Now my friends (Waves at Ben Baker, Mary Anderson, Dennis Crim and so many more) will tell you that I am easily amused. Often the tiniest little thing (Seeing Tom Clark without a shirt comes to mind.) will set me off in guffaws and chortles. It is one of the reasons I love the Interwebz and Facebook in particular because you can see so many people posting crap that is absolutely freaking highlarious. Honestly, the funniest stuff you see is the items people post where they are being completely serious, but what they post is so full of bull that is could be a cow pasture. Those are the ones I find the funniest.
Now over the past 1 or 3 days I have seen lots of people posting articles from various news sites talking about the whole Planned Parenthood Video debacle. About how the makers of the videos are being pursued by the legal type people because they (chortle) BROKE THE LAW by trying to prove Planned Parenthood was...well breaking the law.
(Quick information insert for those people currently living in caves and who have just popped out the Starbucks for their year Double Mocha Frappuccino with Soy Milk and Double Whipped. Not that long ago, an Anti-Abortion group produced a series of four or five videos that they claimed proved that PP was selling baby parts to the Black Market for money. So-called Pro-Lifers latched onto these videos and went to war, ignoring the fact that the videos were horribly edited to “prove” their point and one part of the video was actually stolen from someone and showed a still birth not an abortion. Anyhoo, onward and downward.)
So what I am finding so durned funny here is that both sides are posting the same reports. My “Pro-Life” friends are posting it and saying “See see what the evil gubbermint is trying to do. They are trying to discredit the good, God fearing people who showed how evil PP is!” My Pro-Choice friends are saying, “See see just how evil and trustworthy the lying bastards are who tried to frame PP for horrible crimes! LOCK EM UP!”
See its all about perception and belief. If you are a member of the so-called Pro-Life group. (I say so-called because way too many of them aren't Pro—Life, they are Pro-Fetus because once that bun is popped out of the oven, it is on its own. They don't care if it has health care, nutrition or education once it can cry and wet. Just gotta get that sucker born!) then the accusations are obviously part of some great conspiracy to discredit the brave people who tried to prove that PP is chopping up living babies for parts to sell. If you are a member of the Pro-Choice group, the accusations are proof that the people who made the videos are uncaring jerks who willingly spread lies and misinformation to get PP shutdown and to make abortions illegal again.
I see this little amusement as an example of how your beliefs can influence how you perceive the information you receive. Your own internal bias will shade the nuances of any hard data given to you. As humans, we can't help this. All of us are guided by what we are taught and what we have learned from others ranging from our parents to your favorite movie star. No matter what people like think, none of us are without bias and our biases shape the world we live in.
If you believe Global Warming to be a hoax and that Vaccines cause everything from Autism to Lycanthropy, then everything you read or watch will be shaped by those beliefs and no amount of actual proof will change that. If you believe that Big Government actually works and that politicians actually want what is best for the people of the US, then you will process all data based off of those beliefs. (For the record, vaccines don't make werewolves. That is caused by Chem trails. Everyone knows that.)
So like I said, I will continue to be amused by this little event. No matter what your stance on the whole thing, you should be amused too. Keep on posting those identical articles and such, guys. I haven't been this amused since the first time Ben Baker sobered up.
End of Rant
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