A Lack of Trust

My husband is recovering from his second bout of cancer. This time he is recovering from lung cancer wherein a section of his upper right lung was removed. He is back in the hospital for the third time since his surgery because of an infection this time. The prognosis is good and I’m thankful that we paid attention to the danger signs, sought help, and listened to the medical professionals. We didn’t engage in wishful thinking, denying the symptoms that indicated the existence of a problem. We recognized a problem and chose to follow the advice of the medical experts. It came down to trust. While medical professionals don’t know everything, they certainly know more we do when it comes to the treating the human body. We trust them to do the things they have been trained to do to our benefit. And just because their outcomes are not 100% positive does not mean that we shouldn’t place his treatment in their hands. The same is true in this country when it comes to COVID-19 and elections.

What we have in this country today is an epidemic of mistrust in credible sources in government, science, and journalism. It is frightening to realize that many people have stopped listening to knowledgeable voices in favor of following their own mythical beliefs, conspiracy theories, fabrications, and fake news. When did educated, experienced public servants become the enemy of the people? When did Democrats become the only people willing and capable of casting fraudulent votes? Recent history has shown us that Republicans are more likely to suppress the vote, cheat, and intimidate voters in the opposing party when it comes to elections. So, why is it that every Trump supporter who claims that they saw a few ballots in the trash automatically assume they were votes for Trump? Or why do they assume that all the “dead” people who voted, voted for Biden? Why do they refuse to acknowledge the fact that election officials are from both parties and that poll watchers were also from both parties? Why won’t they be reasonable and acknowledge that there aren’t nearly enough “fraudulent” votes out there to overturn the election results? Why would they insist upon overturning the will of the majority? Biden won by over 5 million votes in the popular vote. And his margin of votes in battleground states is high enough that a recount won’t change the results. Why would they want the Supreme Court to disenfranchise voters who followed the election laws in their state and wisely chose to vote by mail during a pandemic? And why did they take to the streets yesterday and the to airways on C-Spann this morning screaming that the election was stolen?

I’d say it is because many lack basic critical thinking skills, knowledge of civics, and common sense. I’d say that when we as educators let our guard down too soon after the Holocaust and stop teaching junior high and high school students how to know the difference between truth backed by factual data and emotion driven propaganda.

When we failed to teach critical thinking skills at the high school level, we paved the way for conservative talk radio hosts with a profit motive to lead many non-college educated Americans astray. And then a charismatic and bombastic television celebrity grabs the biggest microphone in the world and begins repeating the lies about a “deep state” that is out to destroy the hard-working “true Americans” to usher in socialism or communism. And those who felt disrespected because of their lack of education, their loss of blue collar jobs, and feel under threat by people of color, immigrants, non-Christians, and LGBTQ folks preferred to believe it when Trump told them that he knew more than the generals, that immigrants were the problem, and that trusted journalist and news outlets were “fake news”. Trump, Fox News, and conservative talk radio ushered in a whole new era of “alternative” facts placing the voices of the actual experts into question. It’s obvious that there is a problem when your trusted source is a proven liar, draft and tax evader, sex offender, and business fraud. How is a person with this kind of character capable of “Making America Great Again”. Look at how great he has made the people around him?

It’s all so baffling. But then I watched the Netflix dramatized documentary, “The Social Dilemma” this past week and it helped me further understand how we have become so divided and how misinformation has so infected our public discourse to the point that we can hardly even talk to each other. My posts on Facebook or Instagram are only seen by people who agree with me. I don’t see the posts on Facebook or Instagram or Tic Tok of Trump supporters. I only see what Trump supporters are thinking when I watch CNN or C-Spann. I starting following some Republican senators on Twitter to hear what they were saying. And when I listen to them, I scratch my head in dismay. But now I know why they think the way they do. The senators are afraid of Trump because his followers, like me, are trapped in the social media algorithm. Recognizing this, I’ve been asking my friends with more mixed friends to share some of my posts in hopes of expanding a different viewpoint. Many of them say they are afraid to do that for fear of backlash from their Trump supporter friends and relatives. And there seems to be a friendship and family purge going on as well which is all the more scary.

When rational human beings are operating from a different set of facts they wiIl naturally draw different conclusions about the best course of action. Because their news source and these social media platforms and search engines have algorithms built to show more of what the user seems to like or be interested in, the user enters into a bubble where her likes and thoughts and ideas become reinforced rather than challenged or even expanded. It was scary to watch “The Social Dilemma”, but it helped me understand how people get sucked into believing that vaccines are dangerous, that Democrats are socialists who want to take away freedom, or that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile ring out of a pizza parlor. It is how largely peaceful protests are characterized as violent mobs in need of military intervention. It is how Trump supporters truly believe that the election was stolen.

As an educator, I call upon other educators and parents to return to teaching our next generation how to consume information. We have to teach students what credible sources actually are and how journalism and science actually work. We have to teach the difference between truth that is backed by factual evidence and mere opinion. We have to teach that not every assertion made by a loud individual is a fact and that there are immoral people who lie for profit or personal gain. We have to teach them to dismiss the person who claims to be “in the know” but has no credible evidence to back up their claims. And most of all, we have to be willing to teach the unhappy truth that propaganda can have life and death consequences. There is a way out of the misinformation trap we have found ourselves in. And that road is a rejection of algorithms that trap us in a bubble and the education of our children.