Taylor, George, Joe, and a downed helicopter

OK, here’s a softball question. What do the following four items have in common?

• An “explicit” photo of Taylor Swift posing at a Kansas City Chiefs game.
• George Carlin released a new standup comedy special.
• Joe Biden called people throughout New Hampshire and urged them not to vote in the primary.
• A video of Hamas downing an Israeli combat helicopter over Gaza.

THEY ARE ALL FAKE! And here is the BIG downside of artificial intelligence. They looked or sounded genuine. Yep, your eyes and ears were not enough to discern the truth.

And it’s going to get worse.

According to a recent Gallup poll the share of Americans who said they have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in mass media has dropped from 55% in the late 1990s to 32% today.

And a recent Pew Research poll shows that although 43% of “real” reporters think they’re doing a pretty good job of managing or correcting misinformation, the public rates them at 25%.  

We are lost in the woods, and we don’t trust our guides!

Take responsibility for your own beliefs.

 We need to face the brutal facts. People, political parties, companies, nation states, and others are trying their best to bend our minds, lie to us, and take advantage of us. And, to make matters worse, we don’t trust “news” sources. Maybe a bit of paranoia is called for.

Maybe we need to reverse Ronald Reagan’s oft quoted “trust but verify” statement. Maybe it should become “Verify before you trust.”

And that means ……..?

It’s time to become a genuine skeptic.

I’m not going to go into the philosophy of skepticism, but I do have a few observations and suggestions. But first, we should accept that it’s not the same as cynicism and it does require an open mind.

Key elements include doubt, inquiry, evidence-based reasoning, and intellectual humility. The first three are self-evident. The last element, intellectual humility, is very difficult to put into play. This is especially true of those of us who think of ourselves as “educated thinkers.” Sometimes the “curse of knowledge” gets in our way.

Some questions to ponder:

• What evidence supports this claim? Have you been presented with a conclusion, or with a true argument (premises with supporting facts)?
• Is there a potential bias or conflict of interest? Are you getting the “news” from your favorite channel and do other sources agree?  
• How certain am I of this conclusion? Do you know how to build and defend an argument?

Three actions to undertake:

• Question assumptions, always.
• Evaluate your sources of information.
• Practice critical thinking.

(Note: Skepticism is one of the thinking disciplines that will be discussed at the next Directed Dialogues session. See below.)

Two favors

First, if you like our weekly musings, please pass them on to friends and colleagues. They can get on our mailing list (which is never shared) by clicking HERE.  

Second, our next 40 minute session of Directed Dialogues is scheduled for February 15^th at 12:00 CT. You can learn more and get the Zoom link right HERE. I’m hoping to build a “virtual salon” of people who like to think about current and emerging issues.

One more thing

Jeanie Egmon and I wrote and published The Prepared Mind of a Leader in 2006 and it’s been the basis of hundreds of workshops I’ve facilitated since then. I’m taking the tools and techniques I’ve been using and putting them into a new book, Prepared Mind Workbook & Toolkit. More info soon.

Cheers,

Bill