“In the olden days,” parents would teach their children lessons using well-known adages, bits and pieces of wisdom handed down from generation to generation “since the dawn of time.” These sayings were designed to be easy to remember. They were meant to deliver the essence of a profound truth in as few words as possible. “Look before you leap,” “measure twice, cut once,” “don’t believe everything you hear,” “he who pays the piper calls the tune” and “the love of money is the root of all evil,” to name just a few. Heaven knows it is “better to be safe than sorry.”
“Fake news,” while being a modern term, is nothing new. There is, in fact, “nothing new under the sun,” and “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” As was written long ago in a famous fable, “Things are not always what they seem.” We must be aware of the wolf in sheep’s clothing because “appearances often are deceiving.” How do we protect ourselves from the flimflam (scam) man, selling snake oil at our doorstep, bombarding us on technology? How do we stop ourselves from becoming a society distrustful and afraid of everything and everyone?
Our democracy is supposed to be a government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” but this necessitates that the people be informed in order to decide wisely which path to take. Since most Americans are good and honest people who tend to trust other people, we might easily become the victims of those who might seek to mislead us.
These days, misleading information invades our lives daily, with scams on our phones, in our email, on our social networks and in our news. Thanks to the anonymity of the internet, the source of this misinformation is typically unknown by most Americans. It can be from the neighbor next door, from somewhere in the world or even from Vladimir Putin’s technology experts.
How do we stop “fake news” without hindering “free speech,” the bedrock of any truly free society? I think the key is to teach ourselves to question what we read, see and hear and to verify its truth before we believe it.
We have all watched magic being performed. To an unquestioning mind, magic seems miraculous. But because most of us know that magic is a trick of some sort, we ask how the trick was performed instead of being amazed and suckered into believing it is miraculous. This same technique should be used to prevent us from being suckered into believing fake news and other misinformation.
Don’t be misled; be discerning instead. If something sounds too good or too bad to be true, it probably is. Always check the veracity of information using a reliable source. A reliable source is one that has nothing to gain by misleading you, no agenda or ulterior motive. As they say, “Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.” When seeking medical information, for example, one should go to a site run by medical professionals, rather than a site trying to sell medications.
When seeking information on gardening, would you go to a Master Gardener cooperative run by a local university or to a site run by the makers of garden fertilizers? Always ask yourself what the provider of the information has to gain if you use their site. If they might gain something, then choose another site.
The same is true for political organizations, which, let’s face it, are trying to gain your vote. If you choose a party affiliation when you register to vote, you will soon be inundated with party propaganda — emails, texts, phone calls, snail mail, etc. This is often how misinformation is fed to the American public in a “we versus them” format, and it may well be the cause of the divide plaguing our society today. If we Americans believe everything that the various political parties tell us, then we are being led around by rings in our noses instead of being the discerning voters we should be, so that our government can truly be “of the people, by the people and for the people.”
For me, when something begins with anger or by making fun of or accusing someone of wrongdoing, it is a “red flag,” a clear sign that it is trying to sway me to believe a certain way. I prefer it when I am given all sides of an issue because there are often more than just one or two sides to any issue. Then, I can check the information properly and decide on my own without hype, without accusations, without flag waving, without prejudice. Now, if I could just convince myself that I’m not always right!
Thank you for listening.
Ruth Ashby
Ocean View
