t - 5 and counting...
Myself, well, I am really not the hoaxing type. Sure, I think that I am clever enough and can be convincing enough to get people to believe, but I don't tend to exploit these abilities for evil and impoliteness [<--sarcasm there on that last bit!]!
Personally, I tend to think that there is enough disinformation floating around that I do not typically feel the need to add to it. As a person who doesn't "believe" in “facts” in general, I think it is important to be sincere in what I say to people, and try to use the limited number of words I will speak over the course of my life to accurately relate what I experience as "truth."
However, I am not necessarily against a good put-on so long as it is delivered with a good intent (of course, we could go into the more difficult question of "how do we define 'good intent'?" here, but I'll leave that aside for now). What I think I mean is that if a hoax is put forth in the spirit of benevolent fun, without the intent to manipulate or coerce, and there is a line or point at which the receiver of the hoax will be let in on the joke, then I think I am OK with that. Again, these are difficult lines to define though, and so, I do not attempt to create such loops and whirls in my life or the lives of others around me. Besides, I think that, quite often, my "truths" are wacky enough to come across as hoaxes to those whom I am expressing them to! 
I suppose, in some ways, we are all "putting each other on" simply by living together and trying to communicate our experiences to one and other. We all buy into or unwittingly accept some set of shady social milieux in order to function as social animals; thus, we all help perpetuate some hoax or another. This brings me back to my initial point: there is enough disinformation generating our "reality" without me willfully adding more to it.
Of course, y'all can do whatever ya' like, I suppose--simply keep your yarns outta' my cotton ginny!
m3 |
