#noalternativefacts

LET'S TALK ABOUT FACTS, BABY {see citation 8}

We have now entered into a scenario in our public discourse where the long-standing respect for evidence-based conclusions has come under attack by those in power. Information previously accepted as fact or truth based on reproducible experimentation, quantifiable observations, and legitimate reporting has now been called into question. In an era where many Americans obtain their news from social media (1), proving the veracity the facts and information presented as "news" no longer falls on those that create it. Given the creation of our self-made spheres of influence, our ability to remove from our view those ideas that do not conform to our worldview, the task of assigning "truth" has now fallen on your shoulders, dear reader.

But where do we start? What tools do we need to tell truth from fiction? Propaganda from research? The reality is, the tools required to rebuild our faith in facts have been withheld from the general public since they were created. Those in power have no incentive to create an electorate of informed people able and willing to hold them accountable for their unsubstantiated accounts of the world. Until now, we have--for better or worse-- put our faith in the institutions of science, medicine, journalism, among others, to maintain the sanctity of fact, to boldly state that, yes, truth exists. We no longer have that luxury, when our leaders denounce universally-accepted climate change as a "hoax" {2}, or suggest that journalists are "among the most dishonest human beings" {3}.

What can we do? We all get information from the internet. How do we make it better?

-Read before you share. We all fall prey to clickbait headlines. I sure do. A recent study {4} showed that many shared links on social media (Twitter in the case of the study) were never clicked, suggesting no one read them. Then there was the dissemination throughout social media of the "weed contains Alien DNA" blog post made to mock the very mass shares it enjoyed {5}. Read the articles you're sharing. Know where your information came from. Is it a news source? Is it opinion (or satire) masquerading as news? When was it published? Do you really trust this source, or does their web design just look great?

-Fact Checking...or...unpacking Fake News Easier said than done. The moral here is to BE SKEPTICAL. The chorus in our echo chamber is not always accurate. Bias exists, but there is good journalism being performed out there. There is actually a way to accurately estimate how many people were at the inauguration {6}, {7}. Those facts are out there, and they are easy to find. The media is, for the most part, unwilling to call something a lie, as it implies intent, but we should not be so accommodating. While some of the following resources have their own biases and influences, they often use citations for their information, which is a start (major funding sources in parentheses):

http://www.politifact.com/ (Tampa Bay Times) http://www.factcheck.org/ (Annenberg Policy Center) https://www.opensecrets.org/ (Carnegie, John S + James L Knight Foundation, Craigslist, Ford) https://sunlightfoundation.com/ (Bloomberg, Ford, Craisglist)

-But what about the numbers? This is probably the hardest task. Statistics are an art as much as they are a science, and hard numbers can be molded to fit any number of outcomes. Look, I personally got a B in biostats. I will not task you to learn advanced statistics. But spending a few minutes browsing through the general ideas of how they work, and how they can be manipulated, is important when we have, as a culture, been denied that knowledge by our science education (or lack thereof). Here is some reading on the subject:

https://www.statisticsdonewrong.com/ http://www.senseaboutscienceusa.org/aboutstats/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/science-isnt-broken/…

-CITE THE POWER Right now for many people, especially in those communities disenfranchised by our corrupt system ( POC, indigenous people, those of the LGBTQA+, disabled,and immigrant communities), empowerment through the sharing of ideas is one of the most powerful ways to resist the horrors unleashed by our government. We should all be constantly spreading ideas, but we should be spreading knowledge too. Cite your quotes with links to further reading. Share not only your emotional support, but links to financially support revolutionary causes. Never stop sharing your representatives' phone numbers. Literacy and access to information are privileges we should not take lightly. They think we're a snake. But we are really a hydra.

http://standwithstandingrock.net/donate/ https://abortionfunds.org/ http://blacklivesmatter.com/ http://www.ip-no.org/ http://nolaharmreduction.tumblr.com/ http://www.youthbreakout.org/ https://www.immigrationadvocates.org/nonprofit/

Reaffirming our relationship with facts is absolutely vital to democracy. Without facts, our decisions are molded by emotional outcries and insidious propaganda. How can we make decisions for ourselves and our nation if we have been blinded from what is real? We can't. The basis for any autonomous decision is a full understanding of all facets of a situation leading up to that decision. Our nation's leaders are working steadfast to make sure this never happens again. Please join me in spreading factual information, which is far more dangerous and threatening to those in power than any opinion any one of us may hold.

CITATIONS, BECSAUSE THEY'RE IMPORTANT:

(1)- Pew Research Report on News and Social Media http://www.journalism.org/…/news-use-across-social-media-p…/

{2}Don't let Donald Trump forget he called global warming a hoax. He did. http://www.politifact.com/…/yes-donald-trump-did-call-clim…/

{3} President Trump's statements at the CIA headquarters Jan 21 http://foreignpolicy.com/…/trump-goes-to-cia-to-attack-med…/

{4} Study on Twitter clicks versus shares https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01281190/document

{5} "Weed Contains Alien DNA" (it doesn't) http://www.iflscience.com/…/marijuana-contains-alien-d…/all/

{6} 2011 Article on the art of counting crowds http://www.popularmechanics.com/…/the-curious-science-of-c…/

{7} Tweets from the DC Metro on ridership during inauguration http://www.vox.com/…/14…/trump-inauguration-metro-attendance