Over and over I hear mostly conservatives whine about everything they post on Facebook getting fact-checked. I say, “Well then, stop posting such easily identifiable lies.”, or “Go ahead and look at the fact-checkers methods, sources, and explanations and tell us what is wrong.”
Given their general aversion to intellectual diligence, it’s not surprising when they respond with “They’re just liberal fact checkers!”, which is a direct admission that they do not understand how facts work to begin with.
So our conservatives have been inundated with a barrage of bubble-popping fact bullets all over social media more and more as the months wear on. For the fact-checkers, it’s just TOO easy. On my own blog I take apart Bullshit, and I can relate because I’m just dying to get my hands on some good, sophisticated, left-wing propaganda that lies or misleads… but there’s none out there! I’ve asked, I’ve begged right-wingers to bring me some juicy liberal lies and they’ve always come up empty.
So when the fact-checkers get ahold of something from the ‘left’, they practically jump up and start dancing because they can finally prove that they are not actually partisan. Too bad the right really doesn’t care and will still call fact-checkers ‘liberal’ when they burst any of their fake stories. That doesn’t stop them from having their own petty party to celebrate the one time the left got something wrong… as though that finally makes the left ‘just as bad as they are’ (and the irony is lost on them).
So, when Facebook and social media started poking the CPAC/Odal story with the AFP breakdown, they suddenly had a dearth of tissues and hand lotion. But AFP did a sloppy job, and here’s why:
- Yes, the stage designers deny any intention and claim their design was the 'best use of space'.
AFP’s ENTIRE 'fact check' ruling is based on the denial by the designer and a few people saying 'it must have been a coincidence'. It’s true that the company may not have known what the shape meant, but until Design Foundry, the company that worked with CPAC to design the stage, states unequivocally that no one associated with CPAC had any input on the design, it’s more than a ‘coincidence’ that the stage looked like that.
A spokesman for CPAC even stated that they ‘worked together’ with the company:
“For the purposes of the event, all of our collaboration is centered less around aesthetics and more about logistics,” Walters said, adding that Design Foundry had worked with CPAC since 2014, in order to make its stages more appealing for television viewers.
Does anyone think any design company would say, "Well sure we intended for the stage to be a Nazi hate symbol!"? Of course not. Then why would any denial ‘settle’ the issue?
That is not how you 'fact check' decisively. Regarding the weak arguments in the AFP piece:
First: That stage was not an 'efficient use of space'. Those two wings were unnecessary and potentially dangerous.
Second: It didn't 'somewhat resemble' the Nazi version of the Odal, it was a PERFECT copy. The deliberate coloring created an exact replica of the Nazi SS collar embroidery.
Third: Having two 'history buffs' who were 'unaware' of the rune is irrelevant. That attempt to suggest it was 'too obscure to know about' is weak in its argument from ignorance, especially when a major white supremacist group in the U.S. has that rune on their flag.
Fourth: The right has been using 'dogwhistles' like this for decades for the express purpose of gaining the support of White Supremacists and Neo Nazis. It is NOT a 'coincidence' that nearly EVERY SINGLE WS/NN in this country is a Republican/Conservative. It is NOT a 'coincidence' that WS/NNs were part of the mob that stormed the Capitol.
I could go on about what a crappy fact-check this was against the evidence of intention (again, the ONLY evidence against the intentional creation of a Nazi symbol is the denial of the parties involved), but this is one of the ways that WS/NN recruit, consolidate, and come to power. Of COURSE they're not going to be wearing swastikas. They hide behind plausible deniability by using hand signals, innuendo, key words, and obscure symbolism that the WS/NNs are AWARE OF AND ATTUNED TO. That's why we call them 'dogwhistles'.
And no matter what the intention of the stage design, millions of WS/NNs saw it and said, "Yup, they're our people all right."