“Fake News” - The Search For Truth in Fiction (Part One) by Deidre Briar (Guest Blogger)

Few things define our current zeitgeist so clearly as “Fake News.” Overnight the statement became little more than a catchphrase, a childish insult hurled indiscriminately at anything the speaker disliked, leaving others to flail and flounder in attempts to properly define a fact in the same ineffective manner a child uses to prove that they are NOT a stinky buttface.

So what can we do about Fake News™? How can we push back at the competing forces of perception and belief and desire and all the interests, powers, and money that manipulate and control?

First, we need to stop giving up our power over language, so henceforth the problem will be referred to as false statements.

Second, we need to stop playing politics. Just Staaaahp. Pretending false statements are a vice of the other side is FALSE STATEMENTS. We all are victims believing falsehoods. Belief is a popular and well-documented field of psychological study: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/supersurvivors/201705/why-do-people-believe-things-aren-t-true

(No, no, please finish the article. Feel free to look up corroborating articles. Extra points for reading core research past the abstract. I’ll wait. It’s no trouble, this is just text. It’ll be here when you get back.)

False statements are no new thing.

“A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.” - Mark Twain

“Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it.” - Johnathan Swift

Versions of these popular quotations can be found in the earliest recorded philosophers worldwide; a universal truth. The modern twist is that our lies fly on the wings of WiFi, and the speed and accessibility make manipulating ideas the biggest, most profitable game in anytown, everytown.

What’s worse, the expedited delivery and massive echochamber of the internet and social media platforms heightens the availability heuristic and puts confirmation bias on steroids (see link above).

Moreover, once we accept a belief we use all our powers, intelligence, and reasoning skills to defend it, rather than debunk it, cherry-picking our data, sources, and arguments and quickly demonizing others

STOP EVERYTHING AND READ THIS:

Absolutely pausing here because this one is a doozy. See you on the other side… http://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/05/alternative-facts.aspx

So, to recap.

We believe what we want to, regardless of evidence, not because we are stupid, cruel, or evil, but because we are hardwired to accept what already fits into our worldview, and protect our beliefs. This also leads us to join and cling to communities that support our beliefs and further acclimate our beliefs to match the groups’ and also to become more extreme and more deeply entrenched over time. Bonus, the smarter and more educated we are, the BETTER we are at twisting information on our beliefs’ behalf, and the more extreme our beliefs are, the closer we place them to our sense of identity and therefore, the more emotionally and powerfully we respond to defend them.

We close ranks, we divide into “us” and “them” and we can always, always find supporters, selective information, and vehement opposition to feed our monsters.

We. Are. So. F*cked.

"The conversation around 'fake news' often ends with statements about teaching people to become better consumers of information — to be skeptical as they educate themselves through encounters with online media. Alternative news sites have appropriated these arguments and are using them to support the propagation of alternative narratives and other conspiracy theories," Starbird explained in a Medium post.

So what can be done to combat conspiracy theories so that people can reliably inform themselves? Starbird is as stumped as you likely are. “I don’t have solutions right now. I think it’s an all-hands-on-deck kind-of-problem," she said. "It’s a lot easier to disrupt the system and cause mayhem.”

Sourced from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccaheilweil1/2017/06/25/how-internet-conspiracy-theories-go-viral-and-get-people-to-believe-them-too/#a9884beecb83

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ESTHER'S NOTE: 
This blog post turned out to be more of an essay, but it is a complex topic and hard to cover in the maximum word count. You can read the rest on my web site. Click here to read parts two and three of this blog post-turned-essay.
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This blog post was curated and/or edited by The Ardent Reader, Esther Hofknecht Curtis, BSOL, MSM-HCA. The views expressed in this blog post are those of the guest blogger. Visit www.parrotcontent.com for more information.