Truth matters: Russia and our endangered democracy
What are we to believe? Truth is under attack. With attacks on the press, campaign ads and pundits telling us what to think, we must become even more scholarly citizens. We must dig for the truth and not be swayed by the latest soundbites splashing across our screens. It’s tempting to come to quick conclusions without going beneath the surface to examine the validity of pronouncements. Having a president who shoots from the hip paying no attention to facts makes it even more challenging to differentiate lies from the truth. We must take the opposite road and follow more scholarly pursuits by weighing evidence before forming conclusions.
After listening to Trump claim that the Russian hacking was a hoax and seeing him flippantly and jokingly tell Putin not to interfere with our next election, I decided to read the Mueller report to form my own opinion. As I pored through those 400 pages, I realized that this report is a model of scholarship. In fact, if I were still teaching in the classroom, I would have my students read it as an example of an excellent investigative paper.
Mueller gathered testimony from hundreds of individuals, and systematically built a case laying out one piece of evidence after another documenting Russia’s interference in our election. If Trump could concentrate long enough to actually read this report, he would learn that Russian interference was not a hoax, but a reality. Mueller concludes: “As alleged by the grand jury in an indictment, Russian intelligence officers who were part of the Russian military launched a concerted attack on our political system. The indictment alleges that they used sophisticated cyber techniques to hack into computers and networks used by the Clinton campaign. They stole private information and then released that information through fake online identities and through the organization Wikileaks. The releases were designed and timed to interfere with our election and to damage a presidential candidate.”
Mueller closes his comments by “reiterating the central allegation of our indictments — that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere with our election. That allegation deserves the attention of every American.”
To exacerbate the situation, President Trump won’t take action to defray any future Russian interference. Russia helped him win the election, and he knows they will do so again. Our democracy is heading towards a crisis. This means we must become even more diligent about seeking truth. Don’t be swayed by the latest pundits or Trump’s falsehoods. Don’t be told what to believe. Don’t jump to quick conclusions. Evaluate facts. Attend to sources of information. What evidence is available to back up assertions?
Because our government is doing so little to stop Russian meddling, much of what we hear and what we see, particularly on the internet, is based on Russian operatives and paranoid conspiracy theorists. Go beyond the surface noise. Read critically, examine evidence, rely on credible sources, and draw your own conclusions based on proven facts. It’s time for scholarship.
The future of our democracy depends on us becoming even more thoughtful, well-informed citizens.
—Carol Santa lives in Marion