Guest Commentary

By Camela McKinley

East Washingtonian Guest Columnist

“You should believe what you want to believe, in this country.” I quote that exactly. I ran to write it down the second after I heard it. It was stated by an anti-vaxxer who was part of a rally on the Capital Mall. Perhaps that says everything about the times in which we live. Kellyanne Conway, uttered two words, “alternative fact.” I thought, at the time: Who among us could conceive of such a wild concept? As it turns out, many.

I am intrigued by the possible existence of Sasquatch. I would love to believe our forests house whole communities of Sasquatch families. The more I think of it, the more I think their existence has to be true. According to the anti-vaxxer, what one wishes to believe is proof of fact or perhaps alternative fact.

I might easily move from Sasquatch fondness to radical obsession within a few days of internet research. Imagine this, I read a posting from Mary in Michigan who wrote that as she was hiking and poked her head up over a rise; she could not believe her eyes. What Mary beheld could only be a Sasquatch village. She took pictures. The pictures were a little distant and fuzzy but totally believable, especially if one wants to believe. She did further research and found the reason the Sasquatch is so rare is the FBI and the CIA have been hunting them down and killing them for years. It is disconcerting to think that Mary from Michigan might be no one at all. Mary could simply be (A. I.) or artificial intelligence replicated over and over in the form of Bots or Trolls in order to exert influence.

Opinions and influence orbit the globe on the internet and we are captured by our own algorithms almost from the first key stroke. I asked Siri for the definition of algorithm and she replied, “A process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.” One could reasonably conclude that we human beings are a problem to be solved by a computer using A.I. directed by our own algorithms. A reasonable response is, “Why?” The answer is always the same, power and money, piles and piles and piles of money.

Information posted across our computer screens is often manipulated and assisted by digital technology. It is not as if we view all news as it is happening in front of a live camera. And there is a difference between news and opinion. It is up to us to be discriminating. Deliberately managed information is put out for influence and that is the very definition of propaganda. I will back up my opinion, with what Google stated, “Propaganda is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.”

Recently I read that Joseph Goebbels held the title of Minister for Public Enlightenment under Hitler. (I find “public enlightenment” bone chilling). He said, “It would not have been possible for us to do what we did and take power without the radio.” What could they have done now? And while I am on the subject of public enlightenment, it feels insulting and demeaning to me; as if we, the public can be pushed and swayed with little effort for someone’s purpose, that purpose usually being, power and money.

Perhaps our influencers see us better than we see ourselves and are simply augmenting our weaknesses and beliefs because that is where the key to power and money lies. In an ideal world, character and selflessness would be the first thing we look for in our influencers.

I spoke with a friend about this writing, and he had a slightly different take on the idea of influence and propaganda, which I will paraphrase. Being manipulated by computer “news” and propagandists should insult us but it seems that people seek the comfort of a black-and-white world, a world that does not now exist and never will.

-McKinley is a resident of Pomeroy.