Conversations Only Work with Facts
With the inauguration on Friday, it would seem fitting to discuss the future of our country. Specifically, it would seem important to talk about how to talk. Immediately following the election, I heard from peers here, friends back home, and many major figures that we had to have conversations. We had become too divided. We need to learn to talk to each other again and to empathize.
That is true, but it is also true that not all opinions are equally valid. For example, Alex Jones’s theory that the Air Force has a weather weapon that has been used and is used to murder Americans is not a valid opinion. Our President-Elect’s theory that global warming is a hoax created by the Chinese is equally invalid. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development pick Ben Carson’s personal theory that the Hebrew Joseph, the son of Isaac, built the great pyramids in Egypt is so absurd that it sounds like something out of The Onion. Facts are facts.
The rise of fake news and the post-truth era dominated 2016 and won the election for our soon-to-be commander. It was outlets such as Louder with Crowder, Info Wars, and Talking Points Memo that propagated ridiculous conspiracy theories and coddled millions, protecting and shielding them inside their own bubble, immune to facts and immune to logic. Those news sites, though they have a high volume of readers, demonstrate just how respectable they are in their own titles. Yelling louder like Crowder does not make you more correct. Information is not something you can fight or war over. Facts are facts. Tomi Lahren showed just how nonsensical her arguments were during her 26 minute debacle with Trevor Noah. Facts are facts. Fake news, or media sources that streamline controversial but baseless claims are dangerous.
The biggest reason why fake news is dangerous because it empowers invalid, often violent, opinions. Throughout the Middle Ages, factually incorrect opinions enabled those in power to brutally murder minority groups such as scientists. In the 1930’s, hostile and mostly baseless opinions convinced Americans to bar any Jewish refugees, letting those victims fall prey to the Holocaust. Just last month, invalid opinions moved a man to attempt a terrorist attack on a restaurant in the nation’s capital.
If we are going to have conversations, then we must be clear. Facts are facts. Obama is not a closet gay, Muslim, socialist, hooker, drug addict. Believe it or not, a member of the Texas State Board of Education came up with that one. If you have conversations with someone who claims that, show them that they are wrong, explain why, and then continue your conversation. Do not let facts go unchecked. It is fine to tell someone he or she is wrong.
It is good to have conversations, and it is good to have differing opinions, but you cannot build any ridiculous theory based off of faulty or no evidence. The audience that fake news has created is a volatile mob for the precise reason that it cannot easily be reasoned with. We should be having conversations, but we should also be informing people as we go. That sounds condescending, but it is the only way we can prevent more Pizzagates from happening. The next time, we might not be so lucky.