Talking Without Speaking; Hearing Without Listening...

Hey Everyone!! :-)

I've got a little more of Alyce's adventure to share with you, today! Enjoy! :-)

Excerpt from sci-fi satire novel:
"That's a good question, darlin', but the answer is…"

"Complicated," the two aliens chorused.

I shrugged. "Yep."

"Does it have anything to do with this next exhibit?" asked Squid-boy as he pointed off towards the far end of the hall.

I followed him over to the display he was talking about. It took me a few minutes of looking at it, but I was finally able to figure out what it was supposed to be. There was a woman robot sitting at a keyboard typing and, periodically, a definition or equation would appear on a screen over her head. These were all obvious truths; things like the equation for how to calculate the radius of a circle given its circumference and the definition of electrical current. Things no sane person could argue with. And yet, there was a group of both male and female robots sitting opposite the woman robot who had their own keyboards. No matter what the woman robot typed or how blindingly obvious it was that it was indisputable fact, the group of robots would invariably respond by typing furiously into their keyboards and the words "Fake News!" would appear on the screen over their heads.

"Err… Sort of. It's kind of related, but not directly."

"Can you explain?" asked Yax.

"Well, this," I gestured at the exhibit, "is one of the ways those in power try to keep regular people divided. They use propaganda to make people believe that the truth isn't the truth and that the people who try to tell them the truth ̶ like teachers, scientists, and journalists ̶ are trying to trick them. Educated people are often portrayed in such propaganda as people who are cold, socially awkward, detached from and unsympathetic towards the problems of 'real people', and impractical. This type of propaganda makes some people, mostly those who aren't well-educated themselves, distrust education and those who have it. And it dissuades them from trying to educate themselves."

"And people who are ignorant are easier to control," said Yax.

I nodded. "Exactly. And when people who are well-educated are confronted with people who aren't, and who are suspicious of truths that educated people consider obvious, the educated people tend to regard their less-educated counterparts with derision and even contempt, at times."

"And so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."

"Yep. And everybody ends up talking and nobody is listening."

"But how can your people argue about provable facts?" objected Squid-boy.

I snorted. "Sugar, I think you'll find that humans can argue about just about anything."