In this day and age, technological innovations and scientific progress have propelled the world into a global digital economy where information overload across a myriad of social media platforms and online news sites has created barriers for the average person to obtain the truth. Often, the truth is buried in the vast amount of data and information disseminated by millions of content creators all over the world. Unfortunately, many of these content creators are intentionally pushing fake news to their audience. They purposefully hide the truth, either by presenting half-truth content or emotion-based content. This deliberate spread of false narratives has had an incredibly negative impact on contemporary society, and these people are not yet finished. We can expect fake news to continue until someone is brave enough to put a stop to it.
A half-truth is a communiqué that leaves out important or key information, usually with the objective of pushing a specific agenda or a particular opinion to the audience in the hope that the audience will be ignorant and stupid enough to believe in this communiqué. For example, Facebook, as of August 27, 2024, has acknowledged that a couple of years ago, they intentionally censored certain content related to COVID on their social media platform because they were coerced by the Biden Administration to do so. In effect, Facebook was blocking the public from receiving key information in order to understand the COVID situation. With massive efforts, this misinformation about the pandemic was also carried out by major news agencies online. In any case, a half-truth is a lie. A half-truth is misinformation. A half-truth is a false narrative. Indeed, a half-truth is fake news. These people are obliviously destroying their Western societies.
Furthermore, is the public sufficiently discerning to recognize and reject false narratives? This may vary from person to person; however, it is evident that emotional appeals play a critical role in shaping public perception, especially the perception of young people who are being emotionally shaped by social media. For instance, if the delivered message can stir the public to tears, then the public will be succumbed to the half-truth that is embedded in the message and falsely believe in lies as truths. For instance, over many decades, Democrats have been promoting so-called ‘handouts’ to minorities in the United States. These handouts are in the form of tax credits or direct subsidies, such as the recent Biden Administration’s student loan forgiveness program. They claim that the Biden Administration cares for students, but in reality, that is a half-truth. The fact is that the Biden Administration is buying votes and not really caring for students at all. Billions of dollars are being used to effectively subsidize students’ debt, and this will eventually drive the economy to the ground. These students will have difficulties in finding jobs. Hence, the Biden Administration is not helping anybody but themselves, using the government money to buy votes. Of course, the marketing for this ridiculous scheme is to present the program in a manner that elicits the emotions that say ‘the government cares for students.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. In many ways, emotions are humanity’s weakness, and this weakness is evident in young people who use social media to feed their appetite for emotions and dramas. Decisions based on emotions almost always lead to mistakes.
In conclusion, ordinary people are suffering due to the gaslighting perpetrated by societal elites, who exploit half-truths and emotional manipulation to fabricate narratives and misrepresent reality. In doing so, they are dismantling the very fabric of their own society through the dissemination of misinformation.