I Wonder, Was That Ever True?

There is a State Farm commercial floating around about truth and the Internet.  It is funny, but it got me to thinking.  How many of us do a search and take as the truth the first thing we read, or see the exact same thing a dozen times and leap to the conclusion it has to be true.  How often is any of what we read actually attributable, so we can trace it back to the original source?

I was looking at an Eleanor Roosevelt quote, “Great minds discuss ideas.  Average minds discuss events.  Small minds discuss people.”  I can find that quote on a number of links all attributing it to Mrs. Roosevelt, but not one case provides the speech or setting from which it is taken.  So I’ve got to wonder, did she really ever say this, or has someone lent her name to add gravitas, and it just gets passed on and on?

So as we seek understanding and truth today, more than almost anytime in the past, we must take stock of the information presented and ask the question, what does the source gain from the knowledge they are passing along? 

How many of us pass along, without question, the misinformation put out by one group or another to continue the divisive positions we support?