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.
Take it away Michael:
An unholy alliance of Christian Nationalists with greedy billionaires is what got Trump elected President and propelled his takeover of the federal government. The motivation of Christian Nationalists was clear, to speed up the Second Coming of Jesus to save the chosen few from the apocalypse.
But I doubt religion motivates the billionaires, or the writers of Project 2025 (Trump's policy guidebook). These people are not stupid, and know perfectly well that climate change is caused by fossil fuel emissions. If that is true, then why should they want to ramp up fossil fuel emissions and dismantle FEMA, NOAA, and other agencies whose alerts protect people from floods, fires, and violent weather events made worse by climate change? What can they gain by making Earth uninhabitable? And why do they want to shred social safety nets, deport immigrants back to places that are likely to kill them, and make the richest people even richer?
Here is my explanation of their thinking. If you disagree, can you think of a more convincing one?
Trump and his Project 2025 brain trust make it obvious to me that they want people to die. Lots of people, maybe even most. They must believe the world is overpopulated, so Project 2025's unwritten goal is to depopulate the Earth, leaving its resources to people rich enough to protect themselves from global warming. That population will be small enough to live extravagantly but sustainably on Earth's limited resources.
What are we to do? Demands that Trump & Co. stop selling out our futures in so many ways have had little effect. Selling out our futures is exactly what they're trying to do, and they know Trump's totalitarian takeover leaves us powerless to stop them. But I think there's a way.
Our only hope is for the House to introduce another article of impeachment against Trump every time he commits another high crime or misdemeanor, which is practically every day. Eventually House Republicans will get tired of going on record all the time defending his treason, and they will eventually vote to impeach him. Republicans in the Senate will get tired of going on record defending his treason, and eventually convict him. If Republicans in Congress want to improve their chances of keeping their jobs, Trump will be impeached and convicted before the midterm elections.
Wishful thinking?
Thanks for that piece Michael. Lots to unpack here, but I’m going to let you do it. If you’ve been reading me lately, you might mistake a lot of Michael’s views with my own. Michael is a fellow Unitarian Universalist.
On the bright side…
Yesterday’s 17x17K Labor Day event was refreshing and hopeful. Thanks Kelvin for the heads up about the event and the ride!
200th Donation at the Stanford Blood Center.
Listen to this rendition of You Raise Me Up.
Best of the Best!