Written by
John Cox, M.A. C/M

“The truth is in the details — In the field of communication, we separate misinformation from disinformation (campaigns of misinformation), or propaganda (motivated toward an end result by disinformation), or, simply leaving particular cumbersome information out from a subject area, in order to achieve, also, a wanted result, rather than a true result.  This discussion centers around result-oriented situations, and hopefully explains the challenges common-folks, such as you and I experience daily, within today’s rat-race of greed, ignorance, and self-proclaimed experts. .  i.e. controversies.  Diversions that suspend truth into a confusing quagmire of endless different results, most destructive to our environment, as well as our personal well-being.

We have history that shows us, the inconsistency of science, for example.  More often than not, on our planet, we cannot use a “one-size fits all science” within our Wildlife Environments, across the United States, as well as internationally.  Going back to Ben Franklin and flying his kite, that generated Static Electricity, and he was sheltered from the storm while flying the kite.  Later, a Russian Scientist reviewing Franklin’s discovery, flew his kite into an electrical storm, and was hit, directly, with lightening – the bolt transcended down the kite line, hit the scientist’s head, and blew his shoes off.  He sacrificed his life, unknowingly, due to lack of information, or ignored the truth of the information.  So much for Peer Reviews. 

Psychologist Catharin Morris Cox deducted, through extensive profiles and Scientific Deductive Reasoning (formula’s et al.) Franklins IQ was around 160 (IQ tests were not done at that time of his life span).  Through Deductive Reasoning, with all of evidence available, nothing set-side due to being an Uncomfortable Truth, or, not equitable within a disinformation context, left out, we see a truth developed into what we refer to as “Fact”.  We find today the term “Fact” is not necessarily a truth to depend upon, when used by itself, and left non-referenced.  The confusion we see today, not just in politics, but within science, as well, and many folks confused.

Many American wildlife “facts” are distorted by bad science, outdated studies, or myths, often influencing management policies negatively. Common misconceptions include the myth that opossums consume large amounts of ticks (proven false by diet studies in some habitats when stomach contents examined) and that porcupines can shoot their quills. Misinformation extends to policy, where wolf delisting or animal control actions sometimes rely on flawed or non-peer-reviewed data.

Notable Circumstances of Misinformation / Disinformation

Wolf Management: Wolf delisting in some areas was based on 2012 research that many wolf biologists did not consider accurate or conclusive.  Yet still referenced, often, by many who do not understand, nor can really tell the difference between poor-science, accomplished by lack of experience in data gathering, and again, a lot of information left out of the data, as well as relied upon myth, or information from those whose finances may be lowered, by Factual-Truth.

Wild Horse Impact: Evidence tells us that BLM studies have overstated, continuously, the impact of Wild Horses on grazing land while understating the impact of cattle, all the while noticeable, a lot of data not gathered, or ignored, or manipulated, should have not passed Peer Review, due to so many flaws within the data collected.  Severity of sending Wild Horses to Slaughter developed, and still exists to current situations we see today.

Bad Science in Management

Misguided Management: A study of 667 wildlife management systems found that many lack clear objectives and evidence, suggesting management is often not truly science-based.

Wildlife Services: The USDA’s Wildlife Services program has been criticized for killing over a million native animals annually, sometimes based on broad, indiscriminate policies rather than specific, effective science.

Survivorship Bias: Studies on falling cats (a common “fact”) often only include those taken to a vet, ignoring cats that died at the scene, resulting in skewed survival data. 

Common Misinformation Sources

False Narratives: The idea that hunting is entirely necessary for population control is frequently pushed, while studies, with complete details rather than conveniently left out details, show it can disrupt natural self-regulation in ecosystems.  The evidence of destruction within Wilderness Areas, as well as many Forest Habitats and Wildfires attest, equate to results showing us this to be true.  Limited attention given to regulated-permit hunting (as a priority over environmental health) and chosen Wildlife, remains non-scientific, as much as reflects the greed, ignorance, and avarice of hunting and bad science combined into their complex of misinformation – disinformation campaigns . . .

AI and Social Media: Artificial intelligence and viral videos can create false portrayals of animal behavior, misinforming the public about wildlife needs, and attribute their science as necessary (as incorrect and cumbersomely void of facts)

We can Conclude

We see, you and I, many questionable situations today that require our attention, and knowledge, on how to distinguish between truth, and ignorant ranting, yet calling it science.  At the advent of AI becoming much better than over the past couple of decades, we find their truth, notably to be fiction, often developing into what some assume to be reality – or truth.  The more we know about Aristotle’s Dramatic Structure Paradigm, within storytelling, we can assimilate these fictional AI creations, and identify them as what they are, fictional-story-telling – that has indeed overlapped into complete fiction re-mastered as science. 

But many do not, nor have not, studied story-structure, or Physics, or Biology, but rather learned it through life – as incomplete as that may be.  Cherry-picking, so to speak, what we understand, compared to taking the time to learn the things that are a little more difficult to understand, remains the status-quo; whether, directly or indirectly (social media a good example.  Then derive our own conclusion – once again, facts left out that can be critical.  Destruction does follow, make no doubt.  Perhaps not as dramatic as taking a lightening bolt to the head, and your shoes being blown off, but the results for our Wildlife, our nation’s forests, as well as our entire Terrestrial environment, suffers greatly.  And none of the above, I mention, can defend themselves – So it is up to us, to step up and defend it all.  The priority must develop into all life on this planet to coexist – ignorance picks and chooses life of their choice, yet we see through history, that these types of bigotry are very destructive,” — John Cox M.A. C/M