It’s been seven months since the horrific attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians. Christians and Jews throughout America have since been stunned by the outpouring of support for Hamas and Palestinians who advocate the complete destruction of Israel. We see rabid Palestinian supporters disrupting college campuses, blocking our highways, airport access, and major city thoroughfare.
Perhaps we have been deluded for years and did not know that within our midst tens of thousands would take to the streets. How can these protestors be so wrong? Do they not have the ability to visit YouTube and news sites and see the horrific acts that Hamas themselves proudly posted?
The Last to Know?
Do these people marching in our streets blocking traffic and entrances to buildings, and brazenly harassing Jews not know what has transpired in the last several months? It's stupefying to realize that they, indeed, probably do not know. In the age of the Internet where so much information is available and can be corroborated by visiting reputable alternative news sites, we run smack dab into the quintessential information roadblock of our age.
Alvin Toffler alluded to this phenomenon more than 50 years ago in his prescient book “Future Shock.” He told us that people would become so overwhelmed with information, choices, and lifestyle options that they would reach a point where their ability to choose effectively breaks down. All of the information that comes their way ends up overwhelming them.
As such, people habitually rely upon the same news sites, interact with the same people, and gather the same kind of information – information which already confirms their biases. They unknowingly, or even willfully, solidify their same long-term attitudes and opinions, and never move from those viewpoints.
The Information Iron Curtain
Such information ostriches live behind a self-imposed information iron curtain which, ironically, they could dislodge in less than 60 seconds. This will not happen because they will not expend any energy or challenge themselves to visit news sites that contradict the propaganda sites that they habitually patronize. I got a personal, fresh glimpse of this phenomenon the other day.
A woman originally from China, about age 45, who lives near the courts where I play pickleball, offered a viewpoint I could not forget. She is an American citizen. We were talking about different Chinese names, and I jokingly brought up the name Mao Zedong. She said she was aware of that name. I said, “Of course you are. He was the absolute ruler and dictator of China for decades and had more than 45 million people murdered.”
Astoundingly, she said no, that never happened. It is a myth. I told her that hundreds of scholars, researchers, historians, authors, and even eyewitnesses have documented the devastation. She protested. She said all of that was made up.
I thought about going to the internet, to highly reputable sites and printing out reams of documentation, but what would be the use? She would say that those sites have it all wrong. She could engender endless ways to refute objective reality – that which is so historically obvious.
I See Nothing
Books, articles, and untold numbers of websites document Mao’s villainous reign in China. Yet this woman apparently has never been exposed to any such sources. Or, if she has been, her selective perception and select bias prevents her from accepting the hardcore reality.
Is it any wonder that many people today, with little interest in historical perspective, only know what the sites that they habitually visit tell them about Hamas, what their friends say, and what they glean from their personal-bubble environment?
Days after October 7, when the bogus story emerged that Israeli rockets had fired on a Palestinian hospital, killing at least 250, Muslims worldwide believed every word of the diabolical, false reporting. Mass demonstrations occurred in all capital cities of the Middle East. “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” were among the many chants.
The retraction of such news came days later when video footage and other measures revealed that the hospital had not been struck at all. The rockets launched by Hamas, not Israel, landed in a parking lot near the hospital.
Sadly, this truth will never reach most of those marching in the streets for Hamas. They will not patronize alternative, more reliable information sources for the rest of their lives.
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