Discerning Truth

On January 8th of this year Twitter suspended Donald Trump’s account indefinitely, removing his main social media conduit. 

For years many of us asked how platforms like Twitter and Facebook could allow purveyors of lies and hate speech to ply their trade and create the impression that their conspiracy theories, falsehoods and racist statements were caught in a veneer of truth.

The fact that Twitter took this step is welcome indeed, but is it the answer to the plague of lies masquerading as the truth on social media?

I think not.

Social media is one of the main tools many use to learn, teach, work, and communicate. It is the main social fabric of our time, and one that we all must learn to manage if we are not to let it manage us.

This places responsibility on each of us to think critically and analyze and evaluate the veracity of information that we see on-line.

How?

The pandemic has led many to study from a very young age on-line. We learn how to manage computers, use software, and express ourselves. 

But what is not taught in any formal way in our schools from kindergarten on up is how to evaluate the information that we obtain on-line, how to tell truth from lies, and how not to get trapped in the myriad conspiracy theories that abound in cyberspace.

Our education system must build in critical thinking into all facets of the on-line experience as well as in classrooms at all levels. To paraphrase American president, Ronald Reagan, students from a very young age should be taught to trust but verify – learn from others but employ the tools at hand to verify that what they are being told is the truth.

At every grade, critical thinking must be incorporated into the curricula. Art classes should include how photoshop can create false photos and video clips.

Civics classes must focus on analyzing different sources of political and social information and evaluating how honest they are. 

Literature classes should focus on developing the high school student’s understanding of what they are reading, while history classes must provide opportunities for students to identify and evaluate the content that they are learning. 

This should be taught relentlessly from the time that students enter kindergarten and have their first on-line experiences until they graduate from high school and university.

Education systems must design their curricula to ensure that students have the tools with which to be able to differentiate between truth and lies.

Many of us are aghast at current statistics that indicate that a majority of Republicans believe that the recent U.S. election was fraudulent. 

Many more are perplexed at the number of people who still believe that Covid-19 is a hoax, and that vaccines are dangerous and a plot to control humanity.

Political, social, and financial leaders will often lie when it suits their interests. Many of us will bow before authority figures giving them the benefit of the doubt either because it is convenient or because we don’t know any better. 

And since critical verification of information available on-line has never been a part of our formal education, many continue to fall prey to purveyors of falsehoods.

By incorporating critical analysis into every component of our curriculum at all levels we can prepare future generations to avoid falling into the traps that many of us are finding on-line every day.

It is up to all of us to demand that our education systems address this requirement urgently, and that it become a central component of our curricula.

Absent this, we will continue to fall victim to fake news and false conspiracy theories and forgo the good governance that is produced when citizens are taught to seek and respect the truth and reject ignorance in all of its forms.

Edition: Emilio Gómez