A couple of decades ago, we lived in a neighborhood with many residents that were either immigrants from Mexico or of Mexican descent. There was a school that was maybe a block away from our house. This lone male lived directly across the street from the school and several houses down from us. The location of his dwelling became a concern once I had the experience described below. We never saw the guy except from a distance, because every time he would be outside and someone was walking down the street, he'd scurry back inside his house, which was interesting in itself--at least from the outside.
There wasn't much of a front yard, but there were a few plants growing there, with a very tall flagpole planted among them. This was always flying the 'don't tread on me' flag. In the windows were 'no trespassing' signs and statues of the Virgin Mary. So in spite of the fact that we never saw or talked to him, we felt we knew something about him and didn't really care to make his acquaintance anyway.
One day, I was walking home from work. I came around the corner onto our street and saw him washing his car. I had the fleeting thought that he'd be hurrying inside at any moment to avoid having to interact with me. As I got closer, I realized with surprise that he was staying outside, so I prepared to say a polite hello as I walked by. I adjusted my face accordingly. However, my surprise grew when I reached the spot in the sidewalk where he was and he began to speak to me. The conversation was pretty much as weird as I would have expected it to be. He didn't greet me in any way. He didn't say hello. Didn't ask how I was. Wasn't commenting on the weather. No. He opened his mouth to speak and out tumbled, 'You know what is the best thing about this country?' 'OK,' I thought, 'This is going to be interesting.' I replied, 'No, what is the best thing about this country?' His answer wasn't funny, but it was so ridiculous that I burst out laughing. 'The best thing about this country is that we can all own guns.' I don't remember exactly what I said then, but I think it was something about how that's not exactly a good thing. That and my laughter were not what he wanted to hear and he got slightly agitated. He went on and on with the typical argument about defending himself against the government. For those not familiar with US gun culture, this is a typical justification people use for why they need guns. They have the nonsensical idea that somehow they can fight off the US military with their personal arsenals😆 Anyway, I said to Mr Gun Nut that I was quite sure that no matter how many guns he had, the US government had access to bigger guns and more of them. He got more agitated.
I know, you're probably thinking that I should have just walked away right then. I don't know why I didn't, except that I was tired and the guy was so ridiculous as to be almost amusing in a sick sort of way, so things went on. He asked me if I thought people shouldn't have guns and I replied that they didn't need weapons of war and that there should be some regulations. He talked about shooting people who break into his house. I mentioned that the facts are, most of the shootings that occur are not people defending themselves against intruders, but people shooting family members or friends. He said that that never happened to him and he grew up with guns. I laughed a bit more and said sarcastically, 'Oh, well, if that's YOUR experience then it must be true for everyone.' He was angry now and with a raised voice, he asked, 'So you want immigrants to come here and shoot up kids in school?' I responded with, 'Every school shooting has been perpetrated by one of the home grown white boys you were describing.' As I was saying this, I finally had the wise thought that I should stop the conversation. He was yelling at me, but I just shook my head, kept laughing, and walked away--past my house and down the street. At some point, I looked back and he was gone, so I went home.
Even though that story illustrates some of the absurd things people believe about gun culture, it also highlights the problem of disinformation and flight from fact, which has only gotten worse in the decades since I had this conversation. At the time, there was right wing hate radio and Fox 'News.' By the time this happened, I'd already had years of experience interacting with people in a disinformation bubble and I understood that even then, there were many people inhabiting a fact-free universe. They would hear something on one of these platforms and repeat it, like the gun guy, without even a pause to consider if it made sense. It was a problem even back then that people I knew who lived in the real world didn't want to accept or acknowledge. The disinformation universe has exploded in the years since. Some people in the 'U'S talk about involvement in foreign wars, seemingly not understanding that there's a war being waged against them in their own homes and hands and it's one that they're losing--or maybe have already lost. Early evidence seems to indicate that the election results Tuesday were what they were in large part because people believed things that are not true. There are many dividing lines in politics and people get divided into categories by level of education, class, race, gender, etc. Now it appears that there has to be a category of those living in the real world and those living elsewhere. This explains a great deal. For example, while the winning campaign expressly said that they planned to create hardship for people, those who said they don't like the economy now voted for that campaign. A significant number of people across the country voted for contradictory things--for abortion rights and for the candidates who want to remove them; in favor of strengthening unions and for the candidate who will weaken them among the examples. It didn't take long for people to learn that they voted for things that will harm them. I expect that will continue.
But this isn't just a 'U'S problem. The disinformation is everywhere. We see the impact of it here as well. I'm confident that leaders and others in countries around the world are analyzing the results of the disinformation warfare being waged by Russia and others as well as by those within each country. Some will try to use it for their own personal gain, as in the 'U'S, and some will hopefully be able to learn lessons about how to better protect their citizens from a similar fate. People are people everywhere, but people everywhere can learn from the example of how disinformation can harm or destroy democracy as they witness it happening in real time. I don't know how one combats a problem like this, but I know good people are out there working on it. At some point, reality will remind those that have tried to flee from it that there is no escape. The real world still exists and it will have the final say.
