Determining What’s Real in the Age of Fake News

For some people, it’s a war out there. In “Nothing on this page is real” by Washington post is a story about two people waging an online war – probably what they feel is good versus evil battle. Reading this article provides a tiny glimpse into the mindset of these people.

One is a liberal playing gotchas with his false stories in the attempt to teach the conservatives to be more wary of news on the internet. He has been at it for a while now, with his successive posts getting wilder and wilder with their falsehoods, such that now each post comes with a warning that it is all false. And still the conservatives “like” and “share” those posts, making quite a few of them viral.

“No matter how racist, how bigoted, how offensive, how obviously fake we get, people keep coming back,” Blair once wrote, on his own personal Facebook page. “Where is the edge? Is there ever a point where people realize they’re being fed garbage and decide to return to reality?” Washington Post, “Nothing on this page is real”, Eli Saslow, November 17, 2018.

He’s beginning to wonder if he’s doing any good or if he is making things worse.

Meanwhile, the conservative is waging her own war against the degenerate liberals. Despite starting the day with a mind exercise to maintain her mental acuity, she falls for the liberal’s false stories. She misses the warnings that the post is false. She has lost trust in the mainstream media and instead relies on her own instincts and judgment.

“On her computer the attack against America was urgent and unrelenting. Liberals were restricting free speech. Immigrants were storming the border and casting illegal votes. Politicians were scheming to take away everyone’s guns. ‘The second you stop paying attention, there’s another travesty underway in this country,’ Chapian once wrote, in her own Facebook post, so she had decided to always pay attention, sometimes scrolling and sharing for hours at a time.”Washington Post, “Nothing on this page is real”, Eli Saslow, November 17, 2018.

Okay, this is scary. She is trying to maintain her intellectual capabilities but she is failing in a crucial way: she is oblivious to the warnings that the post is make-believe. How does one make sure one doesn’t fall into the false stories? What will keep one mentally sharp, especially as one ages? Or is it really about mental sharpness? Is it instead something else?

I don’t really have an answer on how one would discern the truth, other than if it sounds ridiculous, then most likely it is ridiculous. At this time, here are a couple of rules I will follow:

• Don’t use Facebook as your source of news, even if they come from your friends, because there may be no filters or no tradition to check the facts or back the story with proof of evidence. On Facebook, anybody can distribute news, including bad quality.
• Use the major newspapers (such as Washington Post or New York Times) that have been around for decades and thus have a tradition of fact checking the stories. You can’t trust your instincts and you don’t have time to go around verifying facts.
• Ignore the newer internet sites such as Infowars and Breitbart. They are not steeped in the ethics of fact checking.
• For videos, again stick with the major studios such as ABC, CNN, MSNBC.
• I hate to say this, but I think most of Fox News is suspect, especially when there are uncritical reviews of Trump. By now, most people regard Trump as a liar so any news organization that uncritically backs Trump is highly suspect. Right now the exception to the Fox News is Chris Wallace and Shep Smith.
• Read multiple sources to see if the stories converge on a common set of facts. Don’t just rely on one source to get your news. Again stick with the major newspapers or studios because they have a history of fact checking. They wouldn’t have lasted for such a long time if they trafficked in falsity.

Okay, that’s all I have. I just don’t know what else to do.