This is the third entry in a series about why the Democrats lost the election. If you haven't already done so, you can read parts one and two by clicking here and here, respectively.
We heard a lot about the spread of fake news prior to the election, and how this ostensibly swayed the result, after it was over. Now, there's little doubt that fake news did spread significantly during the lead-up to the election--maybe even more than real news did. That said, it's important not to lump too many websites into this category, and ensure that it only contains websites whose operators knowingly make up stories that are completely false and then try to pass them off as true (as opposed to, say, the Onion, which is already well-known for being 100% satirical, or Infowars, which pushes conspiracy theories it believes to be true even if they aren't). Why? Because this just increases the incorrect perception that progressives can't argue with the other side on the facts, so they must instead try to undermine the other side's credibility a la 1984 by accusing them of spreading "fake news".
Another point I want to make here, possibly the most important one, is that I think a lack of critical thinking, not fake news, is the real root of the problem. People shared lots of stories that were totally made up under the assumption they were true. This is also why I think one of Facebook's solutions to fake news--the one that automatically tells users if a link has been disputed by fact-checkers--ultimately misguided. I further think that this action will ultimately just further alienate Trump supporters (i.e. people who regularly read untrustworthy conspiracy websites like Infowars and Breitbart.com) from the rest of America, partly because it commits the aforementioned fallacy of lumping these websites in with hoax websites. Ultimately, gullibility is the problem we should all try to solve by not assuming whatever we read on the Internet is true, especially when it's exactly what we want to hear.
No comments:
Post a Comment