🔎 What happened to the burden of proof?
It wasn’t that long ago where the burden of proof was on you as the claimant, but that’s been replaced with, “Prove me wrong.” While that may be amusing for social media memes, it’s not how we should be running our lives and country.
We saw this run rampant in the 80s with all the Satanic Panic nonsense. People were arrested on false charges, their lives and reputations ruined without a shred of evidence. The more outrageous the claim, the more people believe it. It’s too ridiculous not to be true is not the way to approach situations.
We still see it today. People were rabid for Pizzagate, and fell for it hook, line, and sinker. People didn’t have evidence before they showed up with guns, shooting the locks off the doors and rushing inside to find not a damn thing. Just like all the other child abuse conspiracy theories, there was no basement, no series of secret tunnels. There is no need for common sense or rational thinking, shoot first, ask questions never.
And here we are, three years later, and we still have to listen to the clarion call of “massive voter fraud.” Just like Yellow Journalism decades ago, this claim doesn’t have a shred of evidence to support it. People like Trump and Taylor-Green, keep saying, I have evidence, yet they never produce it, and the crap they can pull out of their ass doesn’t hold up in court. But, we’re still dealing with the false claims.
Voter fraud, Pizzagate, Fake News, it’s all spectral evidence. It’s all secret coded messages hidden in plain sight, that only the “elite” can read. Of course you’ll say there is no message, you’re one of them. Of course you deny my spectral evidence, you’re one of them. The fact you deny it proves I’m right.
As we’ve seen, this ridiculous nonsense doesn’t hold up in court. All the cases have been throw out, yet this slander and libel is never dealt with.
This is followed by, “It’s free speech, people can say what they want.” Free speech is still subject to libel and slander, but let’s look at it this way.
You can’t just make claims about the safety of a car seat for children, you have to prove it.
You can’t claim this medicine cures this disease or stops the spread of a virus, you have to prove it. Pandemic aside, there are trials and the FDA. Yes, there are emergencies, but there is still a burden of proof. You can’t just inject people with some crap you cooked up in your living room.
You can’t make a toy and say it’s safe for children under 5 years old, you have to prove it. The Consumer Product Safety Commission will be the judge of that.
You can’t make claims about the safety of a car, you have to prove it. In fact, you have to smash the crap out of dozens of them. You can’t sell a car without going through Crash Tests. Why do you think the gas tank is no longer located directly behind the seat in modern trucks?
This is also why you can’t make outrageous claims about weight loss cures. They don’t pass the burden of proof. It’s a supplement not a treatment. It’s a vitamin or a booster. When you make medical claims, you have to live up to some standards.
Why are politicians and nut job groups allowed to make outrageous claims without being held to the same standard? Why is it perfectly reasonable to say an unknown Satanic cabal is holding kids prisoner so they can eat them, or that millions of people are complicit in voter fraud without a shred of evidence?
Where is the peer review?
Why are people not asking more question before jumping on these rickety bandwagons?
Why are people so quick to believe these kinds of outrageous claims? Just because someone wrote it down doesn’t make it true. In today’s digital world, anyone can write anything and get it “published.” It’s costs how much to post a blog article?
Why do people deny the existence of Covid, yet believe it’s totally possible to have a hidden bunker under a pizza parlor?