Why fact checking is important, and how failing to do so can expose flaws in your personality

If you’d like to skip to the “how failing to do so can expose flaws in your personality” part, head past that horizontal break down there.

I’ve been a major supporter of checking the facts on an article, story, or similar when one is presented to me or stumbled upon in my internet travels. This began no more than seven years ago, when my aunt would actually send me things that had been pre-checked through a website known as Snopes, which is, well, a fact checking website. The first few times it was linked in e-mails to me, I hadn’t known whether or not it was some strange or dangerous website, but I quickly learned that it was a wonderful source for getting things straight.

After some time, (and for unknown reasons) future emails from my aunt would possess a disproportionately high bullshit to fact ratio, in the favor of bullshit. This is something else that I’ve learned over the years: middle aged and older folks seem to have this switch that flips in some point in their lives that causes them to believe the stupidest shit, whilst questioning and criticizing actual factual stuff. The Facebook posts (where I find most of these things) and images and whatnot I see range from hilariously stupid to outright embarrassing and/or insulting. I wouldn’t want anyone to think that I have some sort of age bias (though I’m sure I do, to an extent) as I’ve found some really fucking dumb younger people on Facebook which can make me facepalm just as hard, if not harder than our elders.When an article from a shady looking political website comes across my News Feed with a few words thrown in by the person sharing about x, y & z,  I’ll occasionally head on over to Snopes directly or just Google it up a bit, and see if I can find the same “information” that’s in the article echoed on more reputable sites.

Other times, it’s not just ignorant sheeple spreading misinformation, but an article that could possibly be mistakenly seen as truth. I’d like to believe that I have a pretty strong BS detector, as I’ve been able to find fault in what others have shared far more often than the reverse, but [insert clichéd line about being imperfect like all humans].  Within just these past few days, I made a critical error in deciding whether or not to believe something I read. My god did it kill me. If the “goddamniti’msostupidhowthehelldidibelievethathindsightis20/20pleasepunchme” feeling was felt physically, I might’ve ended up in the hospital. This seems like a bit of an exaggeration, but believe me when I say I very rarely fall so hard for an untrue batch of information. I still cringe thinking about it.

The first thing I did wrong was I let my guard down. There’s a certain friend of mine on Facebook who’s awfully similar to me, and as such I’m more prone to trust what he shares and posts as valid and true. The second thing I did wrong was not question the source URL, despite taking a moment to look at it. The third and most damning thing I did wrong, was believe it, and the fourth was that I allowed the reaction of my friend to influence my reaction further towards anger.

I shan’t share the article here, because I don’t want to and because I’ll probably look like a dumbass to more people than I’d like to (but hey, at least I’m honest, right? right?). It went something to the tune of a certain well hated Republican by liberal folks such as myself, though if I remember correctly, I’m a “Left Libertarian” which is a good deal farther out than your run of the mill Democrat, and off the goddamn deep end to your run of the mill Republican. Anyway, in this article, it said that after a blunder by Stepehen Hawking regarding black holes, this individual said “This is exactly why we shouldn’t trust scientists” and that scientists and science should just be completely ignored. It wasn’t written that bluntly, but it was pretty close. It’s well known by those on the left (and obviously denied by the right) that the right is full of ignorant folk who don’t quite understand jackshit about science and the way things like the universe and global warming work, so let me tell you I was furious after this. I immediately shared the article with an angry rant and essentially shared along with it the sentiment that this bitch and assholes like this individual should simply not be allowed to breathe the same air as us more intelligent folk. I fumed about it for a bit, then moved on. A few minutes later, an old friend of mine comments, “that’s a satirical article.” Well, shit.

The embarrassment scorched me like a flamethrower. I felt so incredibly foolish and blushed so hard that Santa’s goddamn suit was jealous (the red part, obviously). I deleted that post as fast as I possibly could, and messaged the friend who pointed out this error and thanked him for letting me know how stupid I was. Then I went onto the friend who had shared the article in the first place, and expressed my dissatisfaction that he shared a false article and presented it as fact, but mostly dissatisfaction with myself for not checking to see whether or not this was true.

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I learned two valuable things from this:

1. Check your goddamn facts.

2. Check your goddamn self.

I’m going to get number one out of the way because it’s simple and won’t be a rant. If you see someone share a picture saying something like “On February 29, 2015 the United States government will be raising the legal drinking age to 25”, the first thing you need to do is stop right the fuck there. There are only 28 days during February in 2015, dumbass. (Yes, this was a real thing). Second, why the hell would that even be announced exclusively through Facebook? Don’t you think everyone and their mother would be talking about it on the news, in the streets, at work and in school? Hell yeah they would. And just to be 100% certain, why not look into it yourself, especially if it’s something that matters to you? All you have to do is just Google it. For this particular example, if this was really going to happen, you’d find a link to a .gov website stating this information in your search results. If you’re not finding it, or at least something from maybe CNN, ABC, NBC, Al-Jazeera, BBC America, etc., then it’s probably not true. Please, for the love of God/Allah/Buddha/Zeus/Odin/Flying Spaghetti Monster use some common sense. And now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…

Number two is quite important, but can be infinitely more difficult. This particular instance can speak volumes about what kind of person I might be, especially to those who could’ve seen what I shared and known that it was fake. How quickly and unfairly do I jump to conclusions based simply on a title so frivolous as their political party, that I’d question their sanity and intelligence? I’m disgusted by myself. I’ve found I’m actually one of the things I hate the most. I’m a hypocrite, and an asshole. I’ve always told myself and others to judge the person by who they are and their actions, and not because of what they look like or what they are. For fuck’s sake, they more or less teach us this shit in elementary school!

It’s tragic, it’s upsetting, and it’s downright shameful that I would be judgmental in such a way. Sure, it’s not as fundamentally wrong as hating someone because they’re black, and President of the U.S. (looking at you, asshole, usually White, and generally speaking Republicans), but it’s fucked up. And you see what I just did there? I expressed dislike towards a group of people, though I attempt to cover my bases mentally as well as verbally by remembering that it’s not always white people who hate Obama because of the aforementioned traits, and it’s not always Republicans that hate him for those reasons.

That’s a crucial part of trying to keep your character together. It’s fantastically easy to make sweeping generalizations about people/places/things (nouns?) based on one or two massive umbrellas. I think we all know personally or know of members of some of the following groups:

1. Hates all Christians because they’re ignorant bible thumping hypocrites (how I’ve struggled with that sometimes)

2. Hates all Muslims because they’re filthy terrorists.

3. Hates blacks for being theiving hood rat rapist murderers that look suspicious with hoodies on

4. Hates New York because everyone is somehow an asshole (looking at you, number of Pennsylvanians who feel this way)

5. Hates Asians for being chink/gook/japs that can’t drive and make cheap shit.

6. Hates Republicans for being Nazi, wealth whoring, education-phobic maniacs bent on ruining America.

7. Hates Democrats for being freeloading, frivolous spending, gun right revoking, muslim loving, ignorant maniacs bent on ruining America.

Yeah, a lot of those are racial biases, and I picked them because they’re so obvious and I’m too lazy to think of better ones, but I’m sure you get the idea.

My point is, think about what you think and say looks like to others. It’s easy to say “fuck what other people think” because it’s such a common message in our society. I see that shit on a regular basis. The thing is though, that’s just ignorance. You might say “fuck what other people think, because I got my shit together” yet you’re 19 years old still in high school getting blazed and smashed with your bros every night and knocking chicks up despite having already fucked up and got another chick pregnant. No dude, don’t disregard what other people think or say. They might be trying to help you get your shit together. Even this is a sort of sweeping generalization. Disregarding everyone because you think you’re the only thing that knows what’s up is ignorant and selfish. A better start would be “Let the haters hate”, and even then it can still be too broad. A parent giving you a hard time about your constant partying over education isn’t a hater. They’re looking out for you. A person giving you a hard time because “Only fags like —” is a hater (as well as several derogatory terms).

Just stop and think for god’s sake. Make use of that wonderful human exclusive ability to think introspectively and learn about yourself, from yourself. Nobody knows you better than you, though it can help if you’ve got someone who you trust who can be honestly critical when needed.

Judge individuals just as they are. Indvidually. There aren’t many cases where it’s safe to generalize, and when you do, you want to keep it as specific as possible. An example of a safe generalization? Westboro Baptist. Those people are scum of the earth.

The world isn’t black and white. It’s fifty+ shades of gray.

Wow, that was bad. I’m sorry. I’ll stop now.