Fact and Myth is an ongoing analysis of common facts and myths/fallacies that pervade western (mainly US) culture and society. In today’s “post-fact” world of social media and 24-hour news cycle, we are bombarded with information, include an onslaught of claims that passed off as fact. Too often, there is no context nor in-depth explanation and we are left with the option of taking these sources at their word, or discarding them as myths, fallacies or even lies. What’s more, many of us have a pre-conceived worldview which leads us to accept statements from one “camp” while resisting all information from another. This process, known as confirmation bias, in turn, affects society at large, as people vote, lobby, donate, demonstrate and engage in other activities that result in outcomes which may or may not be desirable. It affects policies that are passed or defeated; it affects the science that children learn (or don’t learn) in schools.
Fact and Myth’s goal is to unpack many prevailing claims and explain the reality behind them. In a world where much of our informational media is driven by emotion, sensationalism and business practices that lead media to simply provide opinion pieces that agree with their readers base and protect their corporate advertisers, Fact and Myth dives into these claims in a data-driven fashion.
The Age of Fake News
We’ve also entered an age where facts have become moot to a large portion of online readers. One person’s well-researched position has simply become another person’s “false propaganda,” regardless of the clarity of reasoning and preponderance of the evidence. Occasional hiccups from well-intentioned reporting have become conflated with intentional fabrications that weave a false narrative by way of selective reporting (often framed in an inaccurate or even dishonest manner), the omission of inconvenient facts and reporting of outright fabrications. This is what is meant by living in a post-fact world.
Amusing Ourselves to Death
In Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Neil Postman explained how television was essentially decontextualizing information and feeding it to its viewers in an incoherent manner, which was leading viewers to lose a sense of continuity in their critical thinking (he also noted that print news, in an effort for competing with television, was also ‘dumbing itself down’ and moving from an informational medium to a source of entertainment). This was in contrast to traditional print, which generally proceeded in a logical and coherent manner.
The knowledge dilemma Postman feared we were experiencing has become even more prevalent, as we’ve entered this age of 24-hour news cycles and social media platforms that serve us click-bait headlines and 140-character messages that feed our own confirmation bias back to us, and in a manner that makes television’s sound byte delivery seem overly contextual. We continue to become more and more balkanized into our own sources of confirmation bias. Here at Fact and Myth, we attempt to our small part to turn back the tide.
Most Recent Posts
- Zbigniew Jaworowski’s Climate Change/Ice Core Critique (Debunked)
- Can/Will Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Win?
- Liberal Media Bias? Facts and Myths Regarding the Liberal Media
- Equality of Opportunity vs Equality of Outcome: The Manufactured “Debate”
- Republican & Tea Party Racism: Facts & Myths
- The “Gun Show” Loophole: Myth or Fact? Is it Real?
- Do Tax Cuts Increase Revenues? No, Tax cuts do not Increase Revenue
- Anti-Gun Control Arguments: Myths, Fallacies Facts & Stats
- Net Neutrality FAQ & Facts and Myths
- Eisenhower Tax Rates – 90 Percent
- Obama Raised the Debt more than all Presidents Combined
- What about the Positive Impacts of Global Warming?
- No scientists did not exaggerate global warming
- Did Climate Change Cause Hurricane Irma, Harvey, Sandy or Katrina?
- Climate Change and the 97% Consensus among Climatologists
- Trump-Russia Scandal: Evidence and Timeline
- Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing Cancelled for Political Reasons?
- The Truth about Sanctuary Cities
- Last Man Standing Cancelled Meme
- Did Jerry Brown call California Tax Payers Free Loaders? Not likely.
- Fact Check – The Bundy Ranch Cattle & The BLM
- What is Fake News? Fake News Explained
- California Governer Jerry Brown
- Fake News Explained Using InfoWars as an Example
- Alex Jones, InfoWars & Sandy Hook Fact Check
- DAPL: What danger does the pipeline pose?
- The Truth Regarding Milo Yiannopoulos’ Twitter Ban
- Donald Trump’s Racism Accusations
- The Fabricated Donald Trump Assassination Attempt
- Natural News Reports on Clinton-Trump Debate before it Happens
- The DNC’s Taco Bowl Engagement
- Benghazi Attack Timeline: Facts & Myths
- Google Auto Suggest and Hillary Clinton Searches
- Facts & Timeline: Donald Trump Veteran Fundraiser/Donations
- Are Millennials Entitled?
- The First Americans and the Extinction of the Mammoths (and other Megafauna)
- Justice Scalia “No Autopsy” Conspiracy Theory
- Bernie Sanders and the 90% Tax Rate Myth
- Bernie Sanders News
- Profiting from Political Cynicism
- Donald Trump News
- How old is Bernie Sanders?
- Donald Trump Facts
- The History of the Business Mogul Donald Trump
- Who is Bernie Sanders?
- Is Bernie Sanders Jewish
- Who Is Donald Trump?
- Free Market Failures
- Strawman Argument
- Greedy Bastards – A Review
- Border ‘Crisis’ is about Refugees not Immigration Policy
- How Many uninsured people have been insured through Obamacare?
- Transitional Fossils: Archaeopteryx, Dinosaur-Avian Evolution and Creationism
- Are Dead People Voting?
- Does Raising the Minimum Wage Increase Unemployment?
- Non sequitur
- Occupy Wall Street (OWS) vs The Tea Party: A Brief Comparison
- The Rich Pay “All the Taxes” (Myth)
- Is Evolution a Fact?
- Middle Class America & The Government
- Income Disparity and the Middle Class: A few Myths and Misconceptions
- Myth: George Zimmerman couldn’t have pulled a gun from his pocket with Trayvon Martin on top of him
- California Minimum Wage vs Community College Unit Cost
- FDR, Stalin and the Yalta Conference
- States: Gun Laws and Crime across the United States
- Mitt Romney’s: Obama Voters are the 47% that pay no income taxes
- The Medicare Crisis Myth and Paul Ryan
- Half of Americans Pay no Taxes – A Myth that refuses to go away
- Google Searches: Occupy Wall Street > Tea Party
- The Difference Between Republican and Democrat Parties are Real
- The Politics of Bad Analogies: It’s the Drain Stupid
- The Tea Party’s Take on Tax Rates and Size of Government
- End the Fed and Return to the Gold Standard!?
- The DOW Plummet and S&P Downgrade
- Mitt Romney on Taxing the Rich in America
- Piers Morgan, Alex Jones and UK Violence
- The GM Bailout: Did Obama really save the Auto Industry?
- Cutting Entitlement Spending and Slashing Medicare & Social Security
- Tea Party Nation Founder Judson Phillips Accused of Racism
- The Obama Jobs plan vs Republican Jobs Plan
- The Deficit/Debt Problem & Federal Revenue – Obama vs Bush
- Obama Jobs Plan vs Romney Jobs Plan
- Robert Reich: Several Myths about Taxes and Economics
- Fannie & Freddie Mac & CRA didn’t cause the Mortgage Crisis
- Republican Gridlock & Obstructionism – Fact or Myth?
- Energy Dependence: Can The Free Market Solve It?
- Health Care / Obamacare
- Human Evolution Timeline
- Selectively quoting Bloomberg’s “we should infringe on your freedom”
- Truth Be Trolled: A Review
- Economics: Democratic and Republican
- Obama’s Tax Increase and Short Term Memory
- Why Did Obama Win and What does it Mean for Republicans?
- Romney-Obama Debate: The Tally
- Paul Ryan’s 6 Independent Studies
- The Biden-Ryan Debate
- “Obama had his way for 2 years” – Facts and Myths
- Obama’s “Class Warfare” and the Middle Class
- Did Obama say Americans are Lazy? Obama’s Statements
- Obama wants to raise taxes on small business owners – Fact or Myth?
- Obama’s Stimulus Package – Did it Fail?
- Ron Paul 2012: Ron Paul on the Economy & Federal Reserve
- The CBO Scores Obamacare