I enjoy writing as a mental exercise more than anything else; the brain needs exercise a muscle, otherwise it turns into mush.
The subject of my writing varies, and my opinions surely impact the direction and tenor of my prose. I’m biased like any other human being: it’s a natural phenomenon. Excuse me if I offend you, but there’s 74 years of experience affecting my thoughts and judgements. I am who I am.
Anecdotes are useful tools for the writer to get a point across. An anecdote is an amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person; a story with a point; an account regarded as unreliable or hearsay.
I use anecdotes in my writing where useful and as accurate as I can recall.
I don’t like unattributed anecdotes. You know the ones: “They say…”, “A guy walked into a bar…”, “Did you hear the one about…?”, “Everyone knows that so-and-so…”, “They’re saying that…”, “Somebody saw/heard…”, “I’m told that…”, etc. In these cases, an unknown, knowledgeable source or supposed eyewitness is providing the tasty story that really grabs the listener. The National Enquirer tabloid, useful to line the bottom of bird cages, was built on salacious anecdotes.
This kind of stuff is really the driving force behind today’s gossip machine, a.ka. social media. Unattributed yarns and pseudo-eyewitness testimony also fills the broadcast airway on 24-7 cable “news” (propaganda masquerading as journalism) shows. Dubious facts, more opinion, with juicy stories designed to excite viewers. Supposed-experts give their “unbiased” opinions, made more tasty by colorful anecdotes.
A few kernels of truth are probably imbedded in their testimony, in-between the exaggerations, the cute anecdotes, and the inflammatory rhetoric. The shocking story told is designed to pound home the political theme of the “news” segment.
I have a friend who must spend half of his day searching for titillating anecdotes that bolster his pre-conceived notion of “truth”. Most of his opinions include patently false information derived from the unknown “they” or the phony expert who is always available for a good fable. Unfortunately, many of the anecdotes he tosses out support his deep-seated racist tendencies.
It is possible for any naturally skeptical fellow to find an anecdote that supports his wackadoo conspiracy theory. For example, “The Moon Landing Was Staged” always gets such folks excited and these true believers might point to a a quote by astronaut Buzz Aldrin to bolster their position. Upon closer examination, Buzz said that the moon landing photo was staged. (Duh, all publicity photos are staged. That American flag plugged into lunar soil didn’t get there by accident!)
Anecdotal information (“Thousands of people saw…”) supported Donald Trump’s assertion that New York City Muslims cheered when the Twin Towers went down. It was a great anecdote that served a purpose in Trump’s 2016 campaign, except that no witness to the supposed “cheering” has ever been found. (Hey, you can’t blame a candidate for trying, can you?)
My pro-gun friend and the NRA folks like to tell anecdotes about criminal activity being foiled by gun-toting citizens, thereby rationalizing “constitutional carry”. The reason that my friend doesn’t bore me with numerous anecdotes about these citizen heroes is that the incidence of such street justice is relatively rare, even in states that do allow folks to be strapped 24-7. If I thought it would make a difference, I could tell my friend an anecdote or two about people getting killed every day by guns in households (suicides, husband-wife arguments gone wrong, children playing with unsecured guns, etc.) One must only read the newspaper each morning to learn about the ongoing carnage caused by the obscene number of guns in our country.
So, cherry-picking the news to make one’s point is a rather unfair use of anecdotes.
During the Pandemic’s heyday, most everyone was annoyed by business closures, mask requirements, mandates for vaccination, etc. Reasons had to be found by libertarians to justify defying intrusive government and casting doubt on epidemiological experts.
Accordingly, an entire industry of “experts” arose to support the uprising against intrusive and overreaching government. These folk would make statements that could then be used in social media, cable news shows, and casual conversation to buttress indignation and opposition to governmental efforts to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Those “experts” weren’t experts. They were people who relished attention, wanted to make a name for themselves, gain favor with candidates (and the President!), and denigrate scientists who knew what they were talking about. Similar to the microscopic fraction of climatologists who deny climate change, these phonies were politically-biased know-it-alls with no epidemiological experience.
I’m thinking of Dr. Mehmet Oz, a physician known for alternative medicine, quack cures, and a history of pushing non-scientific advice and unproven products on television. He’s now running for the Senate in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Scott Atlas was another non-expert physician whose actual specialty is reading xrays, not stopping epidemics. During the Pandemic, Dr. Atlas, who is a conservative think tank policy wonk, actively undermined the President’s Coronavirus Task Force with goofy ideas and public advocacy against mass inoculation, mask wearing, and so forth.
Radiologist Atlas did such a good job sowing confusion and distrust that President Trump, who didn’t show much leadership fighting the Pandemic and wanted his bad dream to just go away, hired the non-expert as his Senior Advisor for Health Care. In this position, Dr. Atlas could publicly take pot shots at the Coronavirus Task Force and provide the media with alternative recommendations on miracle cures, the ineffectiveness of masks, etc. His personal goal was met: to get attention, not save lives. Atlas’ position helped justify Trump’s goal to re-open the economy as soon as possible.
My point is that anyone trying to make a point via an anecdote (including me) can find someone with a tasty story that fits the message that they want to tell. Oz, Atlas, and several broadcasters and podcasters like Sean Hannity and Joe Rogan became the source of “alternative facts” that flooded social media in startling anecdotes to lessen concern about the coronavirus.
“Some doctors say that Ivermectin kills Covid.” (Really? Then, maybe I should try that.) Yeah, but the company that makes Ivermectin says that it doesn’t, so does the FDA, and so do virologists. (I’m confused.)
Does Bigfoot exist? How about the buried Oak Island treasure hoard? Are ghosts real? According to some anecdotal information, yes, these things are real.
Does that make these anecdotes factual? Probably not, because no one has brought forth a skeleton or, in the instance of Bigfoot (or the Loch Ness Monster or the Chupacabra or a Vampire), captured the legendary beast. Absence of evidence isn’t evidence, which leaves plenty of room for juicy anecdotes by kooks and producers of cable TV shows.
I went to school with a guy named Mike Rugg in Felton, California back in the early Sixties. He now runs a Bigfoot Museum there. Mike swears that he and his Dad ran into Bigfoot one day in the redwood forest. But, Mike has no selfie photo, no hair, no autograph… just his interesting anecdote and the famous photo of the beast hiking in the woods that help sell his Bigfoot tee shirts. (I almost bought one.)
The highest-selling book of all-time (the Bible) is a collection of anecdotes by persons unknown. No one knows for sure who wrote the Old Testament, but it sure wasn’t God himself, as he would know better than to include obviously erroneous facts. Aesops Fables and The Tales of Paul Bunyan were more factual.
The four anecdotal Gospels of the New Testament are universally known by Bible experts to have not been written by the supposed authors. Most of the rest of the New Testament is attributed to a “Paul” fellow whose actual existence is unknown to history except in the fables that are credited to him. Physical evidence proving Biblical stories, and historical support of Biblical events, is lacking… as in bupkis. Yes, there were Hebrews, they flourished enough to build a Temple, but no Savior rescued them from their Babylonian and Roman persecutors in the Holy Lands. If Jesus existed, he was unknown to the noted historians of His time that documented religious events in Palestine.
The Bible: highly captivating anecdotes constructed of hot wind… for the purpose of selling religion.
One can envision the ancients sitting around the campfire, telling stories that had been told them by their ancestors. Pretty good yarns about fantastic leaders, battles, and achievements were passed down. (“Hey, Junior, did you know that my Great Uncle Fred Flintstone invented fire and the wheel in the same day? Yes, Son, and he also rode dinosaurs.”) Nowadays we would call such stuff anecdotes; back then, the fabulous fables passed for history. And, over time, this pseudo history became accepted fact, like Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, the Burning Bush, and so forth. Respect for elders was absolute back then: what they said carried weight.
Every civilization pre-dating the Romans had such stories, many of them extremely similar (like the Creation, the Flood, a half-God half-Human leader, etc.).
Such is the power of a riveting anecdote told by an authority figure.
For example: Ex-Prez Trump began telling “I’ve been told…” anecdotes about the so-called 2020 Stolen Election… before it supposedly happened. Not one iota of proof was ever produced to validate Trump’s claims, before or after the election, but jillions of anecdotes attempting to validate Trump’s claims flooded America in late 2020, enraging Trump supporters, and encouraging the Capitol Riot of January 6th, 2021. Trump’s lawyers actually presented unsupported anecdotal information as part of their legal bid to overthrow election results and were summarily reprimanded by judges: “This is hearsay, not evidence! Bring me proof!” They had none, there is none, and there never was any.
Despite the lack of proof that anything happened in the 2020 election (except Trump getting his ass whipped), the anecdotal “stolen election” stories were so effective that the ex-President was able to con several hundred million dollars in “Stop the Steal” contributions from outraged supporters after the loss.
Nothing sells like a good anecdote.
My friend Lloyd is heading north to Reno this week through Tonapah, Nevada. That’s just a stone’s throw from Area 51, out in the middle of a Nevada desert that’s not fit for man nor beast.
Area 51 is, of course, the Holy Ground of believers in extraterrestrial visitors to Earth. Movies have been made out of this shit: Amateur prizefighter/Oscar winner Will Smith starred in a movie about aliens trying to conquer Earth. I think the Smith character’s jet fighter crash-landed near Tonapah. Randy Quaid RV’d himself into the picture and helped deliver a death blow to the Martian sunsofbitches, sending them to the Promised Land for sure. Hooray, Earth!
(Why aliens ingenious enough to build warp speed spacecraft would want to land in the most desolate part of America is a puzzler to me. Why not San Diego… “America’s City”, home of the best weather on our continent?)
There have been numerous first-person, eyewitness anecdotes of aliens snatching God-fearing earthlings up into their flying saucers, “probing” them, and doing unspeakable things to victims. There are many anecdotes about mysterious flying objects (“definitely not swamp gas!”) appearing over cities and even being observed by commercial and military pilots.
Very, very interesting stories, all of them, captivating in fact.
However, the evidence is lacking. No one can seem to PROVE such things, despite all the tantalizing anecdotes told by the true believers. But it makes for a real good story on Fox News or on the podcast by the 40-year-old unemployed nerd in his parents’ basement, surrounded by Star Trek memorabilia.
“Hey, Ma…the meatloaf!!!”
Wrong movie, but maybe you get the point: the source of the story matters.
The Four W’s (Who?, What?, When?, Where?) are always useful in verifying the accuracy of some great story that you just heard. It’s Journalism 101, and the very first thing they taught us in college. Is there ANY truth to the whopper that you just heard?
As Ronald Reagan once said, “Trust, but verify.” My Mom used to say, “Consider the source.” My own pearl of wisdom: “If it seems too good to be true (i.e. driving home the argument the guy is making), it probably is.”
I wish people would pause, just a bit, before swallowing the salacious and inflammatory crap that floods our airways, social media, and our text/e-mail in-boxes… and then passing the anecdote along to the next guy, as if it were the God’s Honest Truth.
You can quote me on this.