Buy On the Rumor
An old expression on Wall Street goes this way: “Buy on the rumor. Sell on the news.”
It was meant to underline the temporal disparity between the events. Meaning – get in early. This adage has acquired new meaning in our polarized and deranged politico-cultural environment.
We not only buy, we multiply, publish, and burnish (with our credibility) rumors everyday now. As we hasten to catch the latest glimmer on our feeds, we become progenitors of prodigious piles of bullpuppy — a torrent of misinformation, disinformation, and just stupid crap.
Putin’s GRU and Bannon’s Breitbart collective shared a single mantra: “Flood the zone with crap.” If you bury people in nonsense they will tire of parsing, become dubious about discovering the truth, and contemplate the futility of even seeking it.
We can do better. And we must. A little media literacy is smart for beginners. And for us savvy folk let’s employ common sense when we hear something truly over the edge – too good or bad to be true. Did the head of the Russian general staff really get liquidated on the front today? Do those guys go to the front? And so on…
We can, must, will do better at parsing nonsense and defeating rumor.
Churchill quipped, “A rumor goes halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on.” Maybe we need a skirt. Along with a more active frontal lobe.
Truth is truth.