Trump Supporters: Do Your Research, I Did Mine
Trump Supporters: Do Your Research, I Did Mine
When you ask some Trump supporters about their “research” regarding unsupported claims, they tend to cite something Donald Trump said during one of his lie-filled rants. Or it was taken completely out of context from Fox News. These days the word “research” suddenly doesn't mean as much as it used to in the days of the encyclopedias and having to look stuff up in a book. Nowadays “research” could be just some cool meme that was shared a few thousand times and now a bunch of social media personalities swear by this “research.”
Today fact-checking is the new research because anyone will say anything at any time but is anything true? This is why social media companies are making it easier to fact-check lots of information shared by their users.
Far too often, people share articles after only reading the title. Now, warnings pop up and ask “Would you like to read the article before sharing?” You would think this is a given but not in today's society where time is of the essence. This instant gratification and microwave society isn't helping people to do actual research, they just want to project that they did the research. Here are just a few lies and truths you commonly hear in South Carolina:
LIE: It's the Democrat’s fault. We have to fight the Democrats to continue conservative values
TRUTH: Republicans have a supermajority in South Carolina. This means whatever law they want to pass, they have enough numbers to do whatever they want without a single Democrat vote.
LIE: Democrats want to indoctrinate your kids!
TRUTH: We want you to tell the whole truth and not a whitewashed version of it. Not like the stories on those racist monuments on the statehouse grounds. Ruby Bridges happened. Martin Luther King happened but also Sara Mae Flemming happened right here in South Carolina.
LIE: Republicans law and order.
TRUTH: Republicans continue to go against the requests of our law enforcement community specifically in the case of Open Carry and Permitless Carry as the law enforcement spoke against these bills.
I saw a post on social media a few weeks ago that made so much sense to me but I was too ashamed to share it. I was so ashamed that I am going to write about it here (shocker). The post said something to the effect of:
A lot of you are stupid. Social media has made it possible for a bunch of stupid people to congregate with other stupid people. This has created a space where stupid people believe they are actually smart because they have other stupid people agreeing with them. These stupid people are not smart but in fact still stupid.
Very harsh, not something I would blatantly say but, I understand the intent. I have been saying something similar but what I have said is that social media has given people a false sense of popularity and importance. People will post their entire lives on social media including pictures of the food they are eating as well as very private intimate moments and wait for likes. Social media allows people with no real world experience to be the directors of your life.
Am I saying All Trump supporters are stupid? No, I am not. Am I saying all Dems are Smart? Not saying that either. What I am saying is the phrase “do your research” is not the flex you think it is. If your research was watching your favorite social media personality say some things in a loud passionate voice, that is not research. If your research was from this one guy who worked at this one place that was there this one time, that is not research. WIKIPEDIA IS NOT RESEARCH! You learn this in school. Maybe we should be going back to school to learn what research is in books and not trying to ban books with said research in them.