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.
Update: McQuade, Barbara, "Attack From Within," 2024. New York Times best seller.
Two major themes cross my mind as June comes to a close. June has been pride month, a time when a majority of the country celebrates diversity, equity and inclusion while the people in this regime in Washington D.C. pretend it isn’t happening.
Pride will be ok. No matter how hard the destroyers on the Right try to erase history and hope that people forget about what it was like to be human, that very same history has proven that as hard as you try to exterminate or eliminate or disinform, you can’t make our core humanity go away. We remember and we celebrate the core elements of who we are.
Humanity has been forced to take a back seat to greed, power and religious zealotry. But the one thing that the master planners of this conspiracy, driven by prejudice against humanity, have forgotten is that the human spirit cannot be lied to. It transcends the weaknesses of the mind and lives on. It’s something like the radioactive core of the Earth. You don’t see it, but it keeps on burning brightly and keeps the planet alive. Out of sight and sometimes out of mind, but always there.
Maybe that isn’t the best example because eventually the physical fuel will run out and the Earth will grow cold. The spiritual fuel, however, will not run out. No matter what the religious, the political, the judicial, the corporate forces do to try and break us, it won’t work. The force that fuels the core of our beings cannot be destroyed. Buildings can be destroyed, bodies can be destroyed, nature can be severely damaged, but they can’t touch the human spirit.
And they know it. Their power is barely bridled right now. It won’t last. How long it lasts is up to us. Nourish that spirit and keep going one day at a time.
On The Bright Side
*Do you want to get out and do something? Here’s a website with a few ideas.
*A few ideas for relieving stress
*Sometimes screaming obscenities when nobody is around is ok.
In case you were wondering where the Prejudice part of the title was, here are some summaries of the just closed Supreme Court session.
https://www.independent.org/multimedia/2024/07/22/scotus-review-latest-supreme-court-decisions-explained-independent-outlook-63/?media=video
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/06/27/supreme-court-rulings-decisions-today-news-analysis/birthright-citizenship-nationwide-injunctions-00428839
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/27/g-s1-74738/scotus-decisions-birthright-aca
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/28/what-cases-did-the-us-supreme-court-decide-at-the-end-of-its-2024-term
*Speaking of out of touch (I wasn’t really speaking about it, but it makes such a nice segway): The lengths that this administration is going to downgrade, demean and demote women is so far out-of-touch with reality that even a good comedy sketch can’t touch it.
Case in point is the success of women’s sports. Anyone following women’s basketball? It is phenomenally successful right now. For an administration trying to take away even the most basic of human rights, health care, away from them, they shine as brightly and maybe even outshine us males across the board.
You go girl.