Truth is the best method of dealing with important topics of conflict and interest. In my case, I was caught on the receiving end of high self interested behaviors that moved beyond immorality and into something very dangerous. That danger didn't dissipate with time and got worse as a "clan" of individuals lined up to support their ethnic group, sports-friend networks (its a shame because I would have never expected such brazen blind support without questioning.). No one questioned much and good conscious was ignored in a mad dash to outdo each other in inappropriateness.
Now let us imagine we travelled to a far far far away imaginary world where the target was not only not guilty of doing anything (other then disagreeing with bad behavior) but also became a target for a number of issues that range from jealousy to serious ethnic/racial/religious bigotries. The goal was to ruin, damage, bully, threaten (could have been more under the wrong circumstances), discredit and/or seriously harm the target(s) (I know! I know! Its impossible!)
Let us add on the pile of dysfunction and say that what appeared to be corruption and no backstop in local law enforcement (Most departments did the right thing except the department that closest to the initiating group.). The Muslim sounding name and mixed race kids (the others) was just too much for these participating officers to deal with (Indicating a wider cultural issue with the whole department. That doesn't include all of the officers. I have met a few of them and they are excellent people.) They went on the offensive and couldn't control themselves abandoning moral principles and science in one foul swoop to prove the "Muslims" are worthless when compared to their own perception of society and nation (Except the concept of minority in society is changing and we will need to get everyone on the same page if we want to be a world leading nation with the highest levels of performance. Likely something that created an exploitable risk {perhaps foreign origin} during the Capitol Riots. We may someday know for sure!).
What is a person supposed to do when only a few options are set before them? Remove their kids from the area and begin to challenge what appears to be a long stemming history of abuses not only by this ex sport group but also by their close associations within law enforcement. When the local system goes down for the count the entire system is at risk of being delegitimized (That can only come from dishonesty and circumventing the law.). This is why we can't turn a blind eye to bad behavior or allow the misinformation to remain unchallenged (As recently as a few months ago they were still smearing names and doing their best to block volunteering in the community through what appears to be illegal behaviors. These rumors move beyond bad judgement and raise personal, social, and physical risks to the target family. The same behaviors that caused the break in the community the first time are now rearing its head head over and over because of a law enforcement failures. Lack of accountability and action leads to bigger and bigger problems as it grows exponentially . We must take extremism seriously; especially is some of the core members are in law enforcement. See exponential extremism. Like in this case where it appears one or two officers exploited their positions to get others involved.)
After creating the physical boundaries it becomes an important issue not only to protect the community from future abuses but also to stand for some very basic American principles. We didn't build a country so that it can be thrown in the trash to protect one's friends and ethnic groups from responsibility (I don't think so anyway but talk to different people with different backgrounds and you can get a sense of who feels what and why they feel it. If they trust you enough to tell you their version of truth.). If we allow/allowed truth and justice to fail we would be at risk for a chain of similar situations (Corruption like Truth can spread through social expectation of values. i.e. a Culture of Corruption in Detroit).
Selfish people fail in longer term game theory because they say too much and they do too much because the same dysfunction that drives them to manipulate their environment pushes them to continue to act in similar ways in similar situations (Truthful people can say too much sometimes but as long as its truthful it is worthwhile knowledge for mental consumption that leads to further truth. Truth leads to more truth while lies lead to more lies.). With the same environmental factors they will continue on and on in a distorted value system until they are eventually discovered through pattern recognition. Sometimes you can encourage discovery through truthful information to detect this pattern and/or other times it will be more natural through natural pressure and convenience opportunities.
Truth is a long-term strategy that seeks to connect the dots of behaviors to better understand them and creates credibility through consistently being correct and logical. One can also gain support by seeking out win-win situations to create the best outcomes and strongest resolutions (See Effective Conflict). While one may not know the whole truth at one time they can be honest about what they know and what they don't know (It leads to stronger critical thinking and strategic development).
Even if the person telling the truth loses (and they likely often do) they still have a moral conscious and can feel good about the attempt to do what is in the best of everyone within the confines moral conscious. Sometimes you can't win if the environment turns sour and truth, justice, and moral conscious are not (which I think they are but not for everyone) considered important values in the larger system (Truth always leads to the best long-term strategic outcomes while distortion leads to short term gains. Truth gains more options and distortion loses options the longer the game is played.)
The caveat is that a person with a bankrupt life philosophy/soul cannot tell the truth for very long as pre-existing urges resurface to encourage short sighted and short term manipulative advantages. They expose themselves by their choices throughout the game and all the other players adjust to the new truth. One must just sort of give them the space to act on environmental pressures (sequenced revealed information) in any way they choose. People who tell the truth want more information and want to be accurate in their interpretations of that information to create correctness of thought while those lie/covering avoid such information, bury it, forcibly try and silence it, lie about it, manipulate it and/or engage in corrupt practices (Too much dishonesty eventually gets discovered as a pattern).
Cooperative societies in game theory eventually win while those who support corrupt practices eventual break into conflict and fail (We have an important question standing before us and how we choose to handle a situation just like this in our country and in other hometowns. A Muslim with mixed race kids seen as less than human with few to no observed rights standing up against a large group of extremism leaning bullies supported by corrupt law enforcement friends. If I was a betting man I would probably bet on the later....in many ways I still would! At least until we reorient our societal leaders to the core purpose of their function in the protection of our democratic and capitalistic philosophies. The later requires more definition of when this works best but I'm not going to get into it at the moment.) . There is evolution of our biology and there is evolution of our societies as they run along the same path one being generated from the other .See Selfish Game Theory. We as a nation and people often rely on certain core principles that allowed us to flourish and if we abandon them we abandon our futures and in turn lose the long term "game". See The Spirit of Justice from The Republic.
The beautiful thing about truth is that its never wrong and when "perceived truth" is done with good moral conscious it is most likely to be right (at least compared to other methods such as falsehood, corruption, etc..). Everything on a micro (individual and local level) and macro (national and global level) is a choice that leads to certain outcomes (i.e. you can't rob from Peter to pay Paul). This why we must make the choice to hold extremism/bad group behaviors accountable or risk defaulting on other choices/options that lead to a stronger future. We all own and become responsible for our choices and the choices of our leaders, institutions, and system. Win or Lose...we must ask ourselves, "Did we act with integrity?" If you did act with integrity and you do loose when "doing the right thing" then society loses much much more then just that case/situation......it took a chunk out of its own truth (...and future options and/or outcomes.) See Choice Theory
The big question will there be a cease and desist on the behavior, a retraction of the false information spread, and accountability through meaningful policing improvements. While I don't wish injustice I can say in an odd way that I don't mind losing when I do it for the right cause. It doesn't take a magician to have a moral code to stand up for things he believes in for himself, his kids, his community, and his nation.
A few side interesting things:
Its interesting as I was looking around for some research on truth and game theory and came up with an article printed in 1968 hosted on UNESCO. It also had attached to it something on ethnocentrisms of conflict that discusses how ethnocentrisms is the judging of others only in comparison of one's own culture and value. You can review both if desired. See Game Theory and Peace. You may also want to read something on On Advancing Truth and Morality in Conflict Resolution to understand how the concept of truth and mortality lead to longer lasting conflict resolutions. We must always act with a level of integrity if we want people to trust and respect our philosophies, values, and missions.
A couple of other interesting articles Process, Procedures, Judgement and Know Nothing and Creation of Character and Undercurrent and State of Conscious and Haiku Eagle and Meconomics
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