Do Not Put Your Faith in Facebook Memes

This will be quick but I have to get it off my chest.

You CAN NOT trust the things you read on partisan internet memes. This was brought to my attention when on my Facebook feed someone shared a meme about Texas Senator Ted Cruz. (I do not like Senator Cruz. In my opinion he is a dangerous disingenuous demagogue.) The member attributed the following quote to his speech announcing his candidacy for president.

“There is no room for Atheists or gays in my America.”

The quote is clearly a fabrication. Had the man been so stupid as to have uttered those words at his Liberty University announcement the new cycle would have exploded. You would not learn about such a thing from a random Facebook posting. (To be sure I went to the text of the speech and indeed he said nothing of the sort.)

It is nearly certain that I would never vote for this man. (See my opinion statement above.) However lies and hyperbole are crappy tools for persuasion. The people passing the image around are only making their own stands less secure for if you need lies to support your arguments how strong can it be?

 

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2 thoughts on “Do Not Put Your Faith in Facebook Memes

  1. Missy

    I had to stop a minute and make sure _I_ was not the one who shared that meme. Once I was relatively sure of that (I didn’t remember sharing anything about Cruz. He is sufficiently against everything I believe in enough that I don’t want his name on my virtual lips.), I agree with you and you or anyone else may call me on the veracity of anything I share at any time. I don’t like even well-intended posts to include lies and half-truths. (The ones that say things like, “Maybe if Bibles were allowed in schools we wouldn’t need so many prisons.” really irritate me because Bibles ARE allowed in school. There are many other examples.)

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