Can You Hear Me Now

The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.

Maximilien Robespierre

Last week, I found myself in the middle of an uncomfortable LinkedIn conversation after the following meme appeared on my feed.

The meme was purportedly tweeted by KFC corporate about Black History Month and it’s no stretch to find racism in the juxtaposition of fried chicken and black people — good intentions or not. The subsequent LinkedIn comments were in agreement with that sentiment and many people liked and shared the post.

Unfortunately, there was a problem. The meme with the words “I hear you, I see you and I stand with you” and the hashtag #BlackHistoryMonth was never tweeted by KFC. While it is true that the chicken and shadow fist image were used by KFC in Trinidad and Tobago to commemorate Emancipation Day, the KFC corporate meme posted on LinkedIn was a fabrication. The Emancipation image was repurposed to fit an agenda.

Back story: The Trinidad and Tobago meme was posted to Instagram in 2020. After being called out as insensitive, it was deleted and the following apology was immediately issued. Despite the questionable reasoning behind the post, that should have been the end of the story.

Back to the new LinkedIn post. As soon as I realized that it spread a falsehood, I shared my findings with the author (who appears to be a kind and caring person). Instead of thanking me for the information and deleting the post, she claimed that it didn’t matter because even if the meme was fake, it would have been racist if KFC corporate shared it — regardless of the age of the Trinidad post, the subsequent apology, and the change in posting policy. Essentially, she was calling her post real because being real fit her narrative of the big bad racist corporation.

I am not a fan of big corporations and have no tolerance for racism. What I am is a fan of the truth and her willingness to accept less than that rubbed me the wrong way. The more we debated the matter the deeper she held fast to the notion that her stance was more important than reality. At a minimum, I felt she should replace her fabricated meme with the six-year-old Trinidad Instagram post. That, at least, would have been truthful indignation, but she refused to do even that.

In standing firm, she diluted an important message. Racist tropes are bad and we need to call them out. We need to be outraged at the right stuff, though.

All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon

This is not the first time I have encountered this kind of if-it-were-real post where the author pushed back on the truth. As long as the notion fit the poster’s concept of right or wrong, they had no qualms about sharing information that was easily shown to be inaccurate, misleading, or harmful.

Weaponizing Lies

If you have been paying attention to what has been happening in Minnesota, you are familiar with the arrest of Nekima Levy Armstrong. In case you are not, Ms. Armstrong was arrested for protesting at the Cities Church (a Christian fundamentalist church which happens to be a very short bike ride from my house). It turns out that one of their pastors is also an ICE director. Not a very Christian thing to be if you ask me, but evangelical/MAGA Christians seem to have their own un-biblical views on Jesus’ teachings of love and kindness.

Spoiler alert, the ICE pastor is still at the church and continues to preach to the congregation.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35

Here is a photograph of Ms. Armstrong taken as she was being arrested. Honestly, I can only hope to look half as composed if I was being taken into ICE custody. The horror stories coming out of The Whipple Building are very frightening.

However, the image that the White House sent out post-arrest was digitally manipulated to show her visibly distressed and crying. DHS was clearly angry that Ms. Anderson refused to show any of the fear they hope to instill into Americans and decided to artificially foist it upon her.

When caught in a lie, DHS doubled down on their willingness to create and disseminate fake photographs. According to White House Deputy Communications Director Kaelon Dorr, ” The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

So much for their respect of the truth. Of course, the current president is little more than an endless stream of lies so why should his subordinates be any different? In fact, he encourages them to lie in order to justify his anti-democracy agenda.

I avoid right wing sites such as X, but I expect that this second, altered image was the one that most of its users saw. And like the fake KFC meme, each tweet would have had plenty of people who agreed with its sentiment. Also, as with my LinkedIn pushback, the tweet authors are probably just as adamant that the truth doesn’t matter. In their eyes, she is an uppity black woman who needs to be put in her place and who cares if it’s a real photograph or not. She deserves all the punishment they are prepared to dish out and that includes lying up the wazoo.

Just Give Me Some Truth

More and more Americans are jettisoning reliable news sources in favor of social media and reactionary posts. While some posts will be true, too many will be crafted to fit a narrow agenda. We have divided ourselves into tribes and consume only that which makes us feel right and righteous.

As Mr. Robespierre stated at the top of this article, the secret of tyranny is keeping people ignorant. My ask is that you pay closer attention to what you are seeing, reading, and sharing. If you see something that makes you angry, triggered, or indignant, check out where it came from. Just because it was posted on X, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, or LinkedIn doesn’t make it true — no matter who shared it or how much you want to believe in it. This goes for both left and right leaning articles and posts. We are all guilty of redefining the truth to fit our needs.

Before you react, ask questions. Avoid known sources of lies. Do your own research.

Do you trust the source? Can the information be corroborated? How can you verify the accuracy of the post?

Question your own assumptions, motivations, and conclusions. Don’t like or share something simply because you want it to be true.

Finally, do not be afraid to own your mistakes and delete posts if you find them to be inaccurate. I’ve done that. Don’t be like my LinkedIn sparring partner who so wanted her post to be true that she ignored any information that conflicted with her pre-chosen narrative.

Simply put, choose freedom over ignorance.

Thank you for reading.

Change comes when least expected
or perhaps when it is needed most
without forecast or warning
life as it has always been
until the moment it’s not

With a flash or a quiet exhale
the mountain is scaled
the clouds open up
and a new path lies ahead