Showing posts with label Four-Way Test. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Four-Way Test. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

№ 472. Cynicism is Sanity 2

Virus misinformation has human costs. It's very real. Lives are at stake.

"In one case we verified, a 5-year-old boy went blind after his parents plied him with illegal booze in an attempt to fight the disease."

How do we navigate across the lies, falsehoods and other misuses of information? Cynicism.

Here's the ABC of cynicism.

A - Ask for proof.
B - Be doubtful.
C- Confirm the information from reliable, independent sources.

Critical Thinking versus Fake News

Monday, April 27, 2020

№ 461. "Cynicism is Sanity"*

The news greets me in the morning with this:

"As the coronavirus has spread around the world, so has misinformation about the disease. Technology giants have touted the steps they are taking to combat coronavirus misinformation, but these efforts have failed to help the Benassis. The family's suffering highlights the potential for blatant falsehoods to be rewarded and amplified by social media platforms. It also serves as a powerful reminder that misinformation online, however wild or obviously untrue it may seem, can have real and lasting consequences offline."

The pandemic has surely become an open door of opportunities. Regimes, business interests, churches, pundits and many groups of various persuasions have begun to wager on these opportunities. The discourse on television and particularly on cyberspace, no doubt, has become a Pandora's asylum for both the tamed and the malevolent, and even for the fence-sitters in between.

Meme Crunch