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Posting this just mainly because of current events.
Everyone remembers the old “telephone” game from being kids. 10 kids circle up, the teacher tells one child a phrase like “John has a long mustache.” And the child is instructed to whisper it in the ear of the person next to him who in turn will whisper it in the ear of the next and so on until it gets back around.
Usually the phrase or the info comes back completely different than it left the source.
Now add in to that circle of kids your typical amount of liars (maybe 50-60%?), add in further those with comprehension problems and those that really weren’t paying a lick of attention in the first damn place. What happens is the message gets totally messed up by the time it returns to sender.
I have seen this very thing play out in patriot circles hundreds of times over the last 30 years. It was worse in the pre-internet days IMO.
Never underestimate those that add to, greatly embellish or straight up MAKE UP a story simply for attention, for wanting to seem “in the know” or to have some “inside info.” You know, he’s got a friend who’s in Spec Ops (reality PLAYS special ops on Nintendo) who said they were gearing up for an assault on (insert current problem or group).
Never underestimate certain people’s ability to even BELIEVE the very story they made up or when it goes against common sense or logic.
In the early 90’s I lived in North Florida. For a time, barely a month passed without numerous “patriot rallies” happening here and there around that part of the state. I attended a great many of them. I was also working gunshows on the weekends selling gear and misc. stuff so I ran into a lot of like minded folks and some would chat for hours on end.
So a guy comes in to a show, acts cagey for a while, then opens up and talks to me a bit. He proceeds to tell me how the $hit is literally already ON and he’s just topping off a few things at the show cause prolly next week, it’s going to really be ON.
“Why do you think this?” I asked him.
He replies- “cause they shot up that Patriot rally over in Gainesville.”
“Really, the one that was last week downtown?”
He went on to tell me that the gubmint “shot up” the rally, that their was “hundreds of people there” when it happened.
I once again verified the time and place to be sure that was the one he was talking about, then asked him who told him this.
He replied that “a friend” told him this.
I looked him over and said “well my friend I was actually there. It was downtown at X place. There was a grand total of 23 people there, no one was “shot”, the gubmint did NOT show up to “bust up” the rally, most everyone went to X restaurant after so and so spoke and that was it.”
He didn’t believe me.
Moral of the story is that for whatever reasons, it’s VERY common for people to greatly embellish info in this movement. That does NOT mean everyone is full of it, it just means always consider the source. If it’s a person/organization known for grandstanding, then chalk at least some of the story up to grandstanding. It happens guys, don’t be naive.
On the flip side, we ALL have a responsibility to wit if we pass on info like this, that we should be 100% truthful to what we heard regarding it. Their may be a time soon where LIVES depend on us passing info correctly. Emotions, grandstanding, jockeying for position, looking for acceptance, etc. shouldn’t play a part in passing along info.
It’s o.k. to say “I don’t know” versus making up stories. Making up or embellishing stories simply destroys your credibility in this thing of ours.
Everyone remembers the old “telephone” game from being kids. 10 kids circle up, the teacher tells one child a phrase like “John has a long mustache.” And the child is instructed to whisper it in the ear of the person next to him who in turn will whisper it in the ear of the next and so on until it gets back around.
Usually the phrase or the info comes back completely different than it left the source.
Now add in to that circle of kids your typical amount of liars (maybe 50-60%?), add in further those with comprehension problems and those that really weren’t paying a lick of attention in the first damn place. What happens is the message gets totally messed up by the time it returns to sender.
I have seen this very thing play out in patriot circles hundreds of times over the last 30 years. It was worse in the pre-internet days IMO.
Never underestimate those that add to, greatly embellish or straight up MAKE UP a story simply for attention, for wanting to seem “in the know” or to have some “inside info.” You know, he’s got a friend who’s in Spec Ops (reality PLAYS special ops on Nintendo) who said they were gearing up for an assault on (insert current problem or group).
Never underestimate certain people’s ability to even BELIEVE the very story they made up or when it goes against common sense or logic.
In the early 90’s I lived in North Florida. For a time, barely a month passed without numerous “patriot rallies” happening here and there around that part of the state. I attended a great many of them. I was also working gunshows on the weekends selling gear and misc. stuff so I ran into a lot of like minded folks and some would chat for hours on end.
So a guy comes in to a show, acts cagey for a while, then opens up and talks to me a bit. He proceeds to tell me how the $hit is literally already ON and he’s just topping off a few things at the show cause prolly next week, it’s going to really be ON.
“Why do you think this?” I asked him.
He replies- “cause they shot up that Patriot rally over in Gainesville.”
“Really, the one that was last week downtown?”
He went on to tell me that the gubmint “shot up” the rally, that their was “hundreds of people there” when it happened.
I once again verified the time and place to be sure that was the one he was talking about, then asked him who told him this.
He replied that “a friend” told him this.
I looked him over and said “well my friend I was actually there. It was downtown at X place. There was a grand total of 23 people there, no one was “shot”, the gubmint did NOT show up to “bust up” the rally, most everyone went to X restaurant after so and so spoke and that was it.”
He didn’t believe me.
Moral of the story is that for whatever reasons, it’s VERY common for people to greatly embellish info in this movement. That does NOT mean everyone is full of it, it just means always consider the source. If it’s a person/organization known for grandstanding, then chalk at least some of the story up to grandstanding. It happens guys, don’t be naive.
On the flip side, we ALL have a responsibility to wit if we pass on info like this, that we should be 100% truthful to what we heard regarding it. Their may be a time soon where LIVES depend on us passing info correctly. Emotions, grandstanding, jockeying for position, looking for acceptance, etc. shouldn’t play a part in passing along info.
It’s o.k. to say “I don’t know” versus making up stories. Making up or embellishing stories simply destroys your credibility in this thing of ours.
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