Fake News, False Facts, and F***ing Democracy

As last week marked Former President Barack Obama s last days in office and the inauguration of Donald J. Trump, my social media feeds were overwhelmed with informed opinions. Well, informed may be an overstatement, but there were certainly lots of opinions from both sides.

Some of these opinions surfaced as several angry posts about Obamas commutation of Chelsea Mannings sentence. The former Army intelligence analyst, who leaked classified documents to WikiLeaks, was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013. Not to worry though, these posts have since been replaced with hostile opinions about Trumps executive orders.

What struck me the most about the rhetoric was how weve stopped thinking critically. Youre either on the left resulting in automatic knee jerk opposition to anything from the right, or vice versa. How did we get to this wasteland?

Before you claim that this is all at the nefarious direction of the liberal or conservative media (insert your preference), you should give yourself and the rest of us more credit. If you subscribe to that theory too closely, youre acknowledging that we are too stupid to know better than what our media tells us. Im not quite there yet, but I certainly could be persuaded.

Weve shelved critical thinking and replaced it with whatever news Facebook (or your social media of choice) chooses to publish (including fake news). Interestingly but unsurprisingly, many of my friends and colleagues (many of whom are left-leaning) are focused on Trumps mission to destroy democracy.

Dont get me wrong, I wasnt a Trump supporter but this misses the bigger picture. Its not the election of Trump that will be the demise of our society, its the fact that we have stopped thinking. Weve substituted real fact-finding and critical thinking with nonsensical social media debate, false facts, and fake news. It doesnt matter what side youre on, this isnt good.

Accepting information (including false facts) as news without research, fact-finding, or critical thinking is our new societal evil. Were walking into polling booths armed and dangerous with this stuff.

Lets look at the case at hand, the commuted sentence of Chelsea Manning. Setting aside pure opinion and applying critical thinking and real facts, this is what we might find:

Yes, Obama commuted over 1,700 sentences during his time in office, including Mannings sentence. Yes, this number is more than the last twelve presidents combined.

The wisdom (or lack thereof) behind pardons and commutations cannot be assessed by quantitative measurements. The number of pardons or commutes isnt the correct measure of performance. Every president (including our current one) has the power to pardon and commute. Certainly, Trump will exercise the power at some point while in office.

Past presidents, democrats and republicans alike, have almost never shared their rationale behind these decisions (unlike policy matters).

Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, a man indicted on 51 counts of tax fraud who had been living as a fugitive in Switzerland.

George H.W. Bush pardoned Aslam P. Adam, a man convicted of conspiracy to possess and distribute one-million dollars worth of heroin.

Benjamin Harrison pardoned all members of the Church of Latter Day Saints for acts of polygamy.

Andrew Johnson provided an unconditional pardon to all soldiers who fought in the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Most Americans disagreed with Gerald Fords pardon of Richard Nixon. Ford later said that he made the decision because the country needed to heal after the Watergate scandal. It was one of the few instances where a president has provided his rationale behind a pardon. In Fords mind, watching a former president stand trial would prolong the Nations suffering. Andrew Johnson likely had a similar way of thinking when issuing pardons to Confederate soldiers.

Some suggested that Obamas decision was influenced by Julian Assanges Twitter promise to allow extradition to the United States. I dont believe that Obama commuted Mannings sentence because of Assanges now broken promise. Certainly, he had his own political, moral, intellectual and philosophical reasons. Yet, if history is any indication, we will likely never know Obamas true motives behind Mannings commutation. Even so, we should try to figure it out. Particularly, if we are going to express our opinions all over social media. Right?

In contrast to all the past pardons and commutations (and those to come from future presidents), youre welcome to admire or loathe Obama as you see fit. Just dont echo (to me) some wildly uninformed opinion you read on Facebook. Its clear to me that our societal transition from thinking and fact-finding to indoctrination by social media is a mistake. Practically, intellectually, and philosophically.