There are a lot of things I don’t know.
I don’t know why anyone still supports Donald Trump in 2024
I don’t know exactly how airplanes work (don’t bother trying to explain it to me. Several engineers have with no success).
I don’t know the names of the leader of 95% of the world’s countries.
I could go on, but you get my point. Its important that we all admit there are things we don’t know. Yet many people don’t.
In recent weeks, some of the most glaring examples of falsehoods that gained massive traction include: the opening ceremony of the Olympics were about the Last Supper, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is a trans woman, and that Minnesota law requires all schools to stock feminine hygiene products in boys’ bathrooms. ALL of these statements were proved false quite quickly, but there are still people arguing like their life depends on it that they are true. All because someone they trust said it was true.
The saddest part of this is that these are the same people who will tell you to “do your own research”. Research is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions”. When is the last time an anti-vaxxer or MAGA cult member, or anyone else in that camp has done this? The answer of course is NEVER.
They do the exact opposite of research. They blindly believe anything that comes from the one or two sources that they have decided is their only source of truth.
We can be better than this. We NEED to be better than this. There are several very good fact checking websites online including ones run by Rutgers, the University of Pennsylvania, and the International Fact Checking Network. But in reality, a simple Google search is usually good enough to clear up confusion pretty quickly.
So let’s all use the brains our creator gave us and think about the things we are saying and posting online. And let’s ALL admit that there are lots of things we don’t know.