Credibility? How important is it? Who has it?

I read the Applefritter FAQ today (again), and discovered something that I seem to have missed every other time that I've read the FAQ. If you haven't guessed, I'm talking about the prohibited discussion of Apple rumours.

How could I have missed that? I would hazard to guess that a significant portion of the discussion on Applefritter seems to center around Apple rumours or discussions of a most speculative nature. Although, it's not unusual for me to miss certain things on first examination, I usually do end up gaining a full understanding on subsequent perusals of the data.

So how does this relate to the topic of this blog entry? Am I calling into question the credibility of Applefritter? Certainly not! I am, however, seeking to expand on the issue of Apple rumours, and just why they're not welcome on Applefritter. In other words, I want to talk about credibility.

What is credibility? Who has credibility? How does one attain credibility?

Does the media have credibility? I doubt it. Everyone is familiar with media bias, and you'd have to be living under a rock to naively believe that the media make any effort to be entirely truthful. Actually, I think that just about everyone can concede that the media do lie, they do spin rumours, and they do have a seemingly unending propensity to stretch the otherwise mundane. Call it what you will; its nothing short of media sensationalism and propaganda.

To ask the question once again, does the media have credibility? I would say that, in the view of the overwhelming majority, no! So why then, do so many people follow the media with such intense interest? Is it an inate desire to be deceived, mislead, or strung along? Do we enjoy playing the role of fool? Are we holding onto some naive hope that there's meaning to anything that we say or do? Why, then, do we care so damn much about what the media has to say?

How about politicians? Do politicians have credibility? Sure, we'd all like to wake up one morning and discover that our political leaders are suddenly truthful, but that just isn't going to happen. Politics is a corrupt business where only the lowest of the low seem able to eek out even the most arcane and warped sense of purpose and/or accomplishment. What do politicians accomplish? Who do they believe they are fooling?

We live in a democracy and we are granted the right to select our authority figures by virtue of the vote. Why, then, do so few people choose to exercise this right? Why, in a land of "majority rule", does the minority get the power? Who elects these nutcases? Even more nightmarish, why does the majority allow this to continue?

It's credibility! It's all about credibility! We have a warped sense of what is right and just, and we refuse to allow such insensibilities or delusions to be shattered.

Police officers and law enforcement, do they have credibility? We would certainly hope so. However, experience, and coexistance in the real world tells us that police officers are about as credible as used car salesman.

So why do we even have a word like 'credibility' in the english language? Surely, it is a term that describes something that clearly does not exist. Credibility is a myth, an urban legend, a tall tale... Credibility is a lie.

Let's not be so quick to delude ourselves; credibility ought to be in the same league as faith. Faith is believing something when there is no credible evidence to substantiate the belief. Ah, shucks, there's that word again - credible. When there's "no credible evidence."

nuff said.