A while back while my friend Jamie was having surgery I was in the waiting room with her family. To help pass the time, her husband Courtney brought along a game called, "Fact or Crap." In the game you have to determine if a statement is either true or false. Example: the inventors of Corn Flakes are the Kellogg brothers. That happens to be a Fact.
Just recently I was going to quote a phrase in a recent blog post that I was told came from Winston Churchill... "If your in your 20's and you're not a liberal you don't have a heart. If your in your 30's and not a conservative you don't have a brain."
As I started to write the phrase I began to wonder if Churchill actually said it. The person who told me the phrase is a reliable, well read individual and otherwise trustworthy. However, in doing a little investigation, I found while it is widely believed that Churchill said this phrase there is no evidence or remembrance of those who study Churchill that he ever said it.
I'm finding this to be true about many things. We can easily promote un or half truths simply because we are trusting the source and not questioning their source or even caring for that matter. It's as if we allow an ignorance-is-bliss rule to trump truth. In our "wiki"society where the the collaborative process is healthy in developing a community of interaction we endanger the strength of that community by building it on sands of uncertainty rather then the bedrock of truth.
Urban legends, email forwards, photoshopped images are perpetuated every day as though fact... it's time we begin to consider the source. Not sure, do a little research (google, Snopes.com or truthorfiction.com) before you actually pass it on.
So what is your favorite tale? What have you found to be "Crap" when you thought it was true all along? Let me know as your contribution to this Watercooler Wednesday conversation. Then see what others are talking about at the WC too by going HERE.
BTW - picture up above... Fact or Crap?
