First, here is a list of websites to wary of (click here). This will make sense as you read the rest of the article, but it’s really, really important, so I put it in first. And the real article begins in 3…2…1…
NOW!
There are people who are “professionally outraged” journalists (a term mostly applied to liberals but can be equally applied to conservatives.) Their job is to be angry- angry as much as possible, for as long as possible, and about as many things as possible. As long as that anger suits a pre-existing narrative: a feminist narrative, a pro-gun narrative, a liberal narrative, a conservative narrative, an anti-Islamic narrative or a pro-choice narrative.
The narrative is important, because the “professionally outraged” are not persuasive; their job is not to inform, it is to incite action. Not real action, mind you, but clicking, liking, and sharing.
Let’s say you are a hunter, pro-second amendment, rural republican. You are on Facebook, and you see a headline pop up on your screen.
“OBAMA PLANS TO REPEAL 2ND AMENDMENT BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE
Here’s how he can do it!”
You will most likely click on that article. If you're smart, you’ll find out the headline is a bald-faced lie. If not, you may even hit the share button and start the process over again.
Same with a democrat, pro-refugee, college student. If they see an article titled,
“(insert thing that didn’t happen) happened at a Trump rally. YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT”
They will click, like, and share.
By doing this, you are paying for the “professionally outraged's” paycheck. You click the article, you view their website, you view the ads on the website, and they get ad money. The more “outraged” they are, the crazier the headlines. The crazier the headlines, the more clicks. The more clicks, the more views. The more views, more ad money. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering, and suffering leads to the dark side.
These people who troll, click bate, and actively lie to their readership are making a very simple and well-calculated gamble. At the core of their business model is that you, dear reader, do not want to be informed, nor challenged in your beliefs. Rather, you want to feel validated, reminded that you are correct, and that everyone else is stupid. Above all their gamble depends on the college student and hunter (two different demographics) don’t talk about politics with each other, because if they did, their click bait would just sound stupid.
The millennial’s headline will not show up in the hunter’s newsfeed. Nor vice versa. That would trigger dialogue, and it would ruin the business model.
During this previous election, false news stories circulated social media and inappropriately affected the public opinion. These “news stories” do not come from established news organizations. They come from specially designed websites that live, breath, and thrive on social media.
Because of this, Facebook becomes the last place on earth to find truth. Only chambers full of a very lucrative readership becoming more and more convinced of their own righteousness and the other side's stupidity.
Division, hatred, and a crap-ton of human parrots screeching things that are untrue. If this sounds like a world you don’t want to be a part of, please be advised:
- Consult the list HERE and at the top of the screen.
- For the love of dialogue don’t unfriend people based on religion, politics, and voting record. Isolating yourself doesn’t help you and it makes the world worse off for the rest of us.
- And finally maybe don't get your news from Facebook? Maybe try, oh, I don't know, the News? It's not hard. Here I'll link it a few more times. News News News.
Misinformation is the most dangerous thing to exist in a democracy, and active participation on the part of the listener is the only way to reinforce truth.
