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.
I don’t believe in the way that MAGA Republicans use the word “woke .” To be woke is not a pejorative. Rather it is a celebratory word. It celebrates awareness, curiosity, involvement and positive action for the good of all people. These things to me are positives and don’t deserve to be treated in this way by anyone. Jesus would have been woke and the teachings that he left behind in the Bible appear to me to be quite woke.
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has made an attempt to take a word that has been defined by MAGA-leaning Republicans to demonize those speaking truth to power in the area of social justice. That in itself I believe is despicable.
But DeSantis takes his crusade against “wokeness” to include issues in the realm of environmental science. What the bloody hell does , say, Climate Change, have to do with wokeness anyway.
Even if I believed in the Trump/DeSantis/MAGA definition of the term, it doesn’t apply to their own definition of woke. Woke, if you follow the link above to the ABC News piece is, in the eyes of the MAGA Minority, carries with it a White Supremacist overtone. But, it doesn’t appear to have any connection to Climate Change or COVID. These things, among countless others, sit beyond the range of the Anti-woke agenda promoted with this trifecta of …
I am trying to find some logic in Gov. DeSantis’ position on wokeness. Maybe that is a poor thesis position to start from, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of at least a little doubt.
In the meantime as the governor marches the state of Florida into the sea, maybe a few Floridians will jump off of the ship that is Florida and vote for what they see and not what they are told is happening in the world around them.
Climate Change is real and Gov. DeSantis/Trump/MAGA are not.
Thx, Bruce!! I admit I’ve never understood how/what the MAGA use of “woke” meant, but I also admit I just put their silliness aside and I’ve simply ignore them. Probably should not do that, but I just get sick and tired of their attempt to be smart, which they are NOT!!