I feel very old every time I tell people I didn’t have a
work email address when I started my first job.
My first job was being a daily newspaper reporter for The
Chronicle in Willimantic, Connecticut. The paper had a website, but our
articles were not posted the same day it ran in print. In fact, there was a lag
of about a week before they went online.
But the anecdote that gets my younger co-workers laughing is
when a local First Selectman emailed me a quote for a story. It led to this
conversation with my then-editor.
“I
got a quote from the First Selectman.”
“He
called you?”
“No,
he emailed me.”
“How
do you know it’s him?”
I didn’t know how to answer. Of course, it’s him. It was his
official town email address. My editor wasn’t having it. We
couldn’t accept quotes via email unless we have verbal confirmation that the
email was sent by the person providing the quotes.
At the time, it made me furious. My job was easier via
email! In retrospect, my editor may have had a point.
The Internet is Not a
Source
I started college in 1999 and one of the biggest perks was a
cable modem. Instead of dial up, the entire Internet was there to be devoured
in seconds. Napster was taking off, so I had access to more music than ever. I loved pro wrestling, and I
discovered how many wrestling fans were out there through message boards. The
world was changing.
Despite it all, I never trusted what I read online. How
could I? Literally anyone could publish on the Internet. Hell, my friends and I
were posting our own blogs. If we could put stuff out there, we knew anyone
can.
Our professors weren’t feeling the Internet either. If you
cited a source from a webpage, your professor would not accept it. It needed to
be from an actual book.
It seems so silly to think about now but, duh, you can’t
believe everything you read on the Internet. Thinking about this has been
driving me crazy because it seems like all people do now is believe nonsense on
the Internet.
Debunking Lies is
Impossible Now
The most frustrating aspect of the past three years and the
rise of the far right, Trump and racism, is how lies become accepted truths. We
all agree that big lies, like the Comet Pizza nonsense, are beyond the pale and
only lunatics believe that stuff.
It’s the little lies that are the problem. It’s our
President saying the border is a national emergency, when it is obviously and
demonstrably not. It’s his supporters believing it’s a national emergency, when
it is obviously and demonstrably not.
I’ve seen this first hand too many times to count on
Twitter, when a right-wing nut will tell me something that is incredibly
untrue, usually something Trump has said. To back it up, they’ll send me a link
a dubious site like Daily Caller or Breitbart to support them. When I provide a
link to a reputable source, their response is “fake news” and nothing is ever
accomplished.
Part of me is impressed Russia’s misinformation campaign
worked so well. More of me is worried about today’s education system.
Why are Americans so stupid in 2019? Why do we believe everything on the Internet?
Why are adults in this country so resistant to learning facts and expanding
their horizons?
As much as I and others want to scream from the rooftops
that we can’t believe lies, it doesn’t matter because it will only force these
people to retreat further into believe these lies.
In reality, this is a problem of education in this country.
Whatever we’ve been doing is not working. Our country is not going to survive
another generation of stupidity.
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