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“There are ways to educate people to develop critical reading and identify when they are being lied to on the internet.” Are there simple ways to learn the abo

by bg24 6y ago

“There are ways to educate people to develop critical reading and identify when they are being lied to on the internet.” Are there simple ways to learn the above?

yuvalr1 6y ago
I personally believe the following principles: 1. While reading, remember every writer has an agenda, and that you read a specific point of view, and there may be others 2. Differentiate between facts and opinions while reading 3. Actively expose yourself to an opposite opinion about the subject Number 3 is the most important.
- lucb1e 6y ago
  I'm not sure that every writer has an agenda. When talking about vaccines or other things that generally benefit everyone, I certainly don't have an agenda, and I expect that genuine researchers (probably most of them, just that we don't necessarily know which) are the same. Well, unless you consider decreasing worldsuck to be an agenda. Actively exposing yourself is also not something I expect to be helpful. I dove into the 5G conspiracy theory and it's not like the statements or the people are retarded. They will bring reasonable-sounding arguments and respond to you in proper language. I needed to dig rather deep and have a really decent understanding of radio-related topics to know that there isn't a grain of truth to it. For example, digging into sources of sources of sources, you discover that the trail runs cold. Does that mean a statement was made up, or that you just can't find it? It's rather hard to prove that a certain paper does not exist (some of the court-submitted documents referenced papers published by reputable organisations and I figured "surely they don't lie to the court, this has to be somewhere?!" It's a huge time sink and I even got help from one of the believers in digging up the reference, but I never found it and they never got back to me). And even if you find the source, how can you tell if it's real if you don't have a basic understanding of the topic yourself? Exposing yourself to the other side mainly helps when you currently believe the conspiracy theory, which is exactly what you're trying to prevent in the first place. If you're susceptible to this sort of thing, I'd not be surprised if this advice gets more people sucked into the wrong things.

by bg24 6y ago

“There are ways to educate people to develop critical reading and identify when they are being lied to on the internet.” Are there simple ways to learn the above?

yuvalr1 6y ago

I personally believe the following principles: 1. While reading, remember every writer has an agenda, and that you read a specific point of view, and there may be others 2. Differentiate between facts and opinions while reading 3. Actively expose yourself to an opposite opinion about the subject Number 3 is the most important.

lucb1e 6y ago
I'm not sure that every writer has an agenda. When talking about vaccines or other things that generally benefit everyone, I certainly don't have an agenda, and I expect that genuine researchers (probably most of them, just that we don't necessarily know which) are the same. Well, unless you consider decreasing worldsuck to be an agenda. Actively exposing yourself is also not something I expect to be helpful. I dove into the 5G conspiracy theory and it's not like the statements or the people are retarded. They will bring reasonable-sounding arguments and respond to you in proper language. I needed to dig rather deep and have a really decent understanding of radio-related topics to know that there isn't a grain of truth to it. For example, digging into sources of sources of sources, you discover that the trail runs cold. Does that mean a statement was made up, or that you just can't find it? It's rather hard to prove that a certain paper does not exist (some of the court-submitted documents referenced papers published by reputable organisations and I figured "surely they don't lie to the court, this has to be somewhere?!" It's a huge time sink and I even got help from one of the believers in digging up the reference, but I never found it and they never got back to me). And even if you find the source, how can you tell if it's real if you don't have a basic understanding of the topic yourself? Exposing yourself to the other side mainly helps when you currently believe the conspiracy theory, which is exactly what you're trying to prevent in the first place. If you're susceptible to this sort of thing, I'd not be surprised if this advice gets more people sucked into the wrong things.