When European colonial racists said black people are inferior intellectually to the white people, does the matter require fact-check? Strangely, some blacks began to believe in this big lie. Any person of any race is inferior in intellect, when not given an opportunity in education and other blessings of life. Similarly, when some Somalis claim that existing Somali federalism is clannish or clan-based federalism, is that a fact-based reality or “alternative reality?” Could you establish a federal state with regions having not shared borders, for example, Mudugh and Lower Shabelle Regions? Or Hiiraan and Nugaal Regions? Could you create a viable federal state with communities not so keen to have a common regional state, for their own reasons? Then, what are they talking about when they malign and denounce Somali federalism? In fact, they have re-birth of city-state of Mogadishu in mind. Unfortunately, some people started to believe in this fallacy and deception after surviving through the mayhem of civil war caused by tyranny and police state in Mogadishu.
Alternative reality is a fancy phrase for a lie. There is no alternative fact, but a fact. The phrase “fake news” used by Trump and Trumpers is a denial of truth and defence tools against exposure of truth.
The phrase “Nabad and Nolool” now used by Farmajo Administration has nothing to do with peace and people’s lives. It is an empty phrase to smokescreen reality with false image of better life to come. It is truly a fake attempt to mislead gullible citizens as a tool for a demogogue. Take Farmajo’s Somali National Army, SNA. It is a collection of Civil War clan militias of South-Central Somalia. SNA is just euphemism for the remnants of clan militias of warlords, Union of Islamic Courts, Al-Shabab and predatory Mogadishu business community. It is a fake national army – an alternative reality.
The people of the world thought the era of Hitler’s propaganda Minister, Paul Joseph Goebbels (photo above), who said that repeating lies often enough would make them true, would never happen again. This has been proven to be not the case. It is happening now.
Because Somalis aren’t equipped with the tools of fact-checking in terms of education in the absence of accepted neutral think-tanks and opportunities for independent research assistance, they are susceptible to misleading misinformation and deception by unscrupulous individuals and entities, including partisan politicians and interest groups.
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The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history. — George Orwell
Some would argue that the truth has a bias. My truth isn’t the same as his truth or their truth isn’t the same as our truth. In this case it seems we’ve strayed away from the truth as an objective reality and choose to promote our own subjective stances as fact. The truth is what you make of it. Trump was able to tap into the anxieties and frought beliefs of the White working class population. It was framed as a united struggle and the desire to “Make America Great Again”. When politicians are able to conjur powerful rhetoric, it does not matter whether it’s fact or fiction, as long as it appeals to what audiences and participants believe as the truth.
However, it is important to acknowledge that sometimes in our pursuit of facts and objective truth we can negate the stories and histories of marginalised populations. Politicians have lied and do lie. But perhaps by posing alternative reality as a dangerous fiction we may be doing a disservice to those experiences that can and are dismissed via fact checking.
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It is a scholarly comment. Insightful.
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