The fake news business has turned into the planet’s biggest growth industry, whether it’s repressive regimes deliberately sowing misinformation to their adversaries, political groups spewing propaganda to sway their electoral fortunes, or whatever the actual hell Flat Eartherism is.
And we’ve already seen the effects of telling the public outright lies, from the supposed savings of Brexit and panic about 5G to the return of measles and other near-eliminated diseases and the president of the United States accidentally admitting that of course Russia helped him win the US election.
Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt Hoax…And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected. It was a crime that didn’t exist. So now the Dems and their partner, the Fake News Media,…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2019
Anyway, many nations are trying to work out what the actual hell to do about it. And one nation – Finland – would appear to have found a solution which just might work.
And Finland have a lot of motivation to get it right. They share a border with Russia, a situation which other countries have found less than comfortable – hey, Ukraine, remember when the Crimean peninsula was part of your country? – and have to be especially diligent against destabilising lies from the nation that has perfected news faking.
And thus in 2014 they started actively working to make their population, media and political class aware of what misinformation looks like and training them to spot and counter it. And it appears to be working, but it’s a big job.
There are critical thinking classes in schools. There are public education sessions for the population. The media is expected – or more accurately, required – to combat bias in their own reporting as a matter of course. And there is a lot of pressure on social media and online behemoths to take voluntary action lest harsher regulation be introduced.
Would Australia do such a thing? Well, we could – but there are some likely hurdles to a national education campaign.
One is that it would be expensive, obviously. But that aside, there’s also a very decent chance that the government currently pushing to build new coal plants and claiming that straws and environmental activism are the only significant threats facing the Great Barrier Reef might be a little averse to teaching the public to be stringent about separating fact from bullshit.
Then again, maybe some leader will have the guts to start advocating for a stronger Australia via an adherence to Fair Dinkum Thinkin’, a truly bonza evidence-based approach to science literacy and true blue critical thinking to help save Australians from being swayed by lies and fraud when making decisions about their lives, health, and governments.
Or maybe facts will get a go once they have a go. One of the two.
