Everyone Loves Secrets, But Today They Are Killing Us by Charles Bouchard

 Article notes - Everyone Loves Secrets, But Today They are Killing Us by Charles Bouchard

https://www.chausa.org/publications/health-progress/archives/issues/winter-2022/reflection-i-ve-got-a-secret-everyone-loves-secrets-but-today-they-are-killing-us 

Everyone likes to be an insider, to get the scoop and to carry a big secret. It is human nature. Sometimes it is just a question of harmless gossip or falling for a marketer's pitch — a vague but intriguing promise of fame or fortune. When many people begin to search for and believe false information, it leads to a conspiracy theory. In a public health crisis, being drawn to that sensational nugget of information can have deadly consequences.

Snip

Lee McIntyre, the author of Post-Truth, says the book's title means that we live in an era where truth is at risk, where we're in danger of losing sight of what truth means. He defines post-truth as the "political subordination of reality" and "a tactic that's used by authoritarians and their wannabes to control the flow of information so that they can then control the populace."

Suspicion of truth has particularly dangerous consequences for science and medicine. The scientific method is our most rigorous tool for establishing truth. Yet many people reject scientific evidence of the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines. They believe the virus is an effort by Russia to plant microchips in us, that it is transmitted by 5G cell phone towers or that COVID can be cured by chloroquine or an anti-parasitic drug intended for large animals. Others believe the vaccines were rushed, that they will alter our DNA or even cause autism. Just yesterday I heard one vaccine resister say he did not want to take it because it contained formaldehyde and antifreeze.

Snip

I am happy to say that Catholics are being vaccinated at a rate higher than the national average.2 Given our commitment to the common good and solidarity, that is as it should be. But vaccinations are not enough. We also need to resist the culture of secrecy and the rejection of truth that nourishes skepticism in the first place. This is where the virtue of temperance comes in.

Snip

Uncritical appropriation of conspiracy theories is a vice. The internet has a million hiding places for secret knowledge. It is easy to wander in, find a theory that consoles us with easy answers and to then share it, which can lead others to make bad choices that endanger lives.

Snip

Pope Benedict once said that we "cannot rest content with a superficial and unquestioning exchange of skeptical opinions and experiences of life. All of us are in search of truth, and we share this profound yearning more today than ever." 

Snip

Let us be critical thinkers whose goal is truth, even when it is not as interesting or as easy to access as gossip.

For the whole article click here.

Ask Bob - Is it fake news?

Question - I read this news article and someone told me it was fake news. Do you agree?

Answer - Indeed it is. Misinformation and propaganda is widespread on the internet and people have an additional reponsibility to vet the information they find and read there.

One of the biggest problems is re-tweeting, "liking," and forwarding links that are outrageous and sensationalized so that an "echo chamber" is created of misinformation that with repeated reading starts to become true even if people were initially skeptical.

It is interesting how easily people are manipulated. Look at the millions of people who thought Donald Trump was actually going to help them and not the 1%. They bought the con hook line and sinker. Just goes to show you...............................................................................

And so it goes..................

United States of Distraction - Is slow news the antidote for "fake news?"

Chapter one

Is slow news the antidote to "fake news?"

Today we will begin studying the ideas in the United States Of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post - Truth America (and What We Can Do About It) by Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff. Get a copy and read along and comment as you are moved.

I don't agree with Donald Trump about much but his complaint about "fake news" seems to me to be legitimate. With the advent and growth of electronic, digital communication platforms and the dying of newspapers and other forms of communication which benefited from editing, it seems that conspiracy theories, misinformation, disinformation, and downright lies and manipulations no matter how suave and sophisticated seem to be the rule these days. Without a public educated in what is called "media literacy" our democracy is doomed to "alternative facts," sensationalism, manipulation, and mob rule.

Ralph Nader writes the forward for the book and he writes in the first paragraph, 

Given the inherent pragmatism of the human mind, the oppressed have often found it safer to believe rather than think, to obey rather than dissent. Today, such a path is reinforced by a plutocratic political economy that allows corporations to dominate mass media, education, and the production of knowledge and memory.

Huff, Mickey. United States of Distraction (City Lights Open Media) . City Lights Publishers. p.15

And so we begin a study of how the corporate media and the digital communication platforms do damage to our national mind and soul.

So much of our media these days are sensationalized, exaggerated, and designed to be "click bait" because it is emotionally arousing rather than informative. To counter act this practice of hyperbole and "breaking news!!!" we have created this blog devoted to what some call "slow news," meaning news that has stood to some extent the test of time. The news cycle for slow news is measured in months and years not in hours and days. As you watch or read the news, you might ask yourself, is this going to important to me one year from now, five years from now, ten years from now?

Action steps:

Name the 3 media providers that you most trust and 3 that you don't trust. Explain your choices.

Can AI help recognize click bait?

From Penn State News on 08/29/19

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Humans and machines worked together to help train an artificial intelligence — AI — model that outperformed other clickbait detectors, according to researchers at Penn State and Arizona State University. In addition, the new AI-based solution was also able to tell the difference between clickbait headlines that were generated by machines — or bots — and ones written by people, they said.

For whole article click here.

One of the big topics in media literacy is what is called "click bait" which seduces readers into clicking on links for fake news stories.

In the time of digital media where every person with an internet account can become an author, publisher, and distributor editorial vetting is a quaint practice from the past.

As we have learned from disinformation introduced into our 2016 presidential campaign, robots can be programed to flood digital media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram with increasingly false and misleading information and narratives.

How is even a critical, media literate person able to discern the authentic news story from a fake one? It is interesting how computer algorythms are beling trained to help with the task.