photo: TrumpDraws/Twitter
I’m trying to wrap my head around some of the most recent orders coming out of Trumptown: reforms put in place to help prevent a repeat of the early 2000s financial disaster have been revoked; the mentally ill can now get guns; Muslims are banned from entering the U.S. ; Two orders to revive the Keystone XL and Dakota Access piplines. And all of this is making America great…how?
I keep hoping that there will be an across-the-board announcement – something like those signs that the blimps used to carry across the skies – that says all of the above (and so much more) is fake news. Which brings me to yet another thought: How did we get to the point that we use terms like “fake news” and “alternative facts” as if these are really-o truly-o sane concepts?
1941 Seuss Cartoon
Not that it will do any good in the great scheme of things but, just for my own satisfaction, I looked up a few definitions in my handy-dandy Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (hard cover version, 1998):
Alternative – alternative; existing or functioning outside the established cultural, social or economic systems
Fact – a thing that has actual existence; an actual occurence
Fake – counterfeit; sham
News – a report of recent events; previously unknown information
But, of course, for a few words and phrases – those that weren’t created or in usage until very recently – I had to go to Merroam Webster’s online site:
Alternative Facts – A politically declared “fact” that does not match reality; a fiction, a falsehood, a lie, not a fact.
Blog — a website that contains online personal reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks, videos, and photographs provided by the writer.
Fake News – Interestingly, there is no clear definition of this term – at least not that I could find. However, the many articles discussing the concept are mildly informative. Worth a look.
When all my pondering and defining was said and done, though, I found myself confounded with BabbleSpeak and unable to write a cohesive blog. Of all the ‘information’ I learned, most memorable was this latest entry (February 4th) into the online Urban Dictionary: lord dampnut: An anagram or “alternative name” for the worst president in the history of the USA. Coined by Colin Mochrie (of Whose Line is it Anyway fame) on 20 January 2017.
Well, try this for your lexicon. As a blogger, you are a member of the Fifth Estate. Those who write news –fake or real – as an alternative to the mainstream media.