at war all around the globe. Love of the facts is why Donald Trump drives the A students crazy. Trump spews, says anything that’s on his mind, says it simply, says it cleverly and meanly, hates Washington and the government, gets in the mud with the hippos, and tens of millions of his supporters love it. They love that he’s taking the piss out of those who think they know better, those who think they deserve to run the country, and run the economy, and run the world.
Because the A students can’t understand that so many people are unhappy with the state of their lives, they convince themselves that Trump supporters — and really anyone who doesn’t support and agree with them — is stupid. Deplorables. Or even worse: extremists, and a threat to democracy.
“I don't care,” Donald Trump said last night, referring to Kamala Harris’ color. “I don't care what she is. I don't care. You make a big deal out of something. I couldn't care less.”
Trump’s claim of color blindness fits with the pretension of most Americans who equally think they don’t care. Is that a fact? Does it matter? Our country is founded on the principle of white supremacy. It’s taken centuries to grow and learn and even accept. The overall trend line is positive. But that isn’t a winning headline.
Facts are insufferable to your typical American, especially when what comes out of the mouths of the A-students is that up is down, war is peace, and an empty wallet is full.
Did America learn anything last night? Is there anything positive that either candidate said that portends resolution of the gazillions of issues we face? The answer is no. Almost 50 times last night, the candidates said they had a plan, about something. Each poked at and made fun of the others’ plans. And today, the fact checkers are out in force checking the spelling, making sure that the paperwork is in order. What they aren’t checking is whether anyone expressed an actual vision for the country.
Everyone knows that the politicians don’t have any plans that will ever be implemented. Everyone also knows that when the politicians don’t implement their plans, they will complain that they couldn’t do what they wanted because someone — not them of course — stood in the way. You know the drill: It’s the Democrats. The Republicans. The Congress. The Supreme Court. The White House. Wall Street. Russia. China. The terrorists. The bad guys. The hidden hand. The secret societies. The “deep state.” The People.
What do people care about? They care that despite the “news” from Washington and the claims of politicians, nothing ever seems to get better.
America lost last night. The country, and both dominant political parties, are out of touch, loud and strident, bellowing for your attention. The hippo is just more fun — did you see the video?
Love/hate here for me - I think there’s some really good points (the technical defining of the combat zone and all of that to get the technically correct read that flies in the face of reality is a good point - I’m a lawyer so I do that kind of stuff for a living but it’s exhausting to the rest of the population that isn’t a masochist). But I was also disappointed by some of the attacks on what I feel like are pretty basic stuff: following the rules and law. This paragraph especially struck me:
“Kamala Harris — and the Washington-oriented tribe of A students she represents — love the facts. They love adhering to the law, following the rules, being judicious.”
Really? Is following the rules and law THAT out of touch? I cringed at the long term implications of this mindset and I think it’s one thing that scares me about Trump and what he represents: the non-apologetic selfish self-interested “I can get away with whatever.” Almost everyone despises this when they see it not associated with their candidate and ALL politicians do it (most aren’t open about it), but we accept some of this and push back when it gets too extreme. With Trump the extreme IS the brand. This is why the “democracy is at stake” stuff feels corny but also true.
The point about lying also wasn’t great for me. To crib Animal Farm, All politicians lie, but some politicians lie more than others. I accept there will be no truthful politician, but I can’t accept someone who is completely divorced from reality as Trump is.
I think the term “existential threat” gets used too much and probably has gotten overplayed in this election, but we need to accept that no system is perfect and that leaders will be flawed. I’m way more against Trump and what he represents than I am pro-Harris, but those are the stakes. The GOP (or what’s left of it) needs to move on so we can get back to having an election where at least there’s some sense of purpose non-perfect system.
Fucking nailed it. In the most depressing way possible both parties are "misjudging" (I feel like this is how they want it though) what the majority "wants". Because it's so much easier to sell hyperbolic rage bait to ignorant folks and let the other guys keep talking down to their base about how we're the ones not smart enough to understand what's really happening. What a fucking choice. Assholes as far as the eye can see.