 |
| Have a look at this video around 23:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWct0n991N8 |
If you haven't already, I want you do to something for me. This would be for me, for yourself, and as a positive step towards combating the steady tide of disinformation you're going to see in the next 8 months of election-cycle crazy. This wave of unreality will be coming from all manner of sources. And a lot of them are going to be shady as anything. There will be regurgitated talking points, outright propaganda, character assassination, terror and scare articles, cherry-picked omissions of the facts... And that's just to start with. They're not all going to be from dubiously named social media groups you've never heard of, or some editorial from a local rag in easily-misleadville, USA. Some of these will be in major publications and newspapers. More of these will be from major news networks with their own privately-funded agendas. And many of the proponents of said disinformation will be aggressively pushing the distortion as though they were being paid to do it.
Many will be.
And you're going to see a lot of the people you know reposting this kind of thing. Some of these will be people you have known and cared about for years. And you're going to want to remember our current atmosphere. Many of us are scared. Many are hurt and angry. The ambient cruelty in the air is falling on all of us. Some more than others. But we're all feeling the pinch. And there's so much to worry about, it's easy to feel immobilized with that existential dread. Worried into immobility. Maybe you're too busy keeping your ship afloat and don't have the time and energy to fight the good fight. And the ones spreading their poisoned views and creeds want you that way. Demoralized and apathetic. After all. What can you do?
There is something. And it's really easy.
Now you may think this is pretty basic stuff. And I'd probably agree. And I want you to understand. I'm not trying to be consescending. I've a background in tech support, and I pretty much type from the assumption that some folks just aren't gonna know about some of this stuff. I know *YOU* may already know how to do this. Someone else may not. Think about how many of your relatives or friends you've had to help with their computers. Trust me on this. There's pages and pages out there on what you can't assume people already know from tech support's point of view. It can be funny reading, but it's not good for placing faith in your fellow humans. Caveat emptor.
I want you to start a collection of articles. You don't have to go actively looking. They'll likely come to you by social media one way or another. Saving these articles is just as easy as dragging the tab the article is sitting in to the folder on your bookmarks bar. If you're in some social media situation, and you need the link later on? Click that folder, right click on the article you have saved, then hit COPY. You now have a link to the article on your clipboard, and can paste it into any conversation or thread necessary to introduce your research into the conversation.
Now a warning.
"So come on and chickity check yo self before you wreck yo self ." -Ice Cube
Before you start flinging articles at people, you're going to want to make sure you're not blowing any credibility you have. Otherwise you're just guilty of spreading misinformation. You'll want to make sure these articles are from reputable sources. If you're not sure about a thing, don't keep it. If you're concerned about the veracity of a story, do a bit of research and see if what you're reading is trustworthy. Don't be afraid to ask yourself questions like "Who benefits from an article like this? Where's the money coming from to spread this 'information'? Who's doing the reporting? Is this page/author/publication/network typically guilty of bias?" Researching that is just a quick Google. Search "<name of page> Bias." Or "<name of publication> owner". It's startlingly easy. A lot of authors of these pieces don't expect people to actually look stuff up and see how fishy a thing is.
And remember. You don't have to argue if your facts are right. You don't have to give some rando yahoo the time of day, much less grace their arguments with validity or equivalence to the facts. If some troll has posted an obviously dishonest thing. You are not obligated to argue at length to disprove the rantings of some dishonest troll or disinformation artist in honest debate. If a thing is presented without proof, or with the caveat that this is their opinion... well. We all know what opinions are like. Everyone's got em. And we know orifice it came from if something stinks.
All you have to do is drop a well-researched article from your collection that debunks the thing and go on with your life. The ranting and raving of that person afterward in the face of evidence or fact will seem to any onlooker to be exactly that. And if they want to continue, please let them feel free to make your point for you by digging themselves a deeper hole.
The point is to start assembling a collection of trustworthy sites and stories you can have at your fingertips when you need them. This year... you'll need them.
"But wait, there's more..." -Most every commercial after 11 PM on any given TV channel.
You will want to vet the tone of the articles you find. It may feel great to hear someone throw a fire and brimstone, profanity-filled rant about topics you agree with. But if you can imagine yourself outside of your own circle and showing an article like that to a complete stranger, is it going to get the point across? Or is it going to sound like some unhinged missive from the lunatic fringe? Some folks are going to be fine with that. Others won't give an article like that any consideration because the writer is just so 'negative, uncivil or abusive' in their presentation of the facts. They may be speaking the truth, but the message is lost in the sound and fury, communicating nothing.
Jello Biafra, the lead singer of the old punk band, 'Dead Kennedys' (and onetime candidate to be mayor of San Francisco) has been on Oprah a few times. As a matter of fact, in one appearance, he caught Tipper Gore in a lie regarding how she was now denying having said she'd have liked to feel responsible for having his record label busted for 'harmful matter to minors' You can see that on youtube too. But that's not the point. He did not show up dressed for a mosh pit. He showed up nicely dressed. And he's mentioned how one can get one's point across with the 'halloween costume' as it were. If you can not be easily dismissed or flagged as a weirdo or radical visually, then someone may see your ideas as worth consideration. Tipper Gore certainly wasn't expecting him to have pulled out the newspaper article where she said the very thing she was denying on camera, was she? That's OLD SCHOOL. The tone of the articles you collect can be important that way too. Maybe you can keep pieces that verbally wear the 'halloween costume' and keep the more radical ones in seperate folders. Over time, you'll learn to 'read the room' before dropping a professional sounding bit of research into a conversation, or instead dropping a more familiar less formal piece of blogging or journalism. Which would people seeing this be more receptive to? What you're posting is a reflection on you. There's nothing wrong with presenting your best face.
"Why am I doing this again?" I hear you asking.
This election year, the Republican National Committee, and the Democratic National Committee will have metric tons of bogus talking points. Both will be up to dirty tricks that they will deny or misdirect the blame for later on. And it's not just them. There will be a fair amount of attempted character assassination and false news published. And they will be coming from moneyed special interests, hostile foreign powers, politicians who've been compromised, untrustworthy media outlets and journalists, and of course, the corporations that own them. The stakes this year are literally higher than they've ever been in the history of the human race. This is literally a fight for truth itself, our democracy, the world we live in, and all the living things in it. You've got skin in this conflict. We don't have guns or grenades or conventional weapons to fight this online war of facts vs fiction. All we have to combat this tide of unreality is the truth.
And that's where you come in.
"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views...which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering." -The Fourth Doctor, 'Doctor Who'
Often enough, once you've started your collection of factual articles, you're going to come across some piece of bogus news. Or you may see some piece of factual news that some troll or sealion is coughing up their programmed disinformation over in that piece's comment section. I've already made the thrust of this article clear, but if you've been tending your little information garden with vetted factual articles, it may occur to you, "I'm about to end this guy's whole career." Cos you've got JUST the thing to blow the kneecaps off their obvious attempt at muddying public discourse on that given issue. And I want you to hold that thought. You're not collecting grenades to lob indiscriminately at folks like that. Grenades cause a lot of collateral damage.
You're going to want to remember a few things before you hop in, ready to kick ass. The person in question may not be aware of the distorted or dishonest information they're passing along. It may be that they don't have any frame of reference outside of their own blogosphere or vacuum chamber of ideas. Coming at misguided folk like these with straight up anger and public humiliation will only drive them back into their comfort zone. Cults thrive on this kind of thing. "It's sad... now you see how the outside world can be. We'll take care of you. Just keep listening to us... All those others and outsiders are so mean and negative..." and so on and so on.
Many other folks who are arguing disinformation may be doing so with full knowledge of the distortion of truth they're pushing... These will be your trolls and intentional agents of disinformation. They may have any number of reasons to do so. They could be bigots, fascists, paid agents, genuinely mentally impaired, bitter for innumerable personal reasons, arguing from the point of view of what's best for them only, selfish, or just mean disagreeable people. They probably won't be willing to argue a point in good faith. They might try the tactic of pushing the burden of proof upon you. This is a form of harassment called 'Sea-Lioning'. Here's a quick definition of that if you're not sure what that is:
"A subtle form of trolling involving 'bad-faith' questions. You disingenuously frame your conversation as a sincere request to be enlightened, placing the burden of educating you entirely on the other party. If your bait is successful, the other party may engage, painstakingly laying out their logic and evidence in the false hope of helping someone learn. In fact you are attempting to harass or waste the time of the other party, and have no intention of truly entertaining their point of view. Instead you react to each piece of information by misinterpreting it, or requesting further clarification, ad nauseum. The name 'sea-lioning' comes from a Wondermark comic strip."
You don't owe Mr. "So much for the tolerant left." a good faith argument. You're not obligated to engage at all. They want you to argue. They want you to give them a reason to point at the 'vicious mistreatment' they got from you after they poked you too many times with a particularly pernicious lie, or sense of vindictive apathy. You hit em with an article from your collection and disengage. Don't feed the troll. You're not arguing to convince them. They've already made up their mind on the issue. You're making your point for the people READING the thread. You can even label your article folder 'Fire and forget' if it helps you remember. They'll read it, or they won't. After leaving the facts of the matter behind you, it's no longer your problem. You've done your part.
While there will be a TON of misinformation around on the internet, you can be a part of debunking it. It can actually be empowering to feel you CAN do something to fight back against the tide of bullshit coming along. You can do more than just grab a meme to burn someone with. It's not about scoring points on people. It's about the truth. Start your collection today. Arm yourself with the facts. We have watched the foundations of objective truth itself under slanderous attack for the last three years. We can do something about that. And if we can do it together, nothing will keep that truth contained.
Or to quote Spider Jerusalem... One of my favorite comic book heroes... "Journalism is just a gun. It's only got one bullet in it. But if you AIM it right, that's all you NEED. Aim it right, and you can blow a kneecap off the world."
No comments:
Post a Comment