Perhaps the hardest thing is to consistently do the right thing and let the chips fall where they may. From Doug “Uncola” Lynn at theburningplatform.com:
It’s always fun to see what new internet sensation will next captivate and surprise the blogosphere everywhere and all at once. The most recent phenomenon to take the media-bubble by storm occurred last week by means of the Laurel or Yanny debate. In the event the reader has been living under a rock, or in a cave, over the last several days it all started when someone on reddit posted a short audio clip of a computer pronouncing the word “laurel”. Of course nothing would have come from it, except that other people who heard the clip swore they heard a word similar to “yanny” being pronounced instead.
As the debate went viral across all media platforms, Team Trump even Twittered on the matter from the White House.
At first, I thought it may have been an acoustic hoax whereby two separate recordings were alternating, but that was not the case. When I, personally, played the clip to people in the same room, at the same time, they heard either “laurel” or “yanny”; as did I. We were confounded at how we heard completely different sounds from the same recording.
Obviously, there was a scientific explanation and the mystery was solved according to the frequency by which people processed the audio.
This also called to mind an internet sensation from three years ago known as “The Dress”. It was another ethernetic spectacle, except one which began on Tumblr when a user posted a photo of a striped frock along with the caption:
“guys please help me – is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can’t agree and we are freaking the f–k out.”
Evidently, in viewing photos of the woman’s dress for sale, neural connections to the visual cortex caused some to see the garment as blue with black lace fringe, whereas others could see it only as white with gold lace fringe.
In pondering both of these viral online and media curiosities by which people listened to, and viewed, the same things – yet heard, and saw, them in such diverse ways, I began to wonder if similar anomalies could be occurring within partisan politics today; and if these might not even be anomalies at all.
To continue reading: In the Random Universe: Let Justice Be Done though the Heavens Fall
