This column is from seven–yes, SEVEN–years ago and it seems there are at least a few people who still can’t separate fact from fiction. Your in-box and Facebook page are probably filled with rants from one or two. Even when Snopes is free and easy to use. This retired teacher is compelled to repeat the lesson one more time. Click here to read about the lost art of critical thinking.
Can you separate fact from fiction?
Lorie Smith Schaefer 
Thank you, retired teacher of excellence, for this rational, informed plea formal of us to take a deep breath, consider the source of the information we are presented with, listen to other viewpoints, think about our biases, and consider the impact our egos have on our beliefs. Well put and needed, Lorie, with a powerful beginning and ending.
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Thank you. We consume so much information from such diverse sources these days, it can be exhausting to question everything. I think the hardest thing is to check our own biases and egos. Just because it happens to agree with our point of view doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true. I hate that.
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What’s exhausting for me, lately, is arguing with some of my more “educated” relatives who believe my “liberal/CA views” are jaded and one-sided…drives me crazy, absolutely crazy. God forbid if I should refer them to YOUR piece. They’d have YOU associated with the likes of ME! Great piece, Lorie! 😉
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Thanks. I’ve been amazed during this election cycle who among my family (or my husband’s family, actually) is posting the nutty stuff. They probably just shake their heads at us and our lefty views. They don’t live nearby, tho’, and never come to visit. 🙂
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I used to point out to people when they were posting something false, would even leave a link to Snopes. Never seemed to do much good though. I think I’m known as a wet blanket.
Love the quote by Harlan Ellison: “You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”
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I do post links to snopes to refute some posts. Not all. Since I can’t correct the entire Internet, I’ve learned to ignore a bunch.
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Great article Lorie and (like you), I love Snopes and love doing the “Please read this!” polite interjection to demonstrate that we should be following the sage advice of Benjamin Franklin. I’m not sure what is more frightening. That we have to continue to remind people, or that Benjamin Franklin was also doing just that all those years ago?
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I’m trying not to post blatant political stuff on my Facebook page, but just to balance something erroneous with a link to snopes. In the US right now it’s simply crazy. And so very scary.
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I can only imagine how scary it is right now. As for Facebook, I link to my blog posts and follow a few friends and click a few likes, but I don’t do much else. As soon as I see something I don’t like, I click ‘unfollow’ so I’m not surrounded by negativity and the like.
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And by the way, we’ll be in your hemisphere (Sydney) for two jet-lagged days next April before boarding a cruise. Also one day in Picton and another in Wellington. What shouldn’t we miss?
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There’s lots to see in Sydney, the Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Bondi Beach are three iconic ‘must see’ things. But I’ve never lived in Sydney, so that’s just makes me a tourist. This is a good place to start browsing what to do for two days: http://www.sydney.com/things-to-do
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