The Weeds In The Garden
Many call it the Misinformation War. I call it a defined truth and it is a very dangerous place to be in the modern age.
Propaganda has always been with us in the history of the world. That part hasn’t changed. What has changed is the medium, or the vehicle, in which it operates. Propaganda has always networked out into whatever the medium it that can fan out and capture and manipulate the majority of the population. Centuries ago it was the written word – pamphlets and newspapers – to get the message across. The 20th Century saw more electronic mediums such as radio and television, but even with their own seemingly instantaneous communication it is nothing compared to the Internet. I think it has a lot to do with the nature of inter-conversational communication. That is a television, or a radio, is really a one-way format. A message goes out, it captures as many people as possible, and the rest has to rely on the age-old mechanics of word of mouth. It is on that final leg any message continues its life or withers and dies on the vine. The Internet, specifically social media, has become the vitamins for spawning the grown of propaganda and conspiracy theories. They are weeds in the garden. A growth spurt that threatens to overrun everything else. After a time they’ve become so prevalent that they have intertwined themselves with the flowers themselves. Which is exactly where we find ourselves today.
These propaganda, or conspiracy weeds have overrun everything to such an extent that they’ve been able to discredit reliable information sources, and supplant them with their own defined truth. You have to stop and think for a moment regarding any given subject. Who is best to give a more accurate description of climate change, economics, geopolitics, domestic politics, or healthcare and pandemics? An individual who has dedicated their lives to each of those disciplines, probably has earned PhDs, MDs, written books and articles on the source material? Or is the better source a communications major, a talk-show host, who might have gotten their start spinning 33 1/3 records at a local radio station? I’m not disparaging the industry, nor am I saying they are the source of disinformation, but what I am saying is they sometimes give life to things that would otherwise wither and fall from the vine. The real catalyst, however, remains the Internet and social media. Misinformation in the palm of everyone’s hand – and that with reinforcement occasionally from some mainstream medium has created what we have. It’s okay to question everything – it’s actually the responsible thing to do. Question the doctors, the PHDs, the scientists, but do it in the manner that it is a peer review – checking the research. For someone on social media who has no background in the source matter trying to debunk and expert – that is a problem, and they are succeeding. The current mechanism in place has done a Master Class on how to discredit the credible. I really don’t know where we go from here.
It’s possible that weed spray can address the issue, but that is easier send then done. It would take time to apply – that is, it would take time to combat social media conspiracy theories by exposing them for what they are. The funny thing about that is it does in turn give the misinformation and conspiracy the exposure it wants. We find ourselves in a situation that truth isn’t as important as innuendo. Fox News had to settle with Dominion for just that type of situation, and perhaps that’s exactly the kind of weed spray we need more of. Don’t expose the conspiracy theory, the misinformation, the innuendo, expose the consequences of what it entails. Call it public shaming. Hopefully at that point as more of these exposed it will turn the tide back to discrediting the discreditable, provide context to the researched information, and begin to pull out the weeds in the garden.
Comments, as always, are welcome below.