Spinning our wheels

We are doing nothing.  A couple of weeks ago, I made a post about how important it was to get our news from actual journalists.  Yet, my own informal survey on Facebook has shown that I’m pissing into the wind.  People I love and care about continue to post memes, blog entries and make statements that are baseless and just meant to fuel a fire in the name of social justice, in the name of the environment, in the name of democracy.

In the name of bullshit.

Look, I’m going to ask you to do something for me.  In addition to reading actual news from sources with journalistic integrity (no, Slate and Huffington Post don’t count), I’m also going to ask you to read the stories that you so quickly hit the “share” button on.  Also, and I know it’s terribly hard to do, but there’s this site called Google where you can plug in a phrase or term and see if a reputable news source has similarly reported the findings that you’re posting from another.hoax.org.com.eu.  One step further: I love me some Snopes.com.  Let’s say you don’t want to do the work, they’ll do it for you!  It’s amazing!  And, they will site actual sources and either confirm or refute stupid internet claims.

Why does this bother me?  Because, we’re in a bubble; you, me, our “friends” and we’re smarter/better than this.  Largely, according to the journal Science, we tend to limit opposing views posted by FB peeps, either by muting or even unfriending them.  This past election cycle was so polarized that I’m guessing many “unfriended” users in the past 18 months for having a competing world view.  So, that leave us posting our views to people who already share them.  Look, I believe what you do…but I also want the information you’re sharing to be based in fact…in science so that, if and when I repeat it, the information is defensible…and not just meme-worthy, click-bait or worse, fake news.

This is exactly what we accused President-Elect Trump of doing. 

Facebook is a great soapbox, however, the loudest and most emotional posts are not always living in a world of reality.  I said it before, and I’ll say it again, arm yourselves.  Make intelligent contributions to us, your audience, who already agrees with you.  Because when you post based on science and fact, you’re also arming us to carry the torch and shed light on the proverbial sea of over-hyped garbage out there. 

Now, it’s the holidays.  They’re here, global warming, drought and all.  Your posts aren’t doing anything to conserve energy or water or promote social justice to indigenous persons.  It’s all garbage.  Put your money and time where your mouth is.  Forget “Giving Tuesday.”  Give all season long!  Support the Red Cross.  Support social non-profits like the AIDSResource Foundation for Children in Newark.  Support the environment.  Support the ACLU and Planned Parenthood and any other organization who is putting boots on the ground to get something actually accomplished.  And, please, stop posting unsubstantiated baseless crap on Facebook, because it does nothing.