In partisan politics, I've noticed one not-so-subtle tool of influence.
It starts when an unproven, but catchy idea starts to emerge.
The idea is either promoted through the media machine ("John Kerry's medals are illegitimate"), or become viral ("Barack Obama is not an American Citizen").
They're fully discredited by investigators. But, proponents still stick to their story. And just by the fact that they continue to repeat the same crap, folks start to believe it.
And, as time goes on, they write more stuff. Stuff that assumes that their already fully discredited ideas are correct. Such as yesterday's blog post that assumes the legend that Barney Frank single-handedly created our current economic crisis.
Obviously, I can't continue to include rebuttals to frequently assumed falsehoods in every viral email that asserts them. So, I'll start these rebuttals as a feature.
That way, when they return (as they usually do), I can just refer back to my Frequently Assumed Falsehood post.
My first frequently assumed falsehood? Coming soon.
