We've all head the old saying that some attribute to President Abraham Lincoln "Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."
How many elected officials, throughout history, have spoken out and later realized what they said was incorrect? In most cases, it became simply a note of the past; a mistake made and corrected, and people moved on.
The key was the person realizing they erred, corrected their words and that was the end of it. Those days are gone.
Today pundits lie in wait eagerly awaiting the chance to pounce on any politician who miss-states anything. And, let's be honest, there is a difference between intentionally not telling the truth and making an honest mistake. Smart, honest people know the difference and will accept a mea-culpa from the latter in a timely manner.
Today, at a time when words travel around the world at the speed of the Internet, you better be quick to correct your error or the social media mafia will be quick to condemn you.
Heck, you don't even have to be a politician to become a victim of making a mistake. Say something in error and instead of correcting you, today's "wanna-be" wordsmiths would rather embarrass you (especially in public or on social media) in a feeble attempt to display how smart they think they. They often end up being victims of their own, ahem, unrefined vocabulary skills. Better they should have taken Abe's advice.
Listening to someone orate and misspeak, and quickly correct themselves was never a big deal. Now, the emphasis is on the "misspeak" not the quick correction. That error will be quickly blown up across main-stream and social media.
"Look how ignorant __________ (fill in the blank) is. They don't even know ___________ (fill in the blank again)." The venom spews even though the mistake was corrected in the next sentence. The haters heard all the words but purposely choose to dwell on the former for their own gain - usually to boost their own ego. Or, maybe the haters didn't hear all the words because they stopped listening when they heard something they could convert to Facebook fodder.
They seem to not realize, or care, that the attempt to falsely shame others usually reflects their own ignorance.
Take the time to listen to every statement and read every word before you pounce. Don't be in a hurry to show your own ignorance. Pause, understand, and carefully choose the words for your response. Don't respond for the sake of responding. If you have nothing constructive to add, that's fine.
If we keep attacking people who are trying to convey a message, they may stop trying to convey it.
Then we'll never know what they're trying to say.