Friday open thread: This week of Indictment Watch has been a very good lesson

Last week, Donald Trump was in full froth, telling his mob that he was going to be arrested this past Tuesday.

The internet went mad. Pathetically small protests in support of him sprang up across the country. Those of us yearning for his demise chortled in glee. 

Tuesday came and went, and there was no indictment, no arrest. Then Wednesday the grand jury didn't meet. And then yesterday the grand jury did meet, but on an unrelated matter. No indictment. No arrest.

The usual suspects either rent their garments or crowed that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg was facing a rebellion.

Now, let's be frank: This here blog also got caught up in the whirlwind. How could we not? But what we must realize is that all this kerfuffle was engendered not by Bragg, not by anyone from the district attorney's office. It was down to one man: Donald Trump. He was the only source for the impending arrest. Yes, Bragg and the NYPD did put up barricades in expectation of protests. But this was not related to anything the grand jury was doing. This was solely due to Trump flapping his diseased gums and getting his mouth breathers riled up to commit January 6ths across the country. That his incitement failed in hilarious dimensions is beside the point; he again drove the narrative, riling up his base and giving his opponents false hope. 

Similarly, a satirical Twitter account called "The Halfway Post" tweeted this out on Wednesday:

BREAKING: The gay dating app Grindr says if Florida doesn’t stop passing homophobic and transphobic laws, they’ll reveal every Republican legislator and party official who secretly uses the app.

— The Halfway Post (@HalfwayPost) March 22, 2023

Right on the account's profile there's this:

Dada news. Halfway true comedy and satire by @DashMacIntyre. I don't report the facts, I improve them.

Full disclosure: Like with Trump's tirade that Tuesday would be his arrest day, I initially fell for this, and shared the tweet on Counter Social. Then my librarian instincts kicked in, and I searched for confirmation. Finding none, I looked at The Halfway Post, and saw that it was satirical. Yesterday, the Associated Press confirmed that this was not the case: 

But a spokesperson for the app confirmed it was unfounded in an email to The Associated Press.

“This claim is false,” said Grindr spokesperson Patrick Lenihan. “Grindr protects the privacy of all its users. Anti-LGBTQ legislation is abominable and cruel, and we vehemently condemn any laws that restrict, deny, or abolish the rights of LGBTQ people.”

Again, we so wanted to believe a story in which malefactors would be getting their comeuppance. But the truism is that if something is too good to be true, then it's not true. This was again borne out.

We must be conscious consumers of news. If something pushes our buttons, we must seek out the source. Is it reputable? Is it confirmed? Some random account on Twitter is not a good source of information. Accounts like The Halfway Post have an agenda, and that agenda is clicks. The same with anything which comes out of Donald Trump's mouth. Verify everything, because we live in an age where bad actors spread false information for their own purposes. Even if the information being purported aligns with our own views, we must verify everything for ourselves.

We live in times where truth and lies compete for our headspace. We must be ever diligent in filtering out the falsities. It's the only way we can win this war.

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