Malcolm X said it, though he probably meant it more in regards to the possibility of violence. By any means necessary. It has a real tough-guy ring that “all options are on the table” tends to lack.
But is it really something that liberals and progressives should get behind?
I ask the question because of a post here at Daily Kos yesterday. You’ve probably seen it, the one that claims there is evidence of massive voter fraud by Republicans. It’s been on the rec list for 15 hours or so (at the time of this writing) and tragically it has been shared over 17,000 times on social media.
Why tragically? Because the post has no such evidence contained in it. What it has is a some numbers and then a abject failure to understand the process of gathering petition signatures to get on a ballot. Oh, and that catchy but totally false title.
I’ve made my criticism of the post known in the comments, and I can see how a community member who has only ever posted three diaries might be so uninformed as to write such a thing. It would have been great if, after being told that he was completely wrong about the facts that he pulled it down, but that is not what I wanted to talk about in this post.
What concerns me is a couple of things the way that we approach our struggle with the traditional media and the Republicans, and our collective credibility.
I saw several commenters who were saying that it was okay that the title was a flat out falsehood because the Republicans lie and cheat all the time. They said, in various degrees and ways, that it was okay if we lie and cheat and make things up because the other side does and we have to try to “end conservatism”.
Is that really where we want to be? Isn’t that just saying by any means necessary? If that is indeed where we are, ask yourself why it should matter that we prevail, if we are going to be exactly the same as the people we are contending against?
There is no doubt, none at all, that there has been short term gain for the Conservative movement in the United States by lying and propaganda. The lies continue to this day, especially about voter fraud. It is the animating lie behind the pernicious voter ID laws that have been enacted under Republican legislatures and Governors this year.
The idea that a lie is the only thing that can counter a lie, based on the energy it generates by the audience that wants to hear it, is a tautology. It assumes that a lie is the best way to convince and energize people.
The fact is that the best counter to a lie is not more lies but the truth. Does it work instantly against a convenient lie that an audience wants to believe? No, sadly it never has. The scales don’t magically fall from ones eyes when one is exposed to the actual truth after believing a lie. But it does happen and it is important that it does.
One of the things that is damaging the conservative movement and the Republican Party that has been captured by it is the exposure of lie after lie after lie. It is undermining people like Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney and Ron Paul as they try to say they never said X, when there is documentary evidence that they did.
Does it convince everyone? No, and it never will. But politics and governance in our democracy is not about convincing everyone, it is about convincing the majority. For that a clear pattern of lying on a range of subjects is generally enough to keep such rudderless people from achieving high levels of influence.
It is true there has been a problem with this in the last decade as there seemed to be no penalties for lying us into wars, or lying about breaking the law or just lying about what policy really means. However the facts, the truth if you will, have a way of coming back and destroying those who used lies to win.
Which brings us to our collective credibility. We have a huge and diverse community here at Daily Kos. It is easy to sign up and start posting, all of which is to the good to my mind. However with that good comes the challenge that we will have a lot of posts that are badly researched, mistaken in their premise, or just plain loony.
While there is nothing we can do about folks posting such dreck, we can and should not allow it to be widely perceived as the voice of this community. That is why such things should not make it to Recommended List.
Sure, it would be a great story if there were actual evidence of Republicans committing voter fraud on a huge scale in their primary or in general elections. It would be a fucking earthquake if such a thing were true. But just because a title says it, is not enough reason to recommend a diary.
As of now 202 Kossacks have recommended that diary. Even though there are several explanations of why the “facts” presented there in are wholly false. None of those comments have made the people who might have rec’d first and read second pull their recommendation of the post down.
It is one thing to be excited about something that might be damaging to Republicans here. I spend my time trying to find just such items, but when it is patently false it is a major mistake to recommend such a post.
Now that it has gone viral it will make any actual, factual, attempt to show the Republicans as the lying, cheating bastards they are that much harder. The notoriety this post has gained makes it the simplest thing in the world for someone not of this community (like the traditional media) to say “Both sides lie. Eric Ericson does it at Red State and so do the posters at Daily Kos. And you know what? They will be mostly telling the truth from the evidence they can present.
We did this to ourselves. We as a community have taken a big old stick and whacked our collective credibility. It doesn’t matter how scrupulously accurate Scott Wooledge is or how meticulous David Nir is in the future. The kind of support that this community has shown for a mistake that became a lie because it would not be changed or acknowledge as such will always be out there hanging around out necks like a stinking albatross.
Here are some questions that we need all ask ourselves; what is more important, winning or winning because we have the facts on our side?
Can there be real victory if we turn into the ethically bankrupt Republicans and Conservatives?
Would or should anyone trust us to do better for this country if we win that way?
Who would you rather put your faith in, someone who tries to persuade through truth and fact or someone who will say whatever it takes to kick the other guy and win?
Hopefully we’ll all think about this before we recommend or defend a diary with a title like “Republicans all piss on the Constitution” if there is not full photo documentation.
The floor is yours.