---
date: 2017-05-06
modified_at: 2018-05-20
tags: [philosophy, social-media]
description: A critical examination of how commercial media prioritizes emotion-driven content over truth, using the metaphor of elephant shit to illustrate how news coverage often amplifies fear while ignoring more significant issues.
---
# Elephant-shit

You might not have identified them yet, but it’s true: shit elephants are
everywhere.You can find them on Facebook, on TV, and in the newspaper. In the
Netherlands, we have a saying: “Never turn a fly into an elephant”. Furthermore,
it’s common sense that you shouldn’t only talk about shit because then you
become it.

You are what you eat, and the whole society is eating the elephant shit, shit
out by a massive herd of shit-elephants. We can’t go around them anymore,
they’re getting bigger and bigger, and the smell becomes worse too.

I mean... A few flies sitting on a pile of shit are all right. Of course I don’t
like them, but they don’t hurt anybody…. But with this herd of elephants lately,
it’s a whole different story. And we’re eating all their shit like yo momma eats
a big mac burger XL: She’s scared to get fat, but she eats it anyway.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the problem with the emotion-driven commercial
media industry - media that most people see, read, hear every day. The growing
heaps of shit elephants crap out nowadays are, in fact, the topics that the
commercial media industry cover.

Because, ladies and gentlemen, media is not relying on truth. Some elephants
don’t even care about the truth. It’s all about money. Yeah…. Shit elephants eat
money, and we eat the shit the shit-elephants shit. And we can’t have enough of
it.
You get it already?

Well...Maybe you don’t, or at least… You don’t probably don’t believe me. Let me
give you a few examples of what I call elephant-shit we eat, elephant-shit shit
out by shit-elephants.

 1. All news about the elections in the USA of last year.
    What the media showed us:
    The battle between Trump and Clinton, emphasizing all the unproven shit
    they’re blaming each other of and all the shit they’re screaming out all
    day.
    What they should’ve shown to us:
    An honest view on all possible future candidates, the stuff they achieved in
    their lives and the stuff they stand for, giving people a good overview so
    that they can make a good vote.
    
    
 2. All plane crashes, school shootings, and terrorist attacks.
    They show us this because it scares the shit out of us. And because of that,
    we will watch for hours and hours. We are wired to look for the scary shit,
    so that we can feel more safe, knowing about it.
    
    

And that’s exactly the problem that the digital age brings us. It shows us scary
shit that actually isn’t that damn dangerous. In fact, the numbers are quite
small. More people die every day of drug abuse or alcohol abuse than of plane
crashes, school shootings and terrorist attacks combined.

I know that a farmer only eats what he knows. But just think about it… What if
all that farmer knows is shit? What if the triple-A beef-steak slowly turned
into shit the last few decades? Well, since you become what you eat, that farmer
must be shit too…

Now I want to ask you... Are you that farmer? Then make sure you learn to
identify the shit from the steak! The internet is a powerful place...

What do you think about this article? Please let me know and share. I will
improve articles that are liked a lot.