Tuesday, September 15, 2015

The war for truth

I am becoming famous, or perhaps infamous, for using Snopes.com and other factual sources to determine whether content shared on Social Media is factual or spurious.
With quotes, especially, I tend to hunt up citations that meet my standards.
Quotes that do turn out to be accurate never see more from me than a like or a here, here. Quotes that do not turn out to be accurate, on the other hand, often get a link in the comments.
I know that this seems trollish. Especially when, like in a very recent case, it was a harmless sentiment that was actually honorable in its foundational ideas.
Why should I presume to correct a misquote shared by a friend, when there is no apparent harm done?
Because we are in a silent war with an ideology that uses all kinds of misquotes and misinformation to sway a whole lot of people into believing things that are patently not true.
And while I support everyone's right to follow their own way, it goes hard with me when someone that I respect falls into that same whirlpool.
If we are going to change this world, we have to do it by being as verifiable as possible. Those who don't want to see the truth, never will see it. But we all have a responsibility to make sure that what we read, share and put out there for the rest of the world to read is factual and sourced.
I know of no one who wants to be willingly mislead. If we are, that is the worst state of affairs.
So, I become a well meaning troll. I try to make sure that, regardless of whether the sentiment is noble, the source is accurate, too.
I mean no offense. I only mean to keep us all on the footing of truth and honor.
That said, please cite your sources, double check before you share. In a moment of weakness we could be responsible for leading someone down a path to dangerous ideas.

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