I've changed the name to BREAK FREE MEDIA!

Tell me what you think--and a little musing about mis/disinformation.

You can listen to me read these musings here:

I’ve changed the name from Break Free with Karen Hunt to Break Free Media.

Tell me what you think. It’s simpler, easier to remember and it encourages me to expand Break Free to include a podcast, which I really would like to do, I just haven’t been able to figure out how, with time and a studio to do it in. My goal (aim high, you will see why I say this later in these musings) is to do a weekly or monthly conversation with some interesting person and allow my readers to join in and ask questions at the end. Pray for me that I can make this happen in the new year!

WORDS MATTER!

I want to share some thoughts that I put into a Note today, in a little more detail:

I refuse to use these stupid words (and I don’t use the word stupid lightly—when I was a child, my parents told me to never call another child by this word, it was cruel) “mis and disinformation”. I prefer the old-fashioned word LIE. How many people even know the difference between “mis” and “dis”? And then there’s “malinformation”.

• “Misinformation” is false information you unknowingly pass on to others—oh, you can be forgiven for that since you’re just a zombie follower of your favorite influencer so it’s not your fault when you pass on their propaganda.

• “Disinformation” is false information you knowingly pass on to others. This is serious. It’s the kind of crime that could potentially get you jailed, or perhaps even executed at some future date. Like, if there’s another pandemic and you tell people not to get vaccinated, that could be seen as mass murder.

• Malinformation is true information that you knowingly disseminate to cause harm. This can be straightforward, like sharing someone’s home address online, or it can be much trickier and psychologically complex.

Remember those crazy days when the Biden Administration formed the “Disinformation Governance Board”.

Homeland Security Chief Mayorkas had some famous last words to say in defending what many compared to the Orwellian Ministry of Truth:

“The group will not infringe on privacy rights of individuals.”

How many times have we heard that before. Think the Patriot Act. Yep, famous last words.

If you want to hear some real word salad, watch this short video of the hilarious former head of the Disinformation Governance Board, Nina Jankowicz, complaining that the DGB was, itself, in fact, the victim of misinformation when it was disbanded just three weeks after its formation.

These words mis/dis/mal information are meant to confuse us. They are used to make us think truth is too complicated for ordinary folks to figure out. We need “experts” to interpret it for us. They want us to lose our God-given ability to tell right from wrong.

I’ve got news for you. It's not that difficult.

Either you lie or you tell the truth. Sometimes you tell a “half-lie” or a “half-truth”. We used to know this. We used to feel guilty when we told a lie. We used to have to admit that guilt, say we were sorry and resolve to do better. Now lying is just normal.

We have to get back to a higher standard of integrity. God’s standard. That doesn't mean we always live up to it. But it is the standard we aspire to.

One of the first lessons I learned when I started my martial arts training was to aim for the sky when I kicked. As a beginner, if you can only kick low and you always look low, you’ll never kick higher, you’ll never improve.

We can apply this truth to every aspect of life. If we don't strive for the best, we will always settle for the worst. And that's a horrible way to live.

Along those lines, here’s a favorite quote from

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

:

“So the West must decide. Do we degenerate into quarrelling factions or do we reassert our enduring values and highest ideals on the global stage? Do we stand with Israel in action as in word or do we fall into a chasm of distraction and division? This might just be the most important choice our generation makes.”

Will we lift our eyes and rise to the light or will we fall into darkness. It’s our choice.

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