Fact or Fiction, sorry you can't have it both ways.

Several people I know on Facebook have recently posted bits that truly make me shake my head in confusion and ponder if anyone actually bothers to check their facts any more before they post stuff or if they just go ahead and post any bit of crap that goes along with what they actually believe is true. The subjects in question ranged from our current Commander In Chief to Inoculations against various and sundry diseases. Each of the posts had a few actual truthful bits in them, but what few facts that existed were completely drowned out by all of the bullcrap.

When people do this, they put any point or idea they support into question. When you use lies or distortions to prove your point, it makes you look bad and anyone with any common sense will look at your arguments and completely dismiss them. They ignore any actual truths you might be using because of the untruths that you have used. In short, you look stupid.

Instead of dragging out a real world example, let's use a completely fictional one that most people will immediately associate with a living person. This is not my fault, you guys just have dirty minds. Anyways, onward and downward!

Our Glorious Leader!

Meet Chester P. Peabody, the recently elected Grand High Poobah (GHP for short) of Kudzu Land. He won the role of GHP after a hotly contested battle royal with his opponent Writ Tummy. Everyone was very surprised when Chester won the battle so immediately all sorts of rumors started flying about dear old Chester. He was an Alien Vegetable Spy. He was secretly a closet Ginger bent on stealing souls. He hated Farnberry Pie (The national pie of Kudzu Land.) with a passion. Instead of worshiping Big Happy Sky Guy like respectable Kudzuians, he worshiped the all powerful Holy Cow.

Now all of these ideas were either out and out lies or at the very least severely distorted versions of reality, but they caught on like wildfire with people spreading the stories over and over again even though there wasn't a shred of evidence to support them.

Step into the ring!  Two Knitters enter One Knitter weaves!

Now once Chester becomes GHP he starts doing questionable things. He declares that the national sport will no longer be Extreme Kazoo Playing and instead will be Full Contact Knitting. He declares war on Geranium, the neighboring country because he secretly covets their Saffron Oil Reserves. He bans Public Spittoon Polishing because he personally finds it offensive. Worst of all, he raises taxes on Farnberry Farms citing non-existent ecological impact issues.

So, as you can see, dear old Chester has become a basically really not nice person. Which is annoying all the Chester Haters (Old and New) to no end. However, instead of focusing on the important facts, people keep trotting out all of the old crap and just add the new stuff to it.

Now if you are an original Chester Hater, this is all well and good because you believed all of the stuff, but if you are a new or borderline Chester Hater it just makes the whole case against Chester look stupid. After all if people aren't bright enough to realize what is fact and what is fantasy, it makes any argument they make look bad.

Here is what I always tell people. It is okay to dislike someone. It is both hunky and dorry (Although not a Hunky Andorian. Little Star Trek humor there.) to dislike someone for all the things they have actually done. However, going on and on about things that aren't even remotely true just because they support what you believe only makes you look dumb and belittles anything you might say in the eyes of others.

In the end, follow a basic set of rules. Do your research on the subject. Find out the actual facts on the subject, even if you don't like them. Then frame your argument from there. Sure you might not always have bad things to dish out, but at least when you do, people might believe you.

End of Rant