Correcting Misinformation
By Best in Moderation
We in this community have the chance to post various topics and articles and history etc, and we often use this to express not only objective facts and happenings but also our opinions and beliefs. I think that is a very valuable thing to have, and to do it well it requires multiple points of view and multiple backgrounds. Thus the value of diversity in thought as well as experience and background.
What I often run up against in this kind of setup, and what we often suffer from as a society, is the idea that each viewpoint is equally valuable to the common knowledge pool. While I do think that even incorrect things have something to teach, where we often fail is in identifying what is objectively false or less likely to be true in regards to important topics. It is because of this problem that I'm posting this today.
I came across a post from a long time community member who I often have disagreements with. While I do not wish to discourage his posting, I do take issue with the claims being made on that article as they were completely false and accusatory to the people of the USA, blaming their behavior for their piss poor healthcare system rather than systemic flaws and issues native to the implementation by interest groups and insurance companies. I then went through each claim and brought to light where it was false and provided the data showing how it was objectively false.
You can see it here:
http://disq.us/p/273l34w
The problem I am left with is the fact that my comment correcting this litany of false claims will not get nearly the same attention as the post making those claims. This is a microcosm of how it works in society: someone tells a lie, other people then engage and correct the lie, but the lie gets more attention than the correction. It is the basis of our malfunction with Trump etc and it is the basis of our inability to have a common reality lately at all.
So how do we ensure that the real information, which yes, can actually be objective, is presented just as equally as the false claims? I don't really know. I'm trying this OP to draw attention to this particular case, but I'm curious what you think can work to counter these misinformation campaigns effectively.
Because if we don't figure it out soon, I get the feeling things are going to get much worse before they can get better.
What do you think?
We in this community have the chance to post various topics and articles and history etc, and we often use this to express not only objective facts and happenings but also our opinions and beliefs. I think that is a very valuable thing to have, and to do it well it requires multiple points of view and multiple backgrounds. Thus the value of diversity in thought as well as experience and background.
What I often run up against in this kind of setup, and what we often suffer from as a society, is the idea that each viewpoint is equally valuable to the common knowledge pool. While I do think that even incorrect things have something to teach, where we often fail is in identifying what is objectively false or less likely to be true in regards to important topics. It is because of this problem that I'm posting this today.
I came across a post from a long time community member who I often have disagreements with. While I do not wish to discourage his posting, I do take issue with the claims being made on that article as they were completely false and accusatory to the people of the USA, blaming their behavior for their piss poor healthcare system rather than systemic flaws and issues native to the implementation by interest groups and insurance companies. I then went through each claim and brought to light where it was false and provided the data showing how it was objectively false.
You can see it here:
http://disq.us/p/273l34w
The problem I am left with is the fact that my comment correcting this litany of false claims will not get nearly the same attention as the post making those claims. This is a microcosm of how it works in society: someone tells a lie, other people then engage and correct the lie, but the lie gets more attention than the correction. It is the basis of our malfunction with Trump etc and it is the basis of our inability to have a common reality lately at all.
So how do we ensure that the real information, which yes, can actually be objective, is presented just as equally as the false claims? I don't really know. I'm trying this OP to draw attention to this particular case, but I'm curious what you think can work to counter these misinformation campaigns effectively.
Because if we don't figure it out soon, I get the feeling things are going to get much worse before they can get better.
What do you think?
Comments
Post a Comment