Chinchillas, Pony Express, and the media.
My father had a saying, well, he had many expressions living to be 95 with a gift for gab. He often told me that the only person who could cheat you was someone you trusted.
My Father and I often did not see eye to eye, which led to us not speaking for weeks at a time. And I was going to argue with him about this. I told him he was too cynical; people could be trusted.
But wait, was he right? Did I have to think more deeply about this saying? What exactly did he mean? Was he telling me not to trust anyone?
He was trying to tell me what Ronald Reagan said to Gorchov during disarmament talks: “Trust but verify.”
As I discovered from the multiple retelling of his stories, my father learned this rule the hard way. As a young father of four children in post-WWII New York City, he once brought home four chinchillas. He told my mother these chinchillas would make them rich. All they had to do was raise these soft furry little creatures in the two-bedroom apartment. Chinchilla fur was worth a lot of money and was currently being ranched in the US. Chinchillas were selling $100-$1000 a piece. The cute little rodents he bought turned out to be hamsters! He was duped in the Chinchilla Bubble of 1955.
I have a wonderful old wooden clock chiming on my wall right now that my father purchased. He told us it was a Pony Express clock with a certificate of authenticity, and it had hung in one of the stations where the Pony Express riders would stop to change out their horses. He was always very proud of it. I went to look for its value one day and found an interesting article on the Pony Express clocks. These were reproductions made in Japan and sold with a certificate of authenticity in the 1970s. Even after showing my 93-year-old father the article, he didn’t want to think he was scammed. It is now a family joke but a well-loved clock on its own.
Yes, my father was right. If you trust someone and do not double-check what they are saying, then they can cheat you.
Information is the same way, especially in the world of social media’s 24/7 global information. If you trust your source, they can put out the wrong information. The Hypodermic Needle Model describes how the media can control the audience. The participant is gullible and will believe what the media says.
I think we are all susceptible to the media but to differing degrees. We want to believe in the people we trust because they align with our values. Cognitive Dissonance is a theory that explains we often reject ideas inconsistent with our beliefs because it is uncomfortable to change our beliefs.
In his YouTube video, Mr. Sinn discusses Cultivation Theory, and I see the similarity to the Hypodermic Needle Theory in that the audience believes what is said. However, the media is cultivating the news tailored to fit the audience. The audience will follow the media outlets that have similar values. An example is the CNN and Fox News wars, each playing to their own audience and tailoring the news their audience wants to hear.
Cognitive Dissonance examples can be seen at the early stages of vaccination when people were jumping the line to get their vaccine. They justified their right to get the vaccine even though the media outlets were telling people to wait their turn. As contrast to that example, Cognitive Dissonance is demonstrated in the refusal to get vaccinated. A Forbes article described parents who would look for reasons why they shouldn’t vaccinate their child against COVID because of cognitive dissonance. When presented with scientific evidence from the media that doesn’t support their belief, they double-down on their old beliefs and find a media outlet that they want to believe.
To fight these natural urges of wanting to trust what others say, or even when I read something that I agree with, I try to go to another news source that has opposing views. A news source that I disagree with, for example. I will see what CNN, Fox, and MSNBC have to say on the same topic. Or I will search for an opposite opinion.
It seems counterintuitive, but when I find myself wanting to believe s a piece of news, I dig further because I am aware of my own biases. For example, I wanted to believe the lab in Wuhan released the virus by accident. Like in the Andromeda Strain movie, where a strange blood clotting disease had infected a rural area. The scientist tried to contain it in a secret lab.
I look for other facts, differing opinions, and scam reports when something sounds too good to be true. If I feel that I want to believe it, I look for a reason not to believe it. As my father would say, the only person who can cheat you is the one you trust.
