By Alice Waugh
(This editorial was updated on May 12 and May 17 — scroll down for details.)
This is the first time I’ve written an editorial for the Lincoln Squirrel. I always try to be as even-handed as possible and put aside my own opinions when writing news stories, and I did the same for today’s article headlined “Bemis Hall speakers push claims of 2020 election fraud.” To be clear, I was not able to attend the May 5 event, but I watched the video and spoke with individuals afterwards while objectively reporting what took place. But I want to depart from objectivity for a moment and state unequivocally that I think the claims made at the event are completely spurious.
Seth Keshel and the other speakers are repeating the familiar extremist exercise of taking a desired result and working backwards by cherry-picking data and making incorrect cause-and-effect assumptions. His simplistic “analysis” completely fails to take into account complex factors such as voter turnout, demographics, and motivations, and he and others assume that any unwanted or unexpected outcome must be the result of deliberate trickery by political opponents.
When listening to a political argument, the most important quality for any voter (and reporter, for that matter) is the capacity for critical thinking, which includes being able to accurately evaluate the sources of information on which we base our opinions. As we all know, the media landscape has expanded and fractured to the point that legitimate-looking “news” sites can publish highly biased and even completely fabricated stories that only harden the beliefs of their readers. This applies to both political extremes — Alternet and Occupy Democrats as well as Infowars and Gateway Pundit. When consuming or reacting to news, I urge everyone to consult this chart that illustrates the factual reliability and partisan lean of dozens of print, TV and web news sources (as noted in the site’s methodology section, they go to great lengths to be unbiased in their rankings).
More to the point: to echo one of the speakers, “I have a lot of questions” — though mine center on the psychology of the people that espouse conspiracy theories and extreme views. Psychologists have plenty to say about cognitive biases including selective perception and the Dunning-Kruger effect, and there are many theories about what causes extreme right-wing political biases in some, and what fuels their underlying feelings of grievance and resentment. Is it attitudes inherited from parents or other authority figures? Is it a natural desire for authority figures that offer easy explanations about a sometimes incomprehensible and frightening world? Is it a simple fear of change, or general paranoia about “others” who they think are trying to take what’s theirs?
These are not questions I ever thought I would have to consider in my capacity as reporter and editor of the Lincoln Squirrel as I try to present both sides of sometimes controversial local issues. Irrational and dangerous political beliefs have landed in our own backyard, and we owe it to ourselves to be vigilant about extremism of all kinds even as we guarantee people’s right to make their arguments. What’s important is not simply condemning those arguments and all types of “fake news,” but trying to understand how one’s opinions are formed.
May 12 update:
Bravo for youTube. A video of the May 5 event was available for a few days, but YouTube took it down shortly after this article was originally published on the evening of May 10 for violating its community guidelines. Those guidelines cover a number of categories, but the video was most likely removed for violating the Elections Misinformation standards, which include a prohibition on videos about election integrity with “content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches changed the outcome of select past national elections, after final election results are officially certified.”
May 17 update:
The YouTube video has been restored. It is also also available on Groton resident John Abrahamsen’s Facebook page, which contains links to other far-right conspiracy sites and commentators. I invite readers to click on the three dots under the right-hand side of the video frame, where users can report videos that violate YouTube standards.
“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.
” and he and others assume that any unwanted or unexpected outcome must be the result of deliberate trickery by political opponents.”
That sums it up-great piece.
Thank you, Alice.
Well reasoned and civil editorial!
We’ll said, thank you.
Thank you Laura! The Bemis event was disturbing. You expressed the truth about it so beautifully. I’m a new subscriber, and I’m encouraging my neighbors to subscribe, too. As a PR professional and subscriber to a multitude of outlets, this whole experience has reinforced what I know to be true: all politics is local. Thank you again!
Alice…thanks for thinking and writing locally with global context. My kid just graduated with a degree in journalism, with all the expected snide (often true) comments about not being able to make a living blahblahblah. But it’s fundamentally about truth and facts, more needed than ever.
Thanks, Melanie.