Anger, disinformation, populism, the sorry state of the world right now... and truth

This post should be seen through the lens of self therapeutic writing, as I angrily work through a few ideas on my mind.

And now, for something completely different.

A colleague posted a link to a Breitbart story on Discord, and it got me thinking.

The story in question concerned Facebook, Twitter and Google allegedly censoring a viral video of doctors speaking out about alleged disinformation about COVID-19.

You've probably heard all about that video by now - how the silly thing here is that the actual disinformation was... that exact video.

It's funny how, if you're being criticized by Breitbart, you're probably doing something right with your life - and I honestly believe that the companies mentioned above did the right thing by taking the video off.

I promptly mentioned that in a "why the hell are you posting Breitbart crap here" and that would have been the end of it, but I keep thinking about this whole issue.

By now, I don't think there's any actual doubt among reasonable people that there's something deeply wrong with the world right now. This wrongness finds many expressions - Breitbart, the rise of populism, PiS here in Poland and Trump in the States, Brexit and such being the most visible. Related are antivaxxers, flat-earthers, people openly violating mask wearing restrictions and COVID-19 quarantine. Even more troubling are those issues that lurk behind, in the shadows and poised to deal critical damage to our entire existence - global warming, the growing disconnect between science and the actual decisions being made on behalf of us all, growing inequality, human rights eroding...

And I'm starting to think that you can't consistently fight one of them without fighting all of them.

Breitbart has, time and time again, proven itself to have a loose relationship with truth. To what end but the pathological, I don't know. Would you risk distorting the world view of so many, with all the consequences that entails, for ad revenue money? I wouldn't, and perhaps that's what separates "us" and "them".

I used to think a scientist should not see the world in an us and them perspective. I think of myself as a scientist, regardless of whether or not my impostor syndrome suggests that I'm a programmer who thinks he's a scientist sometimes.

(If you've heard me say that, you've met my impostor syndrome, and I'm sure it was happy to meet you.)

I used to think the job of the scientist was to slowly, meticulously pick between different hypotheses by probing their system of interest with carefully thought out questions. Of course, that might have been true in an ideal world. How are you liking 2020 as an instance of one?

On the I don't think the issue at hand requires all of scientists' skill at sorting through different hypotheses.

The choices here are truth and untruth. Truth and lies. Truth and, as it is commonly know, bullshit.

The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the Truth! Scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth.

When you look at the common factors between Breitbart, PiS, Trump, Brexiteers, antivaxxers, flat-earthers, anti-mask idiots, organized religion etc., one commonality that pops out is the propensity to bullshit. A complete disconnect between their statements and reality.

And I think that's the issue we need to start addressing. The difference here is between branches in history that lead to actual self destruction of humanity, and those where we might just be able to save ourselves.

This is a job for which scientists - anyone with an interest in science, really - for which we are uniquely suited. Science is the way we figure things out and the only reliable method we have right now that actually reliably produces approximation closer to truth than our base states. We know how it works. What we - in a lot of cases - haven't been doing is conveying that knowledge to the wider public. Nobody's going to do that in our place, so I do think it's our responsibility.

So I don't think it's on us to give Breitbart a fair and visible platform. They're adept at finding that themselves and don't need our help. We've got bigger issues to address, and the time we have is limited. Let's spend that time fighting for Truth, not worrying whether we're dealing fairly with those who have firmly planted themselves on the other side for whatever reason.

Let's get to it like our lives depended on it. They do.