Snopes and 'What We Know That Ain't So'

How much false information can a democracy absorb and still function?

"It's not what we don't know that's the problem, it's what we know that ain't so."
-- Mark Twain

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."
-- Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

"A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth - some obvious truth he isn't supposed to say."
-- Michael Kinsley

"[I]in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature . . .."
-- Adolph Hitler

It's silly season. Presidential politics is in full swing. It has been said that "the first casualty of war is truth." Truth is also a casualty of politics.

Some of the things that are said of candidates during campaigns may strike us as so outrageous as to be funny. Others may prompt us to think, "that can't be right, . . . can it?"

We may not be paying close attention. The assertion may square with our beliefs, ideology, or prejudices. Whatever our condition and response, the assertion has entered that electro-chemical soup that is our brain, and continues to float around in there in one form or another.

Most K-12 school districts are not as candid as the Texas Republicans were in their platform -- a flat out opposition to "Higher Order Thinking Skills."

But how good are any of us at asking, "What do you mean?" and "How do you know?"

For a little quiz to test yourself on 55 statements that seemingly intelligent people have been sending to their email lists, here's [More].