Fact or Fiction

What is knowledge? By definition, it is what you gain from experience and/or education. If your experience is (as one example) farming, your knowledge of soil content including chemical breakdown throughout the seasons as it pertains to the growth/development and production of specific crops will be far superior to that of, say, an electrician. This is not meant to be disrespectful, but a fact.

Likewise, if you are an academic scholar who has specialized in the  emergence, and subsequent history of, democratic forms of government - your knowledge in this area will be far superior to that of, say, a policeman. Again, this is not meant to be disrespectful, but a fact.

The word "fact" has suddenly fallen under suspicion in our society and this can, by and large, be blamed on modern technology and social media. I never thought I'd see a day where I was being told that I now live in a "post truth" society. I don't even know what the hell that means.

The advent of the information super highway has, ironically, allowed us to become a very ill-informed society. This massive technology gives us incredible access to things like the Stanford University Encyclopedia of Philosophy. You can also sign up (free of charge!) to the Vatican Library which provides users access to some of the most historic and treasured manuscripts in western civilization, as well as works of art, coins, medals, and other amazing pieces of history. You can watch incredible (and authentic) documentaries on YouTube and/or Netflix. You can gain access to academic sites such as Academia.edu which will give you the ability to read academic papers on subjects pertinent to your profession and/or interests. You can challenge your ideas, and/or reenforce them, by reading works and papers containing both supportive and contrary views.

The Internet also gives us access to "news" websites where you can read about President Obama's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood (completely false); or how Hillary Clinton used a body double on the campaign trail (again: false). You can go to a music website that will allow you to outright steal the entire recorded catalog of Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan. One also has access to numerous sites that provide shortened footnotes to every major work of literature, thus eliminating the need for high school or college kids to do any kind of in-depth critical reading for the duration of their entire academic career.

The Internet has completely reshaped our culture. Instead of accessing things like The Vatican Library we seem to be flocking towards sites that provide no knowledge whatsoever. Websites like Sparknotes have become the go-to for students when it comes to the reading of literature and/or poetry. Instead of carefully, and critically, parsing a complete work, students get a brushing over at best, and then attempt to provide a "perspective". How much can one possibly understand about Othello through the reading of a group of paragraphs, in lieu of the entire book?

Since the advent of the Internet, Americans have stopped pursuing knowledge and no longer pay for news. Instead of buying a paper - or papers - we access websites that provide information free of charge. If we're not doing this, we choose to listen to talk radio and/or TV "news" programs that provide no news at all, but rather pass on a lot of (loud) hyperbolic opinion.

How much was voting impacted by websites providing fake news? Just over a year ago, the Washington Post reported 29% of Americans falsely believe President Obama is a Muslim. The same article also reported that 54% of Trump supporters believed the same. To not acknowledge how this startling piece of mis-information impacted the election is ignorant. In addition, we now live in a country where 35% of the population do not know that the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare are the same thing. This may be alarming, but speaks to the fact that we no longer understand or embrace the responsibility of our job as citizens in the United States.

The job of democratic citizens is enormous. In addition to voting, we have to be well informed. We have to be individuals who possess not only the want to stay informed, but also the want to challenge ourselves intellectually and epistemically. Listening to someone pound an opinion into your head day after day after day does not qualify - nor does imbibing whatever comes across your Facebook feed. It is this mindset that has produced some of the most troubling incidents regarding false information.

Perhaps the biggest is what's become known as "Pizzagate". This began solely as an Internet based rumor stating that Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief, Jon Pedesta, were running a child trafficking sex ring out of the basement of a pizzeria. As ridiculous and absurd as this sounds, the theory grew wildly over time. It spread across online channels like Reddit, Instagram, and Youtube, as well as various right wing blogs. It got a big push when conservative radio host - and conspiracy theorist extraordinaire - Alex Jones stated on his radio show: "When I think about all the children Hillary Clinton has personally murdered and chopped up and raped, I have zero fear standing up against her...Yeah, you heard me right. Hillary Clinton has personally murdered children. I just can’t hold back the truth anymore."


The "Pizzgate" rumors had the pizzeria owner and employees being harassed online, as well as with threatening calls to their store phone (150 calls/day). Soon other businesses on the same street were being linked - and harassed - when further rumors insisted there were "underground tunnels" where kids were hidden and moved between businesses. It all came to a head when a North Carolina man walked into the pizzeria with an assault rifle, pistol, and knife; and proceeded to fire multiple shots. The man said he was there to "investigate" the supposed child pornography ring.

No one was hurt and the man was arrested. This however did not stop the rumor. Soon stories made the round that the North Carolina man was a government plant - the whole thing was staged by the left and Hillary. To this day, there are still individuals who believe "Pizzagate" is real. In fact, pop singer John Legend and his wife, Chrissy Teigen, got caught up in the nonsense when an online "investigative writer" claimed that a photo of the couples daughter somehow proved they too were engaged in Pizzagate. 


Is it a surprise that right now, in the midst of a global health crisis and pandemic, the current President of the United States felt he could stand on a global stage and encourage the medical and scientific communities to investigate the injection of household cleaning products, and disinfectants, as viable cures for the COVID-19 virus? How, in the wake of the what has been allowed to perpetuate amongst society as "fact" for the last (almost) decade could we be shocked by this? 

We should all be very alarmed. A democratic republic cannot - and will not - function properly without a coherent recognition of truth amongst its citizens. It is time for the massive issue of mis-information and the mass perpetuation of conspiracy theories to be addressed.