Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22, 2021 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).
How to Debunk:
1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.
2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.
3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.
4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.
5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.
"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.
"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."
"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."
Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge
Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021
Update: September 22, 2023: This is more important now than ever. Be vigilant and speak in your own way. Love Wins.
In the spirit of how to debunk misinformation and disinformation, I encourage you to examine The Financial Services Forum, The American Accountability Foundation, The Epoch Times, Fox News, and One America Network(OAN), among others, using the media literacy skills taught by the News Literacy Project from #1 above under "How to Debunk." Click on the News Literacy Project link to start your work.
Recently I wrote in this space about my experiences in Punta Colonet, a small community in the northern Baja Peninsula of Mexico. It was really about “love made visible” as my church likes to say.
Love is love. You know love when you see it, feel it, experience it. This form of love is the stuff that is the win-win-win kind of love that benefits everyone. It is symbiotic and increases exponentially. Small amounts of it get magnified in ways that we are incapable of understanding yet are linked to by its everlasting power.
Love is the reason for living. Love and the ability of our species to spread it is why our individual impact on the world is important. Each one, teach one. Or each one teach 10 or 20 or 100 or 1000 or a Billion. The power of love is tangible and real. There is nothing about it that can be faked.
The Christian Bible says in Corinthians 13:4–8a (ESV) “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”
The central tenets of this statement are the blood cells of my blood, the carriers of the oxygen that gives me life, the stuff that guides my thoughts, that formulate my beliefs, that fuel my actions. It is the reason for my passionate beliefs about my fellow human beings, about individual liberty and freedom and the pursuit of values and actions that spread love.
That’s all. Its that simple. Spread love.