Even my good friend Burr Deming at Fair and Unbalanced picked up on this new trendy left-wing meme on his site.
The problem is that not everything is as our brothers and sisters on the left would seem to want it to be. Yes, a picture can say a thousand words, but when we look at all of the pictures, they also can tell a completely different story if we only take the time to truly look.
Here is a typical version of what the anti-Trump Left is posting. They will first show a picture of President Obama standing next to a smiling Pope Francis and then contrast that picture with a dour looking Pope standing next to President Trump. Of course the implication is that Pope Francis adores President Obama and is not pleased with President Trump.
But as Paul Harvey would say, here is the rest of the story. It isn't hard to also find a picture of a seemingly displeased Pope standing next to many of the world's leaders, regardless of their political ideology.
Below is a picture of a Canada's very leftist Prime Minister Trudeau smiling beside a seemingly grumpy Pope Francis.
Or how about this one where Israel's right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu is posing with a surly Pope Francis.
Perhaps the apolitical (left-wing) Prince Charles would cheer up the Pope... or not.
Is it perhaps possible that Pope Francis simply doesn't typically smile for staged photographs? There are myriads (more than two) of candid pictures of him smiling and laughing with numerous world leaders that are easily found on the inter-webs, but for the staged photographs, he presents a more stoic countenance that can be taken for a disapproving or grumpy attitude towards the official with whom he is being photographed.
For those that attempt to make political points by pulling merely two pictures out of thousands in order to justify a talking point, they come off as being naive and self-deluding or perhaps even intentionally dishonest in their presentation of the facts. I know beyond all doubt that it is not the latter but far more likely the former in the case with my friend Burr Deming.
I guess we sometimes need to stop and ask ourselves a question. Is it possible that sometimes we only search long enough to see just what we wish to see and nothing more?
