Believing where we cannot prove

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Cyclopea

But a series of new experiments show that misinformation can exercise a ghostly influence on people's minds after it has been debunked -- even among people who recognize it as misinformation. In some cases, correcting misinformation serves to increase the power of bad information.

There's a great quote in Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld series "a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth gets its' boots on". This (amongst many other wonderful lines) is so insightful into how people *actually* work.

As queer people we have a vested interest in a reality-based culture. If we're going to win our civil rights struggle we have to be able to stand up, just as my parents did during the 50's and 60's, and proclaim without equivocation that we are fully human, fully citizens and fully deserving of our own little measure of life, liberty and happiness. Can you imagine King's speeches with the codicil "...but if you believe that the Negro does not deserve these rights, that's true for you"? I shudder to think how different my life would have been if my parents, during the marches they attended, had carried signs "I am a man (unless, of course, you think I'm not in which case that's true for you and that's ok)."

Cheers
Aj