Our friend Darren found some really persistent fakery.
It's easily debunked, but it keeps getting shared and passed around.
So rather than just look at the debunking.
we're going to also look at the comments and the reactions people have that might help us understand
why it persists.
Here it is. It's Donald Trump, and
appears to be him with his parents donning Klan robes.
So it's
January 20th 2017, that's a year ago, and it's been shared
163,000 times. That is a lot of reach for just one post.
Let's take a closer look. If we right click, and when you search for Google... Google for images...
Here it is: visually similar images. We click on that,
Salisbury News. Down here in the related images,
there's the original. You can see it's the same shot. It's just been doctored.
And going further, just doing a search, I found Shaun King has claimed absolutely that this photo's
not real. So if you're on the left and you want to pass it around as real, Shaun King is going to help
dispel that myth.
But it's not just that, again, this image exists,
it's also the reactions, so let's take a look at those.
We'll start here:
"This dude has enough stuff to call him out on... no need to photoshop KKK outfits on them. Just makes the argument fake."
"That is your real president you see him in all his glory with his mama and his daddy"
Or what about this one. "I was just about to say I heard that pix was fake, but it still showed their true colors"
This kind of comment disturbs me, too:
Yes, its photoshop...but
fact of the matter... his father was arrested at a KKK rally... so
even though the pic is not real... it might as well be" That's dangerous thinking. Have you heard people
defend fake news on the premise that "Well. It sounds true"?
This comment provides a little bit of hope: "Come on. y'all... if this picture really existed
don't you think it would have been on every news channel in the world...
(shaking my head)"
some people who doubted it and called it fake were called names, and they pushed back.
"I understand y'all hate for Trump..Hell
I don't like the guy,
but the picture is fake. That doesn't make someone a coon for pointing that out.
Not everything people share on Facebook is real. People photoshop things to start things with people.
Nobody is letting this man pass because the picture is fake."
Now, there's someone who can separate their feelings from the facts at hand.
Here's someone who shared the original photo that the photoshop came from: "Stop spreading disinformation.
It makes people question everything else you post. I mean unless you're into that kind of stuff."
This is a long comment,
but I think it sums up a lot of the concerns that I have: This is weird.
You knowingly bear responsibility in spreading a fake picture, with followers who further spread it. There's no honor in that,
regardless to agenda. There are many factual things that depict Trump as the true sad man who he is.
I could never feel good about promoting a lie after it has been brought to my attention as such - but you seem fine with providing misinformation.
There are people who likely look to you with respect as to knowledge. That can be lost. No worries;
I won't be revisiting this thread to read any responses. I'm done here."
This is the comment that concerned me the most:
"There should be a way to stop people from spreading this kind of rubbish."
And I think most of us agree that fakery, especially this kind, is a bad thing.
But it's exactly this kind of well meaning, but short-sighted, thinking that leads to bad policies, and
overreaching programs with tons of unintended consequences.
There were people commenting on this image
who said that "Well, it might not be an accurate picture, but it's the truth.
It's representative of the truth."
And that makes me ask: Do you recognize the same sort of comments when people on the right are talking about
Nancy Pelosi or
Maybe Al Sharpton? We have to be committed to the truth first. Especially if we want
people to be committed to the truth about, say, the President, or other people on the right.
It doesn't matter whether they're left or right.
It matters whether it's true or not.
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