This...

- jim Young

”When did fact-checking and journalism go their separate ways?” - Jon Stewart

This… this right here is what’s wrong with the political world today. It’s also what’s wrong with Facebook.

Frederick R. Barnard noted that “A picture says a thousand words,” but unfortunately we don’t always know what those words say.

Here is a post that is circulating Facebook today simply because it’s so easy just to click and share anything that supports our views no matter how inaccurate or misleading the information may be.

Shown in the photo is a picture of Pierre Poilievre with Jeremy MacKenzie, the founder of the group Diagolon. The photo and the accompanying text, questions Poilievre’s capabilities as a leader based on this photo. 

It certainly looks like Pierre and Jeremy are best buds and it certainly looks like they are supporting each other on some issue but there is no indication whatsoever that may be.

Does that give one the right to make an assumption that Poilievre supports MacKenzie, Diagolon or even Trump and Elon Musk as is inferred in the text?

In an internet article, posted by Global News on September 26, 2022 - Amanda Connolly wrote the following: “Poilievre faced questions last month after a photo circulated online showing him shaking MacKenzie’s hand at a campaign event in Nova Scotia. A spokesperson for Poilievre said on Aug. 20 that he has “shaken hands with literally tens of thousands of people at public rallies.”

“It is impossible to do a background check on every single person who attends my events,” Poilievre’s campaign team said in response to Global News’ request for comment on Aug. 20.

“I didn’t and don’t know or recognize this particular individual.” 

Now that may or may not be true. One could be forgiven for questioning Poilievre’s attempt of plausible deniability given that we have recently seen so much misuse of that excuse in recent media.

But is it also possible that MacKenzie was unknown to Poilievre in this picture and perhaps they are smiling and showing clenched fists as a response to someone behind the scenes shouting something as innocent as “Canada is the greatest country in the world!”?

And whether Poilievre may or may not have shown even the slightest interest in MacKenzie or Diagolon at that time, read the following excerpt from the same article and see if you still agree that Poilievre is a big fan.

“In a statement posted on Twitter Monday morning, Poilievre said he had been made aware of “disgusting comments made by Jeremy McKenzie and another man, where they discuss sexually assaulting my wife.”

He called the men “odious” and “losers,” and added he has reported the comments to the police.

In the video, a social media account of “Jeremy MacKenzie” can be seen lighting up as the speaker before a man can be heard talking about Anaida Poilievre as he and co-hosts debate her ethnic background, before he goes on to say: “let’s rape her.”

So now that you know more of the story - what’s your gut tell you about the “thousand words” this picture has to say?

The next few years may be the most critical time that we will see in Canada’s history. It’s going to be difficult enough to choose who will be the best qualified to lead us through this time. 

If ever there was a need for you to check the facts of your posts and to ensure you know the whole story BEFORE you share them, this is it.

And for the record, I didn’t even need a thousand words to tell the story that this picture tells.

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