The Big Lie - Grasshopper

Long before Adolph Hitler coined the term “Big Lie,” the French Enlightenment writer known as Voltaire said this: “The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.”

Nowhere is this repetition more prevalent than on social media. My beef isn’t that it’s there, rather it’s with those who don’t check out a piece of sensational information before passing it on.

 

I’m going to quote someone not so famous now: my 8^th grade nun who said, “Spreading rumors is like opening up a pillow in a windstorm. You’ll never be able to get all the feathers back.”

 

Here’s what I find: most people who buy into big lies are intellectually lazy, and as a result, easily influenced.

 

Here are some words that should be red flags to your eyes and alarm bells for your ears: All, Every, and Never.

 

“All the kids are doing it.” “Every Catholic has guns in their basement” (a claim I heard from a guy I was in the Navy with). “Never eat oysters in a month that doesn’t have an “R” in its name.”

 

It’s not that we “all” don’t use those words, we do. But if we’re fed or use a steady diet of them, we get fat and lazy and the veracity of what we pass on is quite hazy.

 

I wrote a piece a few years ago that warns against passing on prejudice. You can read it here if you choose. The message here and the message there is the same, if you pass on the “Big Lie,” you bear a large portion of the blame.

 

All the best,