It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here and a lot has happened. The world has changed.

Some things are better and many things are much, much worse, but still the world marches forward. I hope all of my readers are doing as well as possible in the pandemic era. My heart goes out to all of you that have experience heartbreak and loss.

It’s been nearly two decades since this blog was launched and the Internet is a vastly different place than it used to be so I hope you’ll appreciate the changes made here.

The biggest improvement is that it’s finally usable on mobile devices, which was nearly impossible on the old platform without all sorts of pinching and zooming that I expect exactly nobody could be bothered to deal with.

All the original content has been migrated into the new system and I’ve had quite the nostalgic fun going through some of it to fix some issues. There’s a bit more to do to fix old links and some formatting but for the most part it should all be good to go.

As for me… well… I’m still here and life is good.

Welcome to new NotWeasel!

Most people will never be “successful” in any definition that means people outside your immediate circle will ever talk about you.

Nobody is ever going to write a magazine article about me. Nobody is ever going to write a magazine article about a list of people that even remotely includes me in the most superficial way.

I just recently learned that some people make hundreds of thousands of dollars a MONTH playing video games on Twitch.

I’m content with how my life is going but that sure puts my level of success in perspective.

There’s a LOT of people out there making a TON of money through a lot less effort than most of us put out. That’s awesome for them.

There are WAY MORE people that are working a lot harder than I am and not doing nearly as well. In the overall scheme of things, I’m pretty darned successful.

But nobody will ever write an article about me. And that’s fine.

If you’re not satisfied with where you are in life, then take steps to change it. If you’re NEVER satisfied with where you are in life (and aren’t struggling with real issues like poor health or poverty) then I suggest you re-think your definition of success.

It’s normal to want more and to strive to do better. If you’re not happy with where you are along the way though… well… what’s the point? The more you get the more you’ll want and before you know it you’ll be facing down the end game and can’t go back.

I want to start a movement.

Critical thinkers have long been aware of all the fake news and outright lies being spread on social media and elsewhere in support of just about any argument under the sun.

More recently, it's become a more mainstream news item and people, including major social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are looking for ways to combat the phenomenon.

This is how I'm trying to do my part.

I'm starting with the premise that people don't want to be lied to and that they don't want to spread lies. In light of the facts behind how this became an issue in the first place, you might think this premise is ridiculous but I don't think it is. I just don't think people realize how much they're being lied to and how much of what they think they know is the direct result of that.

So my plan is to create an easy way of pointing them out with the hope that once people are aware of just how much this is happening, they'll realize how important it is to be critical of everything they're told and will learn some very basic research skills to try to validate things before they propagate them.

Here's how it will work.

I'm going to create a meme that you will post whenever you see an obvious and verifiable untruth. The meme will simply say:

DID YOU LIE OR WERE YOU LIED TO?

People will then respond to that meme with a few canned choices. These will be:

I LIED. YOU CAUGHT ME.

Some people ARE unashamed liars. If you encounter this sort of person, there's nothing further to be done other than to question their moral character. If someone is known to be a liar, then nothing they say is of any argumentative value and there's no point in furthering a discussion with them.

I WAS LIED TO. THIS IS WHO LIED TO ME.

I expect most people aren't willingly liars. If they realize they lied, hopefully they'll take some conviction in calling out their source so both they and you can know not to ever rely on that source again.

I WAS MISTAKEN. I HAVE NOW SEEN THE LIGHT. HERE IS THE TRUTH.

Sometimes people just make mistakes. I have a feeling this is going to be a very popular option because people don't like to be wrong and like to make excuses as to why the lie shouldn't impact your opinion of their moral character. Hopefully after a few of these, people will learn how easy it is to verify facts before they post them and will make that minimal effort in the future. Imploring people to post the truth may even open them up to opposing viewpoints and change their world view. One can hope, right?

If someone refuses to post the truth of the matter because it opposes whatever argument they're trying to make, then the idea of them having been mistaken can be considered a lie in itself. In this case, they'd actually lied but just don't have the moral character to admit it.

Note that if people find themselves posting this one a lot, I would hope they realize that it will make them appear to be stupid. Everyone makes mistakes now and then but if you're constantly making these mistakes in your postings, it's proving that you're either stupid or very gullible or both. Nobody wants to look stupid and the solution is to verify stuff before you repeat it.

I DIDN'T LIE. HERE IS THE EVIDENCE.

Before posting the meme in the first place, you're supposed verify that what they said was demonstrably untrue. There's nothing wrong with healthy debate and with giving opinions. Opinions aren't lies. If you call someone out as a liar and they prove you wrong, then you should suck it up and post one of these responses yourself in defense or apology for your initial finger-pointing.

It's that simple.

Before I set up the graphics and try to get this thing started, I'll open it here for comments. My social media reach is rather limited but you never know. Maybe it'll take off and maybe something good will come of it.

If you have ideas for additional appropriate responses, please explain them as well so I have as complete a set as could be expected when I get it started.