FAKE NEWS, ALTERNATIVE FACTS, WHEN IT ISN’T WHAT IT IS

Too many stories coming at you?
How do you decide what to believe?
Used to be easy- some were true-some were false.
You trusted the true, you trashed the lies.
A liar lost trust, lost credibility, lost believability.
Lying cost you your job, your wife, your reputation.
Then Truth had its own incentive.

It meant you were called “honest,” like honest Abe
or George Washington, who could not tell a lie.

 Not any more-lying is big business.

Media, Politics, Hollywood, cable news,  memoirs, lobbyists, PR, crisis management, –All Billion dollar industries

Much more reward in lying pretending it’s the truth.
Truth simply does not pay anymore.

So how do you decide?
What news to heed, what advice to take, what politician to believe?
Or have you, like so many of us, almost given up?
It is time to Wise up- before its too late. Time to become storywise.

During the ObamaCare debate,
did you know Lobbyists were paid to lie about Canada’s Health Care System, to say it was worse than ours-when it is light years better- Am I making this up?
No, the person confessed here. And he admitted that his lies cost lives.
Lies cost lives. Think about that. Time to Wise Up- time to become storywise.

When COVID19 struck,
the experts took a while to get a handle on it but soon, there was consensus
masks, social distance, reduced the risks. But for reasons other than health, it served some to say masks made no difference-that it infringed freedom. ( to infect others?)
Someone like a mask-less Herman Cain must have believed that. At a rally, it appears he got infected and he died. Lies cost lives. He did not wise up in time. If he had been storywise, he may still be alive.

When the USA dropped bombs on Japan,
they told the public that radiation sickness did not exist, that there was no lingering damage to the health of the survivors. John Hersey went there and saw the cancer, the slow death of thousands but the army did not want the truth to be told. Like Chernobyl. Like Katrina. Like 9-11.

Lies cost lives. Unless we wise up, unless we become storywise, our health too is at risk.

Storywise is a specialist training that involves

-buying and reading the 2008 book The Presidential Plot at a special election rate
-applying what you learn as you follow the 2020 elections
-following the commentary on the elections from narrative experts
-learning how they apply the principles of narrative literacy and design to events
-using four narrative maps to navigate the minefield of lies and conspiracy theories
-applying these critical methods so you will not be taken in by a malicious story again

Lies cost lives. Time to wise up. Time to become storywise.

Sign up here.

The Center for Narrative Studies

Looking for more commentary like this that takes a narrative critical look at politics and the election? Here is the  StoryWise Manual for Presidential Elections. THE PRESIDENTIAL PLOT- get your copy here