A daylighter is a person who sheds "daylight" on information that is being hidden or skewed as part of a person or entity’s attempt to bring about a pre-ordained outcome. They talk about what they discover.
A daylighter shines light on data or facts that have not seen the “
light of
day” due to misinformation or withheld information by journalists,
government officials, individuals, or corporations. When information is withheld or hidden or when misinformation is used to obtain a certain result, such as enhancing an image, avoiding negative consequences or appropriate punishment, or to produce a certain kind of behavior (spending
money, voting a certain way, not questioning “accepted
truth,” or to induce fear or otherwise unearned trust), it can be said to be “
propaganda.” Daylighters are deep thinkers and analytical, and
don’t accept data without documentation (footnotes) or doing significant investigation and
fact-checking. Healthy skepticism is a necessary characteristic to be significantly qualified for daylighting.
Not all daylighters are whistleblowers, but all whistleblowers are daylighters. Some daylighters could be called full-time daylighters. Others are less able to spend the kind of time that it might take to shine a light on a particular set of propaganda, but they have a
solid daylighter attitude and value system. They clearly qualify as members of the Daylighter Club!
“My
friend, John, is a true daylighter. He just documented on his blog how many lies our county executive has been using to justify spending taxpayer
money on unnecessary upgrades to
computer systems to be done by a company owned by a close family member of the executive.”
