Sometimes the most obvious of things are overlooked. Other times, we are so ingrained in language and process that we fail to see the contradictions right in front of us.
I give you this opening sentence in a news article from this morning’s local paper. “A graphic video that shows the moment a homicide suspect shot a Robinson motel manager at point-blank range pushed the District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday seek a gag order in the case.” If you have an actual video confirmation of someone blowing the brains out of a different someone, is it reasonable to assume he’s gone beyond the “suspect” phase.
I’m sure some will say “it could have been AI generated!” Yeah, no. This isn’t one of our political “leaders”(hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!) trying to pretend all is right with the world and what you are seeing is just the radical lunatics attempting to distract you. This is a man who was also caught on camera in that same parking lot shooting and wounding a woman while her young son sat in the car watching it, and who shot and wounded a pursuing police officer presumably caught on body cam video. There was no attempt to deceive and apparently some pretty conclusive evidence. Shouldn’t it be time to call a murderer a murderer? Or is it fair game to ignore what our eyes tell us.
Another thing we too often fail to see is that we are not immortal. The question of what will happen when I die records low on most people’s inquisitive meter. Regardless of the visual evidence and historical proof, people don’t want to acknowledge death, particularly their own.
We put death on the forefront in yesterday’s Uplift post at the ROAMcare site and asked the question, “If you were told today would be your last day, what would you do?” Many of the answers revealed most of us don’t understand the assignment. (Some of the answers revealed not all the narcissists have Washington DC addresses, but that’s a different story for a different post.) We found one answer though most telling. Read that one and see our answer to the question what would you do if you found out today was your last day in our post, “The Last Day.”
The Real Reality Show Blog 
So, actual evidence, in the form of this video, isn’t enough for conviction? How much are we trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt? Wrong is wrong, and we shouldn’t ignore what we’re seeing. Your comment about the possibility of being AI-generated makes me laugh–determining what’s real and what’s fake is definitely becoming more challenging. That, and no one wants to report just the news–they have to put their spin on it. I loved your article on Uplift–death is too often avoided because of the unpleasantness of what they don’t know, or the fear of the possibilities.
At some point, we have to trust our eyes. It’s hard sometimes but if you take a minute and look at the context, you can usually figure out what’s real. But then, I suppose there are always going to be some people who would rather not know if it’s real.
I worry that trust is being eroded in our lifetime, (I’m 50+) and that uncynically trusting what we see is getting harder and harder – I can’t even imagine the disconnect that will happen for my teenage daughters. sigh. Lots to think about, Linda
I’m sometimes not so sure trust is being eroded as much as just not considered necessary, perhaps some archaic remnant of the twentieth century. So many seem to want to base their actions on what they are told without considering the source or the consequences, blindly trusting. While others don’t believe anything because they’ve tuned out the world – non-trusting. And still some don’t believe anything – not trusting. but there are enough people who hold on to a healthy amount of cynicism and still recognize the relationship between trust, experience, and logical consequences to their and others words and actions.
I eavesdrop on my teen daughters and their friends sometimes and they still refer to trust / trust-issues, so it’s not all gone, it just seems more cloudy as a concept than it did when I was younger and my father lectured me in a very black-and-white, right-or-wrong way of thinking that included sentiments like “all that matters is being a good person since you only get buried with two things: your name and your integrity”…!!
Your father wasn’t wrong.
It’s good to know that trust is not unknown among this year’s teens
I agree – I suspect like everything, it’s morphing into something new! Have a wonderful week – I’m off to walk the dogs!! 🙂
Enjoy the walk!