ESSAY

Arguing With Fools

The futility of debating a closed mind

In what surely must be a sign of the end of days, it seems like fully half of the news stories coming out of mainstream news outlets lately concern themselves with refuting demonstrably false news stories and otherwise rampant disinformation being spread by right wing lunatics and con men pushing conspiracy theories and dubious dietary supplements.

Rather than reporting on the many important critical issues at hand — and there are many — the press ends up spending an enormous amount of time and resources refuting or correcting disinformation being spread widely on social media. The irony, of course, being that they’re preaching to the choir, because the real sinners, the ones who desperately need to hear the message, have long since left the sanctuary.

If you find yourself in the right-wing media bubble, you have no other choice than to believe that President Biden skipped a ceremony for the 13 Americans killed last week, that military-trained dogs were tragically abandoned in a war zone, and that $83 billion in military equipment was left behind for use by the Taliban.

None of that is true and you can quickly Google the truth about each piece of disinformation if you so desire. Countless pieces have been published by numerous media…