October 8th, 2024
What is education in a democracy?
Why, education is how we make antibodies.
I’m in college now, so I’m insufferable (“But you’ve always been insufferable!” you say and you are so right, ma’am); a lot of my studies so far have about our literacy.
Reading, sure (literal literacy should never be taken for granted, and any comment section on the internet will remind you of that), but really how literate we are when it comes to information.
Most of us have no idea how bad we are at telling if what we’re reading or hearing or seeing (and sharing!) is true or not; the worst part is that most of the time it’s pretty easy to figure out. But we live in the eye of the perfect human storm: ignorance, laziness, and our biases.
We look for evidence, not to provide the truth, but to prove what we think we already know, or what we want to believe is true. Bad information, like a virus, makes us sick.
Education gives us antibodies. And that includes education about information.
The next time you come across some info, think about where it came from. If it came from the person who did the thing or witnessed the thing, it’s a primary source. We rarely get news from the source. If someone writes about the thing from a primary source, that’s called a secondary source. It’s also uncommon to get news this way.
Most of the information we get is from what’s called tertiary sources. It’s basically a game of telephone. I watched a thing from a girl who heard a thing from a boy who read a thing from the primary source.
The info, like a note in class, can get changed, a little or a lot, every time it gets passed along.
This is why it’s important we know where our information is coming from.
The next time you see a meme about, say, grocery prices, look for the source on that meme. I will bet you a ton of crypto that there will be no source. But that won’t stop half a million people from sharing it, even though it is literally not information. And it is deeply embarrassing that so many of us do it. Embarassing, and deliberately divisive.
I’m running out of ways to reach people, but I have a super fun way of looking at politics. It really is delightful. Try it! Take a story from the news, and then pretend that it’s in a history book. In fact, replace the name with a historical figure and see how you feel.
Some examples:
“Despite having already been convicted of 34 felonies, being found liable of sexual abuse, and leading an insurrection to overturn an election that led to six deaths, Richard Nixon ran again for president. How the country didn’t see Watergate coming is a mystery to historians to this day.”
“During a political rally, Stephen A. Douglas called his popular challenger Abraham Lincoln ‘mentally disabled.’ Douglas’ supporters cheered along, as insulting the disabled and minority groups had long been part of his speeches.”
“During his presidental campaign, George Washington sold coins with his face on them at several times their actual value, virtual trading cards, crypto, and gold sneakers, while constantly reminding the public of inflation and their inability to pay for such necessities as groceries. He avoided speaking on the massive tax cuts he had passed during his previous term that benefitted the wealthy, as corporate greed was the main reason for high prices.”
“Theodore Roosevelt, during a live televised debate, went on an extended rant about immigrants eating people’s pets, which was an entirely false claim. Those same claims were repeated and wreaked havoc on a small Ohio town, who pleaded for him and his campaign to stop.”
When you do this, it allows you to see what’s happening today as it really is: it’s history, but you just don’t always see it like that until you do.
Perspective is another kind of education.
And education gives us antibodies.
And you hope that your body stays healthy enough to fight any disease; you hope that our votes are enough to keep a democracy alive.
As above, so below.
But this is a reminder that vicious cancers exist. And they can win. They do.
Stay educated. Stay literate. Vote.
The Den 