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.
We know it is likely coming, but when and where will it happen? The arrest of a Wisconsin jurist today is a wakeup call that that it is not a matter of whether this Administration cracks down on freedom with violence against the American people, it’s a matter of when.
I am preparing myself, at least in part, by watching resistance stories from World War ll. One in particular that gets to what an American resistance against a tyrannical government might conceptually look like is the Netflix film Number 24. Number 24 is the story of a young Norwegian resistance fighter. It is realistic and clear in it’s messaging about tyranny and what it can look like if it is not countered through democratic processes.
If that sounds a little melancholy and overly dramatic , so be it. It is what it is.
If we gird our loins and take the second punch from Donald and the Magettes as well as we took the first punch, then we here in the United States have a fighting chance of fighting off the MAGA penal colony and restoring America by becoming American again.
The Tiananmen Square protests/massacre occurred in 1995. I don’t know that an event like this will actually happen here in the U.S.A. The fact that it happened in China is one thing. Chinese people have been repressed for several decades. They were expressing a sentiment that they weren’t about to get. Democracy and the freedom that comes with it.
Here in the United States, the possibility of American soldiers killing Americans seems like a long shot even to me who tends to flirt with the Dark Side despite being an eternal optimist at heart. I pray that our American boys and girls under the direction of American men and women would not follow an immoral command from a deranged leader.
As protests get larger and more frequent, I worry that the narcissistic President Donald will become progressively more unhinged and do the unthinkable. I hope not, but if it does happen I hope that I am there. In the heart of the resistence.
Ok, that’s enough with the bravado.
In the meantime, I make small donations, attend marches and protests, work on immigrant rights and climate change issues through my church, write this little blog, keep my body as healthy as a 69 year old body can be and sing…a lot. These are things that I can do and find joy in doing. It’s what I can do. And it’s what I will continue to do
Give yourself a break from the news and take a few deep breaths several times during the day. It really helps. So does listening to Paul Simon’s 1975 rendition of his song, American Tune.
"Power rests in People not in the People in Power."
Raphael Warnock
U.S. Senator
Love Wins.
I couldn’t resist adding Bridge Over Troubled Water. So here is the story behind the song and the song itself.