Fake News: False information that is broadcast or published as news for fraudulent or politically motivated purposes.
This post continues with donkeys, war and human-animal emotional bonds; although you wouldn’t know that from this image’s most recent use, and that’s because it’s fake news. Yes, seriously. Who would have thought that a donkey would get caught up in the phenomenon of fake news, not once, but several times?
Here is the intriguing image. It’s an old photograph of a soldier carrying a donkey and did the rounds on various social media outlets earlier this year.
Let’s start with Covid. So, what has this image of a donkey got to do with COVID?
Well nothing actually, but it is an excellent example of how an image can be manipulated to suit a particular message; in this instance, a jibe at people unwilling to follow safety instructions during the COVID pandemic and endanger everyone. The meme would have you believe that this group of people are jackasses. That obscured word is a pejorative term for donkey and implies stubborn and foolish. Those attributes were ascribed to the donkey by ancient and medieval writers such as Pliny the Elder, Aristotle and Isidore of Seville. Later writers have continued to uphold the donkey as a foolish and irrational beast. In fact, donkeys are intelligent and cautious animals; their stubborn reputation comes from being unwilling to do something they consider dangerous or are unsure of. So, the meme ironically compares reckless people with a cautious beast – a headless chicken might have been a better comparison!
And then there’s the fake news aspect of this image.
It is purported to be an image from World War II – incorrect – it’s from1958.
It is purported to be an image of soldiers in a minefield – incorrect – people are more likely to walk through a mine field in single file, not spread out.
This image has elsewhere been purported to be of polish soldiers – incorrect – the soldiers are French.
The real story is much more interesting and is one of compassion and ultimately a bond between soldiers and donkey. In 1958 during the Algerian War (1954-62), a group of legionnaires on patrol came across an abandoned foal. They decided to take it back to their barracks as it would have been unable to survive on its own. As it was weak, it was unable to keep up with the men and so they carried it. They nursed it back to life and eventually the donkey became the regiment’s mascot.
The Fake History Hunter has detailed the real story thoroughly and I recommend that you check it out here.
So, to wrap up:
Don’t believe everything you read on the web.
Donkeys are not irrational and they like human contact.
References, Images and Further Reading
