Canards and Canaries

The dictionary says:  

Canard:
a : a false or unfounded report or story; especially : a fabricated report. b : a groundless rumor or belief.

"Canards" show up when political debates get long, when one side or the other is too eager for something persuasive, especially when they feel their argument is "in trouble" for one reason or another.  They are the meat and potatoes of propaganda.

"Canaries" were the old-fashioned early warning signal for gasses inside mines. When the canary died, being sensitive to the gasses, it was time for the people to leave immediately.  

Canards and canaries BOTH signal, in their own ways, that things are really going downhill.  When a politician fabricates stuff, he or she begins to lose "believers".  It is sometimes a desperate move.

You hear canards every day, usually making up "reasons" for things, or causes that really don't fit.  One example of a canard is this one:  "Women are about eight times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than by breast cancer, so all that concern about breast cancer is overblown."  Extreme and ridiculous, but an example of what can come up in a financial argument.

Physicians and surgeons already make more money than burger-flippers, some arguments seem to run, therefore we don't need to pay them much from Medicare.  Canards appear attacking most anything that does not benefit ME personally.  Ranting about property taxes is a good source for finding some, if you look.

So, in healthcare discussions, gun control discussions, any good hot-button conversation, when the "Here's why...." argument comes up with unbelievable stuff, you usually have some of those weird "canards".   I would wager that the Congressional Record is the depository of the largest number anywhere in the world.

And they keep recurring!  53 years ago as a college sophomore, the debate topic was "National Health Insurance", and part of our task was to recognize and refute the same canards you can hear in any conversation or political speech on the subject today.  More emotion than logic (death panels, for example) they still stir up folks.

But, if you've been fooled by these weird things once, maybe twice, they lose their influence (for most folks!) and we can get on with the conversation.  Our nation has plenty of conversations that need to be productive, and fewer of these old propaganda tools running around.