Confession time: in English class, during my senior in high school, we were given an assignment to read a Shakespeare play of our choosing then give a detailed written and oral report about it.
Because I was always looking for shortcuts, I bought a copy of the Cliffs Notes (CN) guide to the play. For those unfamiliar with CN, they were available for many, many, famous written works.
They typically included a summary of the story, character bios and major themes, among many other helpful tidbits regarding the subject.
Many classmates used CN to help them understand their chosen stories. However, I used mine to write my entire report on Much Ado About Nothing (at the time the irony of the play’s name was lost on me despite having studied irony as a writing tool previously in the class).
I wrote my paper, gave my oral report and got an A+ all without ever actually reading the play as written. Initially, I felt pretty good about myself but part of me knew I was a fraud and had only cheated myself and my audience out of the intended experience.
Fast forward to July 2024. Whenever I see memes on social media about The Heritage Foundation (HF) Project 2025 I am reminded of my slick Shakespearean tragedy from long ago.
Why?
The original document created by the Heritage Foundation is over 900 pages long.
But who has time to read all that when Democracy Forward (DF) has told us in their People’s Guide to Project 2025, “We read Project 2025’s entire 900+ page “Mandate for Leadership” so that you don’t have to.” Click here to see document
Immediately, a red flag goes up for me when I read posts such as this popular one that are designed to agitate its readers, most of whom will not bother to fact-check the information.
So, this time, rather than just accepting the Cliffs Notes interpretation of Project 2025 produced by DF (headed by Marc Elias who helped create proven hoaxes such as the Steele Dossier, Russiagate, etc.), I decided to dig a little deeper and find a copy of the original document.
When I discovered that the original paper was over 900 pages long (click here), I no longer wondered why DF’s not entirely true version (click here) would be sent to their ministry of propaganda to be blended in a palatable Pablum for public consumption.
I understand the base desire to provoke emotions, up to and including rage. After all that’s what gets clicks.
But, perhaps, we all should take a step back and ask ourselves, “Am I getting the original truth or just someone’s interpretation of the truth?
Usually, it’s the latter and that is what upsets me. So much propaganda is being disguised and spread as truth using engaging memes.
I encourage everyone – including myself – to do the necessary homework and seek the truth, not just someone’s biased Cliffs Notes of that truth before we blast out propaganda that fits our narrative.
It requires more work, but you will feel better about yourself, avoiding that terrible nagging feeling like I have carried with me all these years; thinking that I was a fraud and had cheated myself and my audience.
It might save you (and others) from passing on emotion-driven half truths that may actually turn out to be Much Ado About Nothing.
