When we take a
drink of water, we trust that the water service people are doing their job so
we won’t get sick. When we push the button on an elevator, we trust that it has
been well maintained so we won’t go crashing to the ground. When we call 911,
we trust that the dispatchers and emergency responders will do their job and
help is on the way. Some of these things we don’t even think about, we just
unconsciously trust. We don’t ask if the air traffic controller is a Republican
or a Democrat, a Buddhist or a Muslem, white or black. We don’t think about it.
We just trust them to do their job. Without trust, there is no society, there
is no civilization. We would all be huddled in our caves guarding what we have
with clubs.
But trust seems
to be in some danger. For the past few years, the tides have been not so gently
eroding away the bank of trust.
Trust used to
be harder to break. Before the internet, before social media, if you wanted to
break down trust in an institution or a person, you had to rely on radio and
television, or before that, pamphlets and public speeches. It was difficult,
but by no means impossible. Hitler did it. Various schisms in various religions
relied on information or disinformation campaigns that sometimes succeeded.
Many wars were started by getting people to believe that the “others” could not
be trusted.
But nowadays
the breaking of trust is as easy as posting your next tweet. You can invent any
wild conspiracy theory you want. For example, you could state that people who
wear brown shoes . . . no, I am not going to invent a crazy image, because
someone would believe it and start posting it and I don’t want the blood of
brown-shoed people on my hands.
There is
misinformation and there is disinformation. If someone is spreading
misinformation, they are simply spreading information that is wrong, that they
are mistaken about. Disinformation is knowingly spreading false information. It
is propaganda. Disinformation is evil.
Trust works
both ways. It is the responsibility of the person posting it who knows that it
is disinformation and knows that it will cause harm, or perhaps they aren’t
sure but they post it anyway. Posting spurious information is like giving aid
to a terrorist. But it is also the responsibility of the viewer, or the
listener. If you choose to believe crazy stuff you see online or on a podcast
you are part of the problem. If you choose to share it, you are a bigger part
of the problem.
Radio
commentator Paul Harvey used to say “self-government cannot exist without
self-discipline.” On this we agree.
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