You Can’t Handle the Truth! – W5 (revision)

Formerly Titled: The Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

I’ve noticed over the past few years that the trust that we put in our mass media and scientific community has greatly depreciated. Conspiracy theories are rampant in this day and age. I’ve noticed that people want to believe that nothing is a coincidence and everything is connected by this group of lies. I’d argue that it solidifies to them that there are simple answers with obvious explanations. Putting things to the lens of a skeptic, in a way, gives them control back.

It’s easy (in a way) to believe that the moon landing was a conspiracy put on by “Big Globe.” The reason that people flock to beliefs like this one is from convenience. To believe in something impossible is to reject the truths of society. Once people have lost trust in something, it’s hard to get that back.

That feeds into a new concept I’ve learned, “Trust Compression.” The ultimate goal of misinformation. The aftermath of being hit with a barrage of confusing half-truths and conflicting answers that leads us to not trust anything we see.

Here’s a scenario:

An Average Joe is looking through his news feed. He sees headlines detailing an impending conflict that his country seems to have some indirect (or so it seems) involvement in. This is concerning for Joe, a person who loves the troops and is deeply concerned about possible conflicts.

Joe catalogues this story for a later time. For now, he needs to go to work. On his lunch break, Joe scrolls through stories about a whole host of stories involving the conflict. He hears politicians denying any involvement. He hears that the president is ready to interfere. He hears all sorts of things that start to jumble his brain.

Joe's lost his train of thought. He doesn't know the severity of this war. Now, he's more concerned that the media may be stirring this conflict for engagement.

His trust in media has fallen.

As a society, we find comfort in the definite. The things that we can control, the things we can see, the things that we can fix are the things that make us feel safe. And when we don’t have that… we ask ourselves why? I’ve found that that “Why?” question can lead us into the weeds, just like Joe.

So, when we find ourselves searching for answers and are shown an obscured truth we hook on to it. Something that immediately makes sense and confirms a suspicion that we already had is an easier truth to absorb than a nuanced answer. But as I’ve mentioned before, the art of verification relies not only on one’s effort, but most importantly, discipline. The discipline to look deeper into the answer. The discipline to look into the source. The discipline to look for corroboration. But without that…

When the facts are given lead us to believe “1 + 1 = 2” without revealing that there is another factor in the equation, we are made to believe that we’ve solved it. We’ve come to “our own conclusion.” When this is made into a compounding factor of half truths mixed with outright lies that we graft on to, we failed to see that we have been wrapped up in the same web of lies that we feared.

Once you’ve been led to the point of “Trust Compression” there is one of two things that could happen. One: you reflect back on your verification journey and look to where you could have improved. This leads you to study your sources and learn to trust again, even if it may be harder to. Two: you believe that everything is out to get you and the foundation of truth which has been built in your head has been fueled with contradictory evidence. This leads you to believe that you can fight around this web of misinformation. When in reality…the only way out is through.