Debbie Lesko and the Left's misinformation problem

No, she doesn't want to kill her grandchildren

If you follow me on Twitter at all, you know that this viral tweet has been driving me nuts over the last few days:

No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen @NoLieWithBTC

Holy crap. Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) said she would shoot her own grandchildren to oppose a gun safety reform bill that would keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them. (h/t @RyanShead)

I encourage you to click on the video and listen to what she actually says. I’m confident that if you do, you’ll come to two separate conclusions:

* Yes, she literally said she’d be willing to shoot her grandchildren.

* That’s not what she actually meant.

Here’s what she said.

I have five grandchildren. I would do anything — anything — to protect my five grandchildren, including — as a last resort — shooting them, if I had to, to protect the lives of my grandchildren.

It’s kind of messy, as human speech often is. But think about this line again:

…shooting them, if I had to, to protect the lives of my grandchildren….

You don’t shoot a person to save their lives, the occasional “Take the shot!” movie scenario notwithstanding. You shoot a person to kill them. So would you shoot your grandchild in order to save their life? No. It’s pretty clear — to me, anyway — that she misspoke and meant to say that she would shoot anybody threatening her grandchildren. Context clues, people.

I don’t have to speculate, though, because she’s used this line before:

When arguing June 9 against the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which is now law, Lesko said in a video uploaded on her YouTube channel: "I have five grandchildren and I would do anything to protect my grandchildren including, as a last resort, shooting the killer because that's what a grandmother does."

So no, Debbie Lesko didn’t confess to being a monstrous grandbaby killer on the floor of the House of Representatives. She flubbed her words.

But I’m guessing that not one out of 10 of the thousands of people — I’m guessing all folks who are left of center — who have retweeted that clip have actually clicked on it or contemplated her intent. They spread it because they wanted it to be true, not because it is.

And that, my friends, is a misinformation problem.

Before you get after me: Conservatives are providing most of the misinformation in American society these days. And Lesko isn’t exactly a figure who deserves our sympathy. A lot of people will justify spreading misinformation about her based on those two notions.

Nonsense.

Truth is good because it’s truth, not because it’s useful. And misinformation is bad because it’s bad, full stop. But it’s also true that cultivating misinformation — or showing a casual disregard for it — because they did it first just cultivates a societal cynicism that erodes democracy. There’s already plenty of misinformation in American discourse right now. Adding to the sum total doesn’t actually defeat it.

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