Why myths don’t die
It's hard to kill off a good myth. Winterval sadly won't die away, despite my fellow media blogger Kevin having done a magnificent job of summing up the silliness. His essay shows you exactly why things won't just fade into the distance, and why instead they carry on. Some people don't check; some people don't want to check, for fear of puncturing the balloon on a good story; some people check, but don't believe the debunking anyway because they're looking to reinforce their existing thoughts on a particular subject; some people check, but believe the myth to be from a more trustworthy source than the debunking.
You might think, well what harm will a bit of myth-pushing do? Not a lot, on the face of it. But when someone whose work is as important as the Red Cross falls victim to people digging up an old myth that is still knocking around on the web, that becomes a serious matter. The Red Cross was accused of not being Christmassy enough by the Daily Mail way back in 2002 - and now the story has been spreading again, thanks to social networks and people not checking the source material to see if it's true or not.
It's so dispiriting. There are so many reasons why an organisation like the Red Cross should be seen to be politically and religiously neutral, it's not being the Grinch that stole Christmas for not shoving Baby Jesus's face up in all their windows from August 1st onwards. What it also shows is the way in which, if people are happy to publish some tripe about how things are being banned when they're not, and that stays on file to be accessed at any point in the future, it becomes history, or fact, to some people. This is why it's important that people push to amend online archives when they complain about a publisher's behaviour, and why it's important that regulatory bodies push this as much as possible too.
But there's something else. It's just plain irresponsible to do this kind of story without thinking. It might seem like an easy couple of hundred words to report on the apparent outrage caused by an organisation's behaviour and cause a bit of a flutter for your readers; it's not so much of a throwaway subject when people say they're never donating to the charity again, based on what you said.
All you can hope is that the denials from the Red Cross get linked to as much as possible so they turn up in search results as high as possible. I've done my bit; now you should do yours.
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December 17th, 2010 - 18:57
The comments on that Red Cross page are possibly the most depressing thing I have ever read on the internet.
And I’ve read Twilight fanfic*
*For a bet you understand.
December 18th, 2010 - 13:11
I read the comments and nearly cried. Some people can truly not be reached, even those who have benefited from the red cross personally it seems.
December 18th, 2010 - 16:22
http://atheistoasis.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/an-open-letter-to-christians-merry-christmas-from-an-atheist/
December 18th, 2010 - 17:12
Also, never underestimate people’s ability to be sat in front of a computer, shown links proving all the ‘Christmas is banned’ stories are misleading and false and then to turn round to you and say, ‘yeah, but still, I think people are…’
These stories in the press are so successful because people want to believe them.
I remember last year being at a family member’s house and them moaning that our council (Broxtowe) had gone ‘political-correctness-gone-maaaaaaad’ and stop calling Christmas Christmas. I had to point out the night before we went to our town’s CHRISTMAS lights switch on, and that in view of her house is a banner streching over the road saying ‘Happy Christmas’.
December 19th, 2010 - 18:23
Did Britain export the war-on-Christmas myth to the US or get it from them?
It’s evolved differently over the years. British whackaloons have shifted the attack from Jews to Muslims, while their American counterparts now blame it all on “secularists” (by which, as far as I can tell, they still mean Jews).
An American Christian FB acquaintance has as his status “What is it about Christ…
Why is He X’d out on Christmas…or in your life?”
I don’t think I can be bothered to explain the impeccably Christian origins of “Xmas”. It would only exhaust me.
December 21st, 2010 - 11:32
I believe it was first developed in the US by the John Birch society, back in the ’50s. And I recently saw (can’t remember where) some fucknugget complaining about how the War on Christmas was an attack on “Judeo-Christian values”… Yes, really.
December 20th, 2010 - 14:56
Those comments are seriously disturbing. Credit to the moderator for carefully addressing the points they raise – I’d have just posted a series of increasingly profane swearwords when faced with:
“this is just a nice way to ”cover up” with words…this is u.s.a. and Jesus Christ is the of God and thats what u.s.a andthe people here need to remember…not to please other countries…go back to old days style remember where your help came from…the u.s.a is taking Jesus out of every thing…i will never support the red cross again to help people that deny our Lord and don’t care about your cards!!!”
Not to mention all of the people who keep claiming that the Red Cross must be a Christian organisation because it has a cross as its logo, despite the organisation repeatedly pointing out that its logo is simply a reversal of the Swiss flag.
On a vaguely related note, anyone who finds themselves with an afternoon spare in Geneva should visit the ICRC museum. Seriously good stuff.