In recent weeks some of my readers have asked me to give some simple approaches which can help them to navigate the cacophonous noises which often masquerade as facts, particularly on social media. Many people wrestle with this struggle. It’s real.

A fact is a thing that is known or proved to be true. It is a fact that the sum of 2+2 is 4; light from a stationary source travels at 300,000 km/sec (186,000 miles/sec); E = mc2 is still the world’s most famous equation, it means energy equals mass times the speed of light squared; Kingston is the capital of Jamaica; Jamaica is divided into 14 parishes; Andrew Michael Holness is the ninth prime minister of Jamaica, and I could go on.

Facts are the passports to logical thinking. And facts are the visas to reasoned decision-making. Contrary to what some people trumpet, facts still reign. I rather doubt King Facts will abdicate the throne and/or be dethroned in the near future.

Post-truthism?

“Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence,” John Quincy Adams, one of the founding fathers of America, famously said.

The abhorrent process of beating, bending, and even attempting to suffocate facts is what some today euphemistically term as post-truthism. Oxford Dictionaries’ International Word of the Year for 2016 was post-truth, defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”. Use of the word in English language text spiked 2,000 per cent in 2016 compared to the previous year. Oxford said in its news release that the spike was driven “by the rise of social media as a news source, and a growing distrust of facts offered up by the establishment”.

With specific reference to the political arena, post-truthism also goes by the aliases, post-factual, or post reality politics.

Some say the laughable terms “alternative facts”, used by Kellyanne Conway, former senior adviser to US President Donald J Trump, and “fake news”, which Trump weaponised while in office are cousins of post-truthism. I see them as identical twins.

I see post-truthism as a scourge, plague, a pandemic.

What is popularly known today as post-truthism, what I call lying, is not new. Lies have been part of human existence since time immemorial, and I suspect will be so for as long the Earth continues to rotate on its axis.

Today, those who concoct lies, conspiracies, and various falsehoods have at their disposal, though, modern communication technologies which enable them to achieve their objectives at near lightning speed. When this reality is added to the seemingly innate proclivity of human beings for the salacious, sensational, and lurid, it is not an exaggeration to conclude that merchants of falsehoods have never had it so good.

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” Many literary scholars attribute this quote to renowned American writer Mark Twain. Some attribute the quote to Jonathan Swift, or even Winston Churchill. Regardless of origin, the validity of this statement cannot be successfully contradicted today. Social media, in particular, forcefully brings home the frontal reality of this declaration made decades ago.

Recently, I read an article which, among other things, made the point that what was called ‘yellow journalism’ is “child’s play” compared to the ruinous and nefarious misuse of social media.

For those of younger vintage, yellow journalism was a style of newspaper reporting that emphasised sensationalism over facts. During its heyday in the late 19th century it was one of many factors that helped push the United States and Spain into war in Cuba and the Philippines, leading to the acquisition of overseas territory by the United States.” (https://www.history.state.gov)

Yellow journalism did literally have deadly consequences. Today, lies spread predominately on social media have deadly consequences too.

Recently, Prime Minister Andrew Holness called out “political entrepreneurs”. Said Holness: “They try to mislead the public; they monetise misinformation, they monetise discontent.” Believe it, there are individuals in Jamaica whose job is the concoction of lies and the spreading of them via various social media platforms. If you believe they are working for free, well, God bless you richly.

Combating lies

Nearly every day we are witnesses to an individual or organisation responding to false accusations. Some make the awful error of taking too long to douse lies with the antidote of truth. Delay invariably results in irreparable and costly damage to good reputations built up over sometimes decades.

A red flag or a warning sign is a publication/post that just does not sound right and/or has not passed the new car smell test. Many of us often get a gut feeling about these. I say many because I believe there are some peoples among us who are so intellectually corrupt that their gut reaction is no longer in good working order. Consequently, they like, retweet, republish as if they are bots. Bots cannot be sued, but humans can. For this and related reasons those who like and retweet without the application of required intellectual discernment and social conscience need to examine our libel laws and the Cybercrimes Act (2015).

I have seen where some continue to say that they only have two rubbed-out bed slippers, no source of decipherable income, no place of abode, and, therefore, it makes no sense to try and hold them accountable – this after they have ruined the good names of people with the publications of falsehoods on especially social media platforms. They best think again.

Those who slander and claim that they are only making/having a little fun need to understand the local adage, “What is joke to you is death to me.” People are entitled to their good name. Concocting and publishing lies is not a sport.

In recent times the deadly seriousness of lies literally came to the fore during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Hundreds needlessly died because they succumbed to the lies of con-artists, religious fanatics, conspiracy theorists, science deniers, and the bosom buddies of the virus. They noised it far and near that, among other things, COVID-19 vaccines contained microchips and substances derived from dead people.

Post the pandemic, COVID-19 cheerleaders and conspiracy theorists are still trumpeting that the disease was not real and was part and parcel of an international plot by clandestine organisations to usher what they called the “new world order”.

I have read scholarly papers which have posited that globally the mental health, anxiety levels, and various physical health conditions of millions were significantly worsened because of the negative actions of conspiracy theorists. Why would any sane person accept the advice of someone who got their medical credentials on social media? I think they are addicted to titillating themselves with lies.

Truth is the best antidote to lies. I do not believe a lie is best countered by a bigger lie. The truth will always win if we release it in a timely manner.

We can also effectively stave off and protect ourselves against traffickers of lies by understanding that some have deodorised and sanitised the sordid actions of these bad actors with various euphemisms and highfalutin dodge words. We need to be cognizant of this deception. I maintain that misinformation and disinformation ought to be categorised as lies.

Some scholars have argued that lies have an addictive quality about them. They say lies have a similar effect on the brain as cocaine and/or similar drugs. Other scholars argue that liars manipulate our innate feelings of belonging, what they refer to as the human social group effect. Those who trade in lies know this and more.

Merchants of lies also know that people, in general, are superstitious. Superstitions are a major part of our cultural make-up, and there are some among us who are calculatingly abusing our varied and historical disposition to certain superstitious beliefs. This is sickening!

Fake news purveyors ensure that they put only a smidgen of verifiable evidence in their concoctions. That is the bait. It is a big red flag, but many of us do not recognise it. Those whose livelihood is predicated on the trade in falsehoods thrive on ignorance. I maintain that ignorance is a scourge. Those who romanticise it and use it as a snare often prey upon those who suffer with an oversupply of cognitive bias.

Cognitive bias is where people seek only information that confirms their preconceived opinions. Consequently, even when they are shown neutral data of a political issue, for example, they view the data as biased and remain hostile. I believe we should go to where objective evidence leads.

In recent weeks, especially, some have been expending substantial resources to try and nullify the objective evidence that the Jamaican economy is, as we say on the streets, “in a good place”. Believe it, some are on social media spreading blatant falsehoods that recent good coverage in internationally reputable publications like The Miami Herald, The Financial Times; the recent splendid review of the management of Jamaica’s national purse by the International Monetary Fund, (IMF); and the praises heaped on Jamaica by the newly installed president of the World Bank Ajay Banga for Jamaica’s almost miraculous economic recovery, and prospects for growth and development, are inconsequential to John Public.

If Jamaica had, however, made banner headlines in the world’s major newspapers for economic mismanagement and numerous other ills, as had been the norm for many years, those same people would doubtless pronounce it highly consequential to John Public. I believe that we should go where objective evidence leads. When we allow ourselves to be blinded by cognitive basis thinking is mauled, reasoning is inverted, and ignorance strives and thrives.

I believe ignorance eats away at the mental health of people like an aggressive tumour. Those who sanitise and deodorise ignorance are involved in an elaborate scheme of betrayal. Sadly this betrayal is often perpetrated by those who have had the benefit of education at significant public expense.

No matter who sings it, no matter who says it, no matter which lettered person embraces it, I maintain that ignorance is never bliss. Those who glamorise and monetise “dunce-ness” are not doing this society any good. Ignorance brokers anywhere are like Erewhonians. These are people opposed to machines, automation or technology.

“Never argue with stupid [I prefer the word ignorant] people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience,” said Mark Twain.

Avoid ignorant people in general, and especially on social media. Avoid them like the plague. They are bad for good mental health.

If we choose, we can establish workable defences against purveyors of lies:

1) Pay attention to where your news is coming from. Put greater trust in verified sources.

2) If you get information from social media, check the original source.

3) Within news articles, examine the sources and how they are included. Read beyond the headline.

4) When you see your friends and family share lies, correct them.

“It’s the lie that gets you.” This is one of the many memorable gems from Oliver Stone’s seminal film Nixon, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, one of the finest actors ever to grace the big screen.

A lie is not a winning political strategy in today’s information-rich world in which anyone with Internet access can fact-check at the click of the mouse.

“The truth will out,” said William Shakespeare. This is undeniable. I believe that, in especially the political arena, some will sooner than latter discover that their great investment in falsehoods are a mighty millstone around their own necks.

The majority of Jamaicans will not be fooled by false promises, lies and Anancy-isms. Today is not 40 or 50 years ago when only a privileged set of Jamaicans controlled the levers of information.

Garfield Higgins is an educator, journalist, and a senior advisor to the minister of education and youth. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.