Have you heard? There is a new fad sweeping the country. It seems to have more durability than cabbage patch kids and certainly more substance than pet rocks. And it seems to provide a more telling window into the current soul of the folks who are caught up in its wave. I am talking about fake news. There are those who create it and those who follow it, many of whom seem not to be able to tell the difference between it and real or credible news. But in fairness to those people, much of the fake stuff being perpetuated sure seems real. Plus, it is packaged in a way to confuse most any one for at least a few moments.
Nevertheless, such items Hillary Clinton running some sort of child sex ring out of a pizza shop or bus loads of voters being taken to various polling sites so they can vote multiple times are doing harm. Their negative impact is severe. Fake news seems to be part of the larger trend in which facts themselves no longer carry the weight they used to. More and more people seem happy to believe what they want rather than what is. I am reminded of the old saying in which one can't tell the players without a scorecard. At present, it seems a score card has not yet been created that will help men and women readily distinguish between real and unreal information.
Reversing this damaging trend is not going to be easy. After all, swaying the actions of many via made-up stuff is quite a power trip for those with the mindset and technological know-how to do it. Yes, we have free speech but that is not pure or all-encompassing. We still cannot yell "fire" in a crowded room, for instance. There are laws against doing that. In the case of fake news, there should be penalties against that as well. Purposely lieing for the sake of doing harm is not right. As a society, we need to reclaim our allegiance to the truth. Penalizing the creators and spreaders of fake news is one way to do that.
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