Elihu Vedder: The Fates Gathering in the Stars (1887)

ABOUT THIS ARTWORK
Elihu Vedder depicted the three Fates of Greek mythology working the thread of life: Clotho spins the thread, Lachesis fixes its length, and Atropos cuts it at the appointed time of death. Their symbolic tools—spindle, distaff, and shears—rest in the foreground, emphasizing the Fates’ decisive role in matters of life and death. Vedder adapted this painting from an illustration he had designed for an 1884 publication by Edward FitzGerald—a translation of the work of 11th-century poet Omar Khayyám, The Rubáiyát. Vedder was attracted to mysterious, visionary subject matter. Here, he explored metaphysical questions of life, death, and afterlife, subjects at the core of Khayyám’s poetry.

"If its content was all proven to be true, it couldn't draw a respectable crowd."

Social media has been the playing field upon which the whole concept of FakeNews proliferated into the baseline reality it has come to be today. Our incumbent rode FakeNews’ coattails into high office, where he employed this once fringe concept to utterly debase our federal government. He dealt almost exclusively in confounding paradoxes, playing the role of the barber who shaves all the men, and only the men, who don’t shave themselves. His every utterance double-bound. It was eventually inevitable that he never once committed a truth, and yet he still managed to get himself re-elected. This astounding result describes the curious power FakeNews wields. It also might explain the ever-burgeoning popularity social media continues to enjoy.

You might have thought that any media so infused with falsity would have been swiftly abandoned, but this has not proven to be the case. Social media’s very unreliability might actually be the key to its popularity. Could this be due to some perverse need to avoid straights and narrows, to at the very least, at least edge close to the wild side? I have grown accustomed to frequently checking whether what I’m reading amounts to another deep fake. I’ve learned that if something seems to make a little too much sense, it’s probably fiction. Almost every revelation I encounter turns out to be a deliberate misrepresentation. Either it never happened, or it happened in another context unrelated to the story I encountered. War or peace, the breaking news will reliably arrive in disjointed pieces, only some of which can or should be verified.

Yet I return, prior sins all but forgotten, temporarily forgiven. Social media requires more than the willing suspension of disbelief that drama requires, but the willful suspension of judgment, or else its whole premise fails. Its near-instantaneous communication comes with this universal complication, as if The Imps had designed the user interface: any and everything accessed comes in questionable form. It’s like interacting with a practical joker, never knowing precisely when the latest joke will begin, but always aware that one’s either impending or just ending. Later, I might understand which was which: which was intended to merely fool me and which was maliciously designed to make me into a fool. Eventually, social media renders every user a fool. That’s perhaps its primary term of engagement.

Engagement serves as the term used to gauge involvement. One ‘engages’ with social media. This suggests a different relationship than ‘using’ might entail, for users control while engagers submit to. An engagement willingly cedes some independence and subtly commits to an indefinite dependence. Social media popularity gets gauged in numbers ‘engaged,’ former individuals willingly surrendering their independence to enter into a partnership. Social media renders independence meaningless, since it requires dependence to cast its spell. There, FakeNews holds a prominent place and might even be as revered as one of The Fates once was to the Ancient Greeks. FakeNews can anchor attention more reliably than even the most obvious truths. Often, on social media, huge crowds gather to watch a fail unfolding. The bigger the lie, the greater the potential attention. Nothing draws engagement like a reliable public failure.

Maybe FakeNews leaves me feeling superior. For every dozen who swallow FakeNews hook, line, and sinker, at least one spectator well understands what he’s witnessing. Turning Point LLC turns out to be just another slow-motion train wreck, but it zooms to the top of the engagement ratings in the weeks and months before it stumbles into its inevitable comeuppance. The Epstein Files amount to just another repository of FakeNews. Each revelation crashes across social media’s bow, washing the deck with fresh injustice, only some of which seems destined to be proven true. The difference between what will eventually be proven true and rampant speculation fueled by deliberate FakeNews provides the energy and momentum that fuels engagement and thus, social media’s momentum. If its content was all proven to be true, it couldn’t draw a respectable crowd.

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Unscrolling, #PureSchmaltz