Fake news is when a source completely makes up a news story and portrays it as completely true. The latter bit of that definition really separates fake news from The Onion and other satirical sites because, they portray them as fictitious circumstances, just exaggerated to the point of humor. Fake news is indeed, sometimes exaggerated, but as we all know reality can be stranger than fiction sometimes. Is it a realistic possibility that a woman can disrespectfully stand on the American flag and wave a Hillary for President flag? That is in the realm of possibility. However, with a little more research, turns out she was just flying the Pan-African flag, and somebody just photoshopped her. Exaggerated claims and fabricated events are nothing new to journalism, especially on the Internet. But since the 2016 election has ended, and multiple libelous stories were tacked onto both mainstream candidates, people have been calling for some sort of purge against the phony storytelling, especially to those that attacked their candidate. For the Hillary supporters, InfoWars and Breitbart seem to be the ones in their immediate crosshairs, with them exaggerating Trump’s victory or Hillary’s flaws. For Trump supporters, CNN and various other left-leaning news sources attract their rage and frenzy. It’s amazing how the left went from criticizing Trump for threatening to “open up libel laws” to attack news that wrote inaccurately about him, to proposing to do the exact same thing when Clinton lost. There has been an abundance of vocalized support for the government taking a stand against these fake news stories, and multiple social media sites have promised to participate in the eradication of them. What we’ve seen so far is that these actions lead to bias and censorship, the limitation of freethought, and the continuing grasp around the right of freedom of speech’s neck. As usual, the solution to such a problem lies within ourselves. Let’s first ask ourselves what the purpose of fake news is, and why our fragile minds are quickly seduced and fall victim to believing it. Fake news is used, commonly, to portray the opposition negatively. Let’s go back to the woman standing on the flag. Do you think that was made by a person with a #ImWithHer bumper sticker? Now imagine you’re a Trump supporter, and you see this picture. You say, “I’m glad I chose the right side. Better share this.” It’s a form of self-validation. It makes you feel good about your choice, shooting dopamine (basically the happy hormone) into your brain. Now let’s change perspectives. You’re an on-the-fence voter, and you see this appear on your timeline or in your feed. You respond with, “This must mean Hillary’s values are un-American. I do not wish to associate with that person politically, therefore I will dissociate myself from Hillary Clinton.” You’ve been seduced by your patriotism and your fear of guilt by association. What can we do to fight these natural reactions, to fight self-validation and social fear? First, check your source. I follow the rule of “If I Wouldn’t Cite the Source in an Essay, I Don’t Believe It.” Would I cite an article from the New York Times? I probably would. Would I cite a Facebook post? Probably not. The waters become murky once you see a headline from a respectable source, like CNN or some other news organization. Find the claim that the article is trying to make, and look it up. Read other sources about it. What’s CNN’s perspective on the issue? What’s Fox News saying about it? CBS? Is there video evidence? If we were teenagers participating in drama, and I told you “Heather totally likes George and not you,” would you take me seriously? How would I know? What’s my justification? Do I have screenshots? Apply the same process you would do to petty drama, to the news. Second, if it's a picture, look at it. Most of the time, you will be able to tell if it's fake. Back to the lady, please. Look at her flag. See how flat it is? See how it looks like somebody took a low quality Hillary sign and just imposed it? Very clear sign of phoniness. Other obvious clues would be missing or extra limbs if a person was photoshopped, curved backgrounds (when you trying to make your body look more curvy), different lighting on various aspects of the picture, and different quality of aspects. What if you can't tell? Look at this photo. Someone tried to make that message match the shirts wrinkles, but alas, it doesn’t. The arrow would look completely off if it was dewrinkled. The words look crooked and all over the place. For those that can’t see these, however, Google has a handy feature that let’s you search the web for similar pictures. Sometimes you can drag the picture into a new window and it’ll search it automatically, sometimes you can right click (or alt-click it) and select the option, “Search Google for image,” or you can simply describe the picture in the search bar. To initially find this photo I typed in “hillary clinton i’m with stupid.” You’ll find articles discussing its fakeness, websites claiming that it is real, and even the original photo.
Additionally, if the headline seems clickbaity, trying to lure you in, odds are it'll be fake or disappointing. This is a staple of yellow journalism. Sure, click on it if you want to, but make sure to check more sources and look our for bias. The website snopes.com is usually on the ball with debunking fake news, but some have claimed that it has a leftist bias, so be sure to explore even more than just that one site. Soon you'll be a master, laughing at all the sad claims that everybody on the political spectrum fabricates to make their opposition look bad. Be a freethinker, and don't make the government do all the work that you can easily do yourself.
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Christopher CaldwellJust some thoughts on current events and such. Archives
January 2017
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