In no other time in human history has there been such a crisis in terms of acquisition of knowledge, that is, acquisition of, among other things, true beliefs. We live in an era of fake news. The media isn’t to blame. At least, they aren’t more guilty than many of us. Lies abound in this world, told by small children and old men alike. None of us is blameless.
We must take a stand against the radical increase in the propagation of falsity by telling only the truth. It is by refusing to obscure the nature of reality that we can finally make some progress understanding her. Make a vow now to unplug from the purveyors of misinformation. Refuse to listen to the President. Refuse to watch Fox news. Listen to your heart, your conscience, instead. It will lead you to the truth. Question everything. Nothing is ever simple, so if it seems like you understand something fully, that’s your first hint that you are missing something important. Gain skills in media literacy. Learn how to tell when what you are reading is an ad. Figure out the motives of the person you are listening to. Do they have a commitment to the truth? Do they have a conflict of interest here? And read the old books. There is more truth in Herodotus than Howard Zinn, although I do believe Zinn was committed to exposing reality. His account is not wrong so much as it is woefully incomplete.
These, then, are the things you can begin to do in order to combat the army of the untrue. Descartes was right when he said what we perceive clearly and distinctly must be true. The problem is that we have trouble knowing when that is happening. When you walk into a room and feel that something is wrong, that’s when you clearly and distinctly perceive. When you are buying a soda at one A.M. and the clerk has a funny look in his eyes, that is when you clearly and distinctly perceive. When you are alone in your room and you can’t fall asleep, that is when. Trust yourself–you can’t trust anyone else.