It's not easy for American citizens to wade through the onslaught of fake news. There are many forces in play and the strategy to manifest this mess of misinformation has been a strategy of the powerful for a long time. I can't tell if I'm supposed to be really impressed or infinitely horrified. Both, I suppose.
Sadly, many Americans admit getting their news from social media, and we all know social media is the cesspool of society. Then, we don't have trustworthy leaders. I'm sorry, say what you will, but just one example of this is the White House and Center for Disease Control regularly disagreeing and providing contradictory info. This foolishness is confusing Americans about literal life and death situations. Lastly, public education has been poo-pooed by the United States for a lot of decades and it shows.
Intense propaganda (domestic and otherwise), conspiracy theories, chipping away at the U.S. public education system... these are the ingredients cast into the cauldron of confusion, and the result includes everything from apathetic voters to violent plans to kidnap state governors and overthrow the government.
What is a confused citizen to do? Here are 2 resources that will give you a great start to combating misinformation in less than 40 minutes.
- Watch this TED Talk (~12 minutes). Mona Chalabi was a data editor for The Guardian newspaper when this was recorded. Now she is an artist and illustrator in New York City. In her TED Talk, she offered three questions to take a closer look at statistics - ANY statistics.
Can you see uncertainty?
Can I see myself in the data?
How is the data collected?
- Listen to "Fake News: How to Spot Misinformation" (~26 minutes). The Life Kit podcast is good for all kinds of stuff and offers another five recommendations to stay alert and informed.
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