Currently, America is cranking out one audacious hoax after another. Hoax is defined by Merriam-Webster as:

1: an act intended to trick or dupe : imposture

the victim of a cruel hoax

assumed the bomb threat was just a hoax

 2: something accepted or established by fraud or fabrication

believes the Loch Ness Monster is a hoax

a literary hoax

The biggest whopper of the campaign season that comes to mind is that Haitians are eating the cats and dogs. While other atrocious ones are out there (think children are going to school and coming back a different sex), Democrats are not blameless. A democratic operative took responsibility for a robocall using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to imitate President Biden urging New Hampshire voters not to participate in the Democratic Presidential Primary. He received money from Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips’ presidential campaign.

All this has my head swimming, wanting to blame everything on computers, social media, digital manipulation of pictures, and all modern technology. The truth is that humans love the hoax so much that we have a special day to allow us to pull pranks—April 1. No one is sure when this practice started, but it appears it has continued since the 1500s. And many of these harmless pranks fooled lots of people. (This video is worth the watch.)

Unfortunately, there are those of us who are gullible and will fall for anything. On April 1, 1957, The BBC aired a hoax featuring Swiss farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees. Viewers called, wanting to know where they could purchase their own spaghetti bush.

 THE HOAX IS AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE

In this country, the hoax also has a dark side. For years, many have been viciously perpetuating hoaxes about those different from themselves.

For instance, the trope about immigrants eating cats and dogs was trotted out in the 1980s to vilify Asian immigrants. During that time period, a wave of nearly 725,000 Vietnamese refugees settled in the United States.

According to Professor Jan Harold Brunvand, “Evidence was supposedly found in garbage cans, and people had heard about Vietnamese wanting to buy puppies or kittens to use for food.” These stories emerged in Utah, California, and Virginia, to name a few.

 While researching my current novel, I learned about hoaxes perpetuated in the South about Yankee Peddlers in the early 1800s. The flood of mostly young, male peddlers from the northern states threatened to upend the southern way of life by bringing innovative economic goods and different values into the area. The idea that they were sly tricksters and not to be trusted was rampant.

Reports of murders of peddlers such as the one appearing in the 1835 Lexington Virginia Gazette abounded. The claim was that a clock peddler was strung up by his heels in a Randolph County tavern, his jugular slashed, and he bled to death. The story was later proven to be a hoax.

These stories served a purpose, allowing individuals to portray themselves, not as being cheated by cunning peddlers, but as vigilantes ridding themselves of troublesome outsiders.

These hoaxes, however, have real consequences. The Pizzagate incident led from threats to gunfire and destruction of property.

 PROTECTING YOURSELF AGAINST A HOAX

The College of Staten Island suggests these steps to protect yourself from a hoax:

Consider the source: click away from the story to investigate the site, its mission, and its contact information.

Read Beyond: Headlines can be outrageous in an effort to get clicks. What’s the whole story?

Check the author: do a quick search on the author. Are they credible? Are they real?

Supporting sources: click on those links. Determine if the information given actually supports the story.

Check the date: reposting old news stories doesn’t mean they are relevant to current events.

It is a joke?: if it is too outlandish, it might be satire. Research the site and author to be sure.

Check your biases: consider if your own beliefs could affect your judgment.

Ask the Experts: ask a librarian, or consult a fact checking web site.

HOAX FINAL THOUGHTS

Hoaxes, especially those intended to scapegoat others, are dangerous and harm the fabric of our nation. We must stay informed and take everything we hear with a grain of salt.

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