Wednesday, December 1, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Scottie
Wisdom&Faith
Jean Russell Nave
Scotties and
misinformation
I9ve been thinking a lot
about misinformation. It
seems everywhere you turn
people have very different
ideas about what is correct
and what is not. How do we
know what is right?
My Scotties have been bit-
ten or aggressively charged
by three large black dogs in
the neighborhood over the
past 10 years. Now they con-
sider any large black dog as
a threat. Not all of the large
black dogs in the neighbor-
hood are threatening. But
the Scotties are stuck with
this misinformation that they
believe to their core.
Take the COVID situation.
Some people believe, deep in
their hearts, that the govern-
ment has misrepresented the
situation. Yet, talk to a doctor
or nurse who is dealing with
the state of affairs, and you
will hear that we aren9t doing
anywhere near enough to
protect people. Who is right?
Look at school funding
as another example. Many
people feel that we are being
taxed out of our homes with
bond measures that increase
our property taxes above the
3 percent restriction mea-
sure passed many years ago.
They say that9s a big part of
the cost of housing, which is
making matters so difficult
for younger families. Most
teachers will tell you that they
pay for many classroom sup-
plies, out of their own pock-
ets, because school budgets
are too small. Who is right?
Then there is the news.
Recently a man that I was
working with told me this:
<I have to watch CNN and
then turn to FOX and finally
turn them both off and think
about what I9ve heard to try
to understand what is really
going on.=
Even when he does all
that, will he really be able to
know what is correct?
A lifetime ago journal-
ists were taught to get three
solid sources to confirm a
story. That went out the win-
dow years ago. Each news-
paper or television organi-
zation simply quotes other
organizations who share the
same political views as their
<sources= for many of their
headline stories. Rarely do
they go to an actual original
source to confirm the infor-
mation. Nobody has enough
time to do real journalism
anymore. Thus, the left and
the right just feed each other
the stories they want to push,
often without good sources
behind them.
And yet, even though
most of us know that we
don9t really have all the true
information that we need
for many of the deep beliefs
we carry, that doesn9t stop
us from forming very strong
beliefs and sometimes yell-
ing to our brothers and sisters
that we are right, and they are
wrong.
Many people don9t under-
stand the power of their brain
to filter information as it
comes in. If the brain didn9t
filter, we9d go mad with
information overload. Think
about this situation. You9re
in the process of buying a
new car. You9ve now focused
on a Subaru. Suddenly you
see Subaru cars everywhere.
You had hardly noticed them
before but now your brain is
filtering to notice Subaru cars
because you are thinking of
buying one. And you filter
everything else the same way.
How does this relate to
misinformation? You have
developed a complex filtering
system at the subconscious
level. Your preconceptions,
which you developed over
many years, allows in, or
shuts out, information based
upon those biases.
This means that everyone
sees what he or she wants to
see.
Are you happy with what
you see? If you want to see a
better world (and seeking that
could actually help you make
the world better) make a con-
scious decision to modify
your filters.
Jesus told us that we were
not to judge our brothers.
The above discussion gives
good illustrations why we
shouldn9t judge others. We
make judgments about many
things without all the infor-
mation. So many, if not all, of
our judgments about others
and situations are probably
wrong. In other words, we
build up hate and fear
within ourselves completely
unnecessarily.
Think about this. You have
the power to choose. Decide
to choose love over hate, joy
over sadness and peace over
fear as your filters. If you are
upset about something, look
at it again from the position
of love. How different the
above situations would be if
we always used love to help
us understand them. Imagine
dealing with COVID using
love and compassion as your
only guide.
How different would your
discussion be if you used
peace as your guide during
a conversation about school
funding?
Think how you would
change your political conver-
sations by using joy as your
guide.
My Scotties are smart, but
they don9t have the complex
thinking abilities that we
have. They may be stuck with
fear inducing misinforma-
tion, but we don9t have to be.
<Above all, love each
other deeply, because love
covers over a multitude of
sins.= 4 1 Peter 4:8 NIV
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