I just read a great article sharing facts and faux about the great 2020 pandemic. The text is an attempt by its editors to bring the truth to the readers but not everyone have the same basic internal tools to discern between fact and fiction.
The medium has indeed become the message but there is so much noise in the medium that the message gets lost. In other words, information like the one shared in the article doesn’t reach the people who need it most because there is so much disinformation through digital media that the message itself looses its sense.
Is it a matter of information and facts or humans trusting each other? What other ways can we use to connect people with facts?
We have been comparing this time with war times. During war our ancestors trusted each other. Even the enemy. They knew who their enemies were. We don’t. Trust has been lost. It’s not even about truth anymore.
Yes, we need access to the facts. We need to present the facts (truth is individual, we each have our own) but it’s clear that having access to facts does not suffice since we don’t know who to trust. Until we look with much lesser bias eyes and accept that we have a much deeper issue we may not fix it, and worst, we may be just potentializing it. Politicians (we put them in power), scientists (science can be a very political field also so we need to be careful here), artists, all humans… none of us know it all. That is one more reason why we need to look deeper on how our society is embracing trust and the good old ethics.
This pandemic is showing the worst of our social, political and scientific issues. It can be a great opportunity to adjust the course of our path or to segregate us even more.
Again, articles sharing the facts are needed and the content is not in question but have you read faux articles? The rhetorics are presented as facts. How can one distinguish? How can one trust?
We all have family and friends who subscribe to the faux “side”. And we are all losers in a time where the winners are big corporations (also found in science, arts, education…). Through their broken political systems, US and Brazil are potentializing the lost of trust. Just sharing the facts is not helping amend the truth gap. For every fact we are finding, a counter-fact surfaces. It’s crazy but it is what is happening. What can we do to not perpetuate this behavior?
What other tools can we use to communicate the absurdity of the moment we are in? It’s mindblowing that people with guns are threatening nurses and doctors when they are the ones saving our lives but the media reporting it over and over again with different spins makes it acceptable for viewing, even if it is to share the disgust with it.
We have seen this blame game in the media before. A few years ago the target were law enforcement, not the system of laws that empower them and segregate us. During McCarthyism artists and educators fighting for social justice and equality were targeted as traitors. But what can we expect from a society that repels expressions of love yet openly embraces violence?
How to break this cycle of distrust?
No media? Local actions?
Do we have to suffer more pain from loosing loved ones, our incomes and homes to start acknowledging that we only have each other to trust on?