Truck Through The Wall

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This is shared with you with the note "They literally drove a truck through the wall. Can we end this idea it makes us more secure?

The first thing I usually do is set in my mind -- in a few seconds -- what is the *point* of this tweet? What's the underlying narrative this is being used to support?

Nothing too fancy. In this case the narrative is "President Trump's new wall doesn't work."

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We click through to the NY Daily News. I could go two directions here -- If I think this might be satire or fake I would check the source first. I might also check the claim, by doing a Google News Search.

In this case, I happen to know that NY Daily News is a source that's a bit tabloidy but not fake, so we're going to go see this in context.

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So initially it looks good. It really happened, and the source for that information is federal agents.

But remember we have to hold on to the narrative -- in this case the narrative is that this shows that President Trump's wall is a security failure.

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The problem? This isn't Trump's wall. It's part of the old existing wall/fencing. It's the wall that's going to be replaced.

Maybe the story shows that walls aren't great border protection. Maybe it shows that a new wall/fence is needed. But it doesn't show anything specifically about the effectiveness of Trump's planned wall.

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It's important to note that the idea here is not "the wall is therefore good" or "the wall is therefore bad." Many people have moral reasons that they oppose a wall, and it is possible that a new wall would do no better.

But you can make your point on things that actually relate to these issues, rather than bending the truth.