What Does Your Doctor Say?

I recently shared an Axios story (click for link) — only one of every three Americans believe the published death statistics for the current pandemic. To my way of thinking, that in itself is concerning – trust is clearly in short supply. It is even more concerning to me that our distrust is fueled and magnified by our political beliefs. In short, lefties think the numbers are too low while righties think they’re inflated. 

An expanded reply to a response re: that article follows. Because I think the reply has some merit on its own, I edited it and gave it its own blog entry. As I mentioned in the original post, the article ought to give anyone pause, although not necessarily hope. 

“My takeaway from this article is that it had absolutely nothing to do with which side is right or wrong, because it’s irrelevant (to the article). My takeaway is that perception is trumping reality and what people believe is based, for two-thirds of the populace, on 1) where they sit on the political spectrum and 2) where they get their news, offering conclusive evidence that people don’t believe what they hear and/or see, rather they see/hear what they believe.

As for me, I’m trusting the advice of MY doctor (if I don’t trust him, I need a new doctor), to whom I pay a lot of money, not some “expert” on cable news or You Tube or Facebook. I wonder how many of the people sharing memes, supporting protests, posting articles or videos, have actually consulted THEIR DOCTORS?

I think that’s going to be my standard response: What does your doctor say?

My doctor says it’s too soon to know anything for sure, because this crisis is unlike anything we’ve experienced before. He says it’s too soon to stop being careful and smart; neither is it wise to stop trusting science. Yes, I talked to him directly, personally, after he responded to my email with a phone call and 15-minute conversation. Additionally, he suggested that the CDC, Dr. Fauci, and even Gov. Cuomo are worth listening to; that letting other people be the guinea pigs who test the safety of dine-in restaurants is probably a smart strategy;* and that he felt safe in agreeing that cancelling our cruise this summer was the right call, although other travel this summer might be considered, given new safety protocols.

“You can’t eliminate all risk, you can’t shut the country down for the next 18 months; you can use common sense.”

We also concurred that while common sense, like trust, is, and has been, in short supply for quite some time, far too many people who think they have it, don’t.

* Carry-out to support your favorite eateries is very low risk, however. That is what we're doing to keep our favorites alive until the time when WE feel it's safe to start dining out again. That will be OUR call (after consulting OUR doctor), no matter the decision of any politicians to open up the economy based on some arbitrary, but politically motivated, date.

Propaganda Wars

One Like Click Begets Another

I have really come to hate memes, especially political memes. This is not a new feeling, but the election cycle has helped my antipathy bubble to the surface more easily of late. They are frequently mean-spirited and almost always the enemy of critical thinking. Wherever you fall on the political spectrum matters not. We all have our own life stories that have brought us to how we perceive our world. But having a world view, wherever it may fit on the political spectrum, does not excuse us from actually thinking and examining, examining critically, the propaganda we put out there in the hope, however vain, that we will influence someone else.

You can be, and quite possibly are, both the purveyor and victim in these social media propaganda wars. Let’s say you “like” or “share” a post from some site (Fox News, Breitbart, “End the Fed,” on one side or MSNBC, Occupy Democrats and the misnamed but clearly partisan “Non-Partisan Report” on the other, just to name a few). It doesn’t mean there’s no truth in the breathless story or meme, but propaganda is just a partial truth – and that truth has its own agenda. 

Blindly clicking, sharing, reposting, without actually checking the facts or to see if there is another side, does two things. First, it ensures that anyone who is not already in the choir will start tuning you out. It may seem counterintuitive, but if you’re a parent, or teacher, you already know that constantly yelling at people, and most of this stuff is no more than yelling, results in less listening and more tuning out. There are several names that pop up on my Facebook newsfeed that I barely even bother to look at anymore because it’s the same old, same old. Even if there is value to what is being posted, I guarantee I won’t see it because I stopped listening 643 posts ago. 

The second thing it does is to establish you as a target for even more posts like the one you just shared, liked, or reposted, miring you more firmly in a quagmire of your echo chamber, and in some cases the conspiracy rabbit hole. Once there, it becomes almost impossible to climb out, to start thinking for yourself, to critically analyze information, because all you’re being fed is variations of the same meal. That’s not healthy, either literally or figuratively. It certainly discourages the very important question, “What if I’m wrong?” And that is a question which needs to be asked much more frequently, not less, in the future.