I had to scrap my regular column today and start anew. Someone very close to me has just been diagnosed with Covid. They refused the vaccine even after my father tragically succumbed to the virus.
As frightening and frustrating as this situation is, it’s given me front-row seats to what happens after a person has processed enough misinformation and disinformation. Reading bad articles is just the beginning.
The person’s habits begin to adjust to better reflect the wrong info that they are consuming. More trustworthy sources become frustrating — so they are eliminated from their curated social media feeds. Facebook and YouTube are very big culprits when it comes to garbage drowning out good sources, but in many parts of the world, spam and propaganda on WhatsApp also play a crucial part.
The person’s social circle is likewise adjusted. They will still interact with people who see the virus and vaccines differently, but it’s almost as if they’re using noise-cancelling headphones half of the time. Only certain information filters through, and when it does, it is challenged and then discarded.
Previous political leanings and beliefs are tailored to fit the narrative. The more hippyish, earth-mother types will use their love of all things “natural” in order to further justify mistrust of science. People from areas and populations where oppression has historically taken place will use generational distrust of the government to flesh out their anti-vaccine narrative. People with fierce libertarian leanings will see vaccines as one more intrusion of an out-of-control government apparatus. On and on it goes.
Why am I pointing all of this out? Well, at this stage in the game, simply cutting off sources full of blatant lies is not going to be enough. Victims of misinformation and disinformation need community support. They need help from their loved ones and from their neighbors and from their trusted mentors and community leaders in order to understand that the danger from the virus is real, that most people can definitely take the vaccine, and that the last thing we need are more and more dangerous mutations that are taking place as the virus continues its rampage.
Of course, with all of the love, understanding, and respect for each other that we exhibit online in particular, this part is going to be a piece of cake. Ahahaha.
(I must laugh, because the other option is crying.)
In order to find a way out of this horrific mess, I have begun to wonder if Ian Bogost is right and if placing manual curbs on how much we interact online is the only way to save this civilization’s collective sanity. It is hard, otherwise, to find answers, especially as one continues to be on the front line of this pandemic, getting battered first by the virus and then a kind of vicious and stealthy virus of the mind.
It may be time to begin organizing support groups for people who are losing loved ones to disinfo. Maybe we can find some solutions, or maybe we can merely support each other. Covid is not going away — and neither is the second sickness it has wrought, the fear and the anger that have come in its wake, much as it has happened with similar plagues in history.
Disasters perpetuate more disasters, spreading like circles on the water, and the best you can do at a time like this is simply refuse to bear it alone.
Image credit: Linus Nylund