Actually the original saying was, “A lie will gallop halfway round the world before the truth has time to pull its breeches on.” and was said by Cordell Hull although it is commonly attributed to Churchill.
This came to my mind today as I was partway through fact checking a transcription of the Internet Party President Suzie Dawson. She must be aware of the saying, some of the lies in that transcript have been travelling around the world for years now as apparently truth couldn’t be bothered getting out of bed at all.
Part of the problem is video. It takes a long time to go through a transcript and check/question what is in it. It takes even longer to go through a video and I think most of the world can’t be bothered.
That leads to a second problem, if people can’t be bothered fact checking then it doesn’t get done and the people lying through their teeth get to lie until the records are full of it. Dawson is a perfect example of this. No-one should have made it through the first paragraph of her speech without serious concerns being raised.
That leads to a third problem. Once the records are full of it, it is much harder to combat the lie. We get used to it and when the preponderance of evidence says one thing we are hesitant to believe something else. The quote at the start is commonly attributed to Churchill, the evil queen says,”Mirror mirror on the wall“.
(Actually, there is quite a good site on it called Debunking Mandela Effects)
To give you an idea of how long it takes to fact check a video I spent four hours once fact checking a five minute video on vaccination.
Which leads to a fourth problem. If nobody cares then it has all been a waste of time. If people happily continue in exactly the same vein as they were before or, even better, create a new justification in order to continue then fact checking the liars is worthless. We need to question things more, especially when it concerns our leaders*.
Further Reading
From myself;
- Open letter to the Secretary of Internet Party NZ and Executive
- Problems with Tareq Haddad and The Freedom of Speech Society
- Suzi3d – The Anonymous Scandinavia video
- Suzie Dawson and the Whistle-blower
- Why Suzie Dawson? – The quick version!
- #1vs5i – Show me the money!
- Diary of a person of interest – Questions?
- Assassination Attempt on Suzie Dawson near Dome Valley?
- Suzie Dawson refuses to pay back a private loan from a Party Member
- Did the Internet Party enter the 2017 Election with less than 500 members?
- Conversations with the Internet Party Executive starting 14/06/2018
- Conversations with the Internet Party Executive starting 28/02/2019
- Letter of Complaint to Jo Booth (Internet Party secretary) 16/03/2019
- Who is Suzie Dawson? Exile or Fraud.
- Using the Christchurch terror attacks for page hits
- Letter of Complaint to Jo Booth (Internet Party secretary) 10/06/2019
- Letter of Complaint to Jo Booth (Internet Party secretary) 26/06/2019
- Suzie Dawson: Rape Apologist?
From others;
- Traitors of Journalism: Suzie Dawson and the Market of Victimhood
- The Gatekeeper Files: New Zealand’s Traveling Circus Act
- The Gatekeeper Files: Unity4J Co-Founder’s Asylum Application Rejected TWICE
- The Gatekeeper Files: The Beginning of the End (Page 1)
- Penny Bright: Occupy Auckland wins Appeal against Auckland Council!
- Pastebin: Endarken AKA S. Dawson
- Transparency NZ: Suzie Dawson a blast from the past may she fare well in Russia
- David Farrar: The Full Looney
- Kiwi Kremlin Exposed
- Barret Brown: Why Suzie Dawson was removed from the Pursuance Project
- Being Honest: Considerations of a Julian Assange Supporter
- Llama: My Honest Response to Dishonest Accusations
- Whitney Webb: Fact checking Suzie Dawson
- Fred Look: Internet Party Secretary from April 2015 to June 2017