It's time to get real

With the tsunami of lies from the White House and its enablers, now augmented by AI, it is time to root ourselves firmly in reality.

Trump vase by Sue Nethercott

Oh my God, they killed Kenny!

In the popular animated TV show South Park, Kenny was killed in every episode until season 5. Then he was killed permanently. Then he was resurrected - he rarely dies now. In several TV cartoons, characters get squashed or fall from a great height, yet survive. The million-dollar man was restored in ways that were impossible then, though some aspects are possible now or will be possible soon. In video games, we can reset and the characters all come back to life. In the bible, Jesus rose from the dead. It must take an enormous leap of faith to believe that. Believing in cartoon characters’ resurrections is a lot easier, as we can see that they are only cartoon characters.

But now, thanks to AI, we can be shown resurrections that look absolutely real. Not only can we no longer believe our eyes (though that was never 100% possible with any accuracy - remember the blue/gold dress illusion?), but we can be presented with an unrealistic view of the world. The White House, etc., no longer live in the real world. They gaslight us. Their world is all about appearance, not reality - telling us what they want us to hear, not the truth. They set up bogeyman after bogeyman, strawman after strawman, to get us to be afraid of people and things we do not need to be afraid of, or at least, not to that extent. Advertisers want to sell us something, not tell the truth about their product. TV and movies show us unrealistic yet believable scenarios, but at least we know they are fiction so the wisest among us can corral them in the fiction compartment of our brains. But others may believe that there are cops and gangsters out their shooting people up. But wait, now there is ICE, who have probably been raised on such media.

Scientists who study the real world, who warn of us disease, storms, the results of our own actions, etc. are pooh-poohed and denied or fired. Cartoon characters can defy the laws of physics. We do so at our own peril. Using technology is an act of faith, when we don’t understand it. So, we can be led to believe that it is necessary and/or safe when it is not.

History tends to be written by the winners, but bad losers like Trump are rewriting it, and now they can use AI to ‘rewrite’ videos of historical events to make their lies more believable. George Orwell wrote about this in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four. They are already past masters at repeating the big lie, and now they can reinforce it with false videos. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said:

“Remember, a number of years ago, there was a book, Mein Kampf, written by Hitler himself. The technique was all set out in Hitler’s book - and it was copied by the aggressors of Italy and Japan. According to that technique, you should never use a small falsehood; always a big one, for its very fantastic nature would make it more credible - if only you keep repeating it over and over and over again.”

They could probably create a realistic AI Jesus - blue-eyed, fair-skinned, bearded, with long hair and saying whatever they wanted him to say. Never mind that he was mid-eastern, and his message was the opposite of what they are selling. How many of you tend to think of Jesus as white with long hair and a beard, because of old artists’ impressions or more recent movies? He was nothing like that. And AI will mislead us far more. Would Christian white supremacists have ever followed him if they knew what he looked like? (And why don’t they all have long hair and beards?)

Even before AI, TV and movies made us more used to the idea of human hunt clubs. Not that they did not happen before, as Thom Hartmann explains, but they happened far away geographically and historically. I wonder how many more people would have been horrified at what ICE is doing if they had not been accustomed to it by watching movies and TV.

Get real

It’s time to live in our own, real, world, not their fictional one.

The solution? Get out into the real world, into nature, as much as we can. Spend as much time as possible with real people. Go to town halls to see what your politicians really say, and get a feel for if you think they are trustworthy and honest. Go to caucuses and debates, if there are any near you. Remember, TV debates can be edited. As can other events, for instance audience reaction to Vance at the Olympics.

Decide which sources you can really trust now, as it will only get harder as we are presented with a world less real. This will be particularly difficult for those who grew up after most of these shenanigans. And beware once-trusted media becoming untrustworthy - follow the money - if you can.

Don’t automatically believe a video just because it looks very real. For entertainment, choose videos which are obviously not real and those made before AI - but try to avoid any trying to replace reality with their own world view.

Get to know any neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances who are of a different race to you as real people, not the caricatures the haters try to sell. Get to recognise who is lying to you and either point out their errors or ignore them.

Parents should teach their kids to be critical of everything they see It is super important these days.

Be honest yourself. We need people we can trust more than ever.

Buy old physical encyclopedias. They may not be up to date, and they may have history as rewritten by the people at the time, but they will likely be far more rooted in truth than anything that is touted online these days, particularly on history and politics. Be very careful what modern sources you use for updates. For example, archaeology is being rewritten with new finds, countering old biases - be careful that it is not rewritten with modern biases, too.

The better-rooted we are, the stronger we are.