Did anyone see that Kyle Rittenhouse trial? Pretty crazy stuff, right? Especially when the media and celebrities are the ones that helped to cause alterations in people’s minds about what truly happened that night.
No, I am no pro Rittenhouse, I am pro justice system. They did their job. The jury made the decision based on the evidence collected. To call Rittenhouse or any of these three people who were shot heroes is absolutely wild. Nothing any of these four individuals did was heroic. Simply, it was a situation that should have been avoided entirely.
What it comes down to is people shouldn’t have been rioting, the police should have had more help, citizens should not have been compelled to show up that night, citizens should not have threatened Rittenhouse’s life and well being, and Rittenhouse should not have had a gun or inserted himself into the situation.
Now that we got that out of the way, lets talk about how the media distorted people’s memories or withheld/censored important information that would have allowed citizens to form a more educated and thorough opinion on what the truth of the matter is. The honest to goodness truth is, because of the media clips I saw, I believed this kid was guilty. I did not see the clips prior to the trial that showed him being chased, screamed at, beaten, and having a gun pointed at him. Again, it was stupid for this kid to be in this position, but it was also stupid for these guys to swing at him with a skateboard, point a gun at him, beat him, or chase him when he is trying to flee.
The attached video below (Gutenschwager, 2020) shows the full nearly two minute clip of Rittenhouse trying to get away while a mob of people are screaming to get him and not let him get away. Rittenhouse falls over and people start to jump him. There was a gun in the hands of one of the men who jumped him along with two others who were starting to use physical force to beat him. As a result, Rittenhouse shoots a couple shots, gets back to his feet, and goes back to fleeing the scene as police and law enforcement head to the scene. He has a gun on him, but he keeps his hands up and gets out of the way so the law enforcement can go to the scene ahead.
The next article is about pronouncing Rittenhouse a terrorist almost a year ago before the trial occurred. That is their right to do so, but it seems like they were no fully educated on the entire scenario. Additionally, Colin Kaepernick and Kyle Rittenhouse absolutely should not be seen as heroes. Just two men who are doing what they felt they had to do. The real heroes of this world are the ones that go to work every day and are the backbone of this country.
Back to the tweets cancelling Rittenhouse collected by Emma Colton for a Washington Examiner article (Colton, 2020), so many celebrities did not even let it get to trial or bother to research the entire event further. They just called it all sorts of nasty things, but again, this is what they were shown and told from others. Below are some of the tweets pronouncing Kyle Rittenhouse a terrorist before he went to trial and all the evidence was uncovered and put out for everyone to clearly see.
As can be seen, people were then quick to turn on Kyle Rittenhouse. These celebrities have a lot of pull and influence, which can be a great thing in good times, and a bad thing in times like these where they do not fully educated themselves on the full events. It is easy to block out and alter exactly what happens. It happens all the time, and innocent people get thrown in jail on the flip side of it.
Elizabeth Loftus says in a TedTalk that it is a very difficult process. She says we want to remember, but all sorts of false memories and narratives can occur because many times, we are asked to remember these things in all sorts of bad situations and in times of crisis (Loftus, 2013).
Additionally, this correlates to we cannot remember an event if we have things withheld from us. The lack of disclosure can certainly be called false and disinformation. Some social change has happened and continues to need to be happening, but this is not social change. This is law, and the law is fine how it is. Human error will always occur in our justice system, and it truly is unfortunate that it happens to innocent people. I do not believe either one of these parties are innocent, but that is not up for me to decide. It was a jury of his peers.
There is no doubt people did absorb the propaganda they saw from celebrities and mainstream media, and it is sad they did not wait longer to see the full truth before declaring Kyle Rittenhouse was this, that, or the other thing. He is not an angel, but he is not as awful as some are making him out to be either. I also believe it is true if we absorb a certain notion or certain propaganda, it is hard to admit we are wrong. People love to be right, but the fact is that none of us are always right. However, we should all not carry an ego that says and allows us to think we are.
Are there other examples like this Rittenhouse case that we have seen that did not display the full truth? I believe there are several like the Jacob Blake and George Floyd cases. It is a shame these men died and the acts were horrible, but certain evidence was left out. Not enough to get everyone off scotch free (thank goodness), but these two were not angels either. Just like Rittenhouse isn’t.
Persuasion & Propaganda 