A Whackadoodle InfeKtion That I Have Caught
An Infektion my student called me on with this statement: "This post whack-a-moles the moles you should be whacking. You should post it on our new Facebook Group, so they can pass the post along."
“So what’s this?” she asked.
“It is Operation InfeKtion,” I offered. “A three part documentary attempting to explain why our fellow citizen have started to see each other as enemies, why our congress is at a stalemate in which nothing gets done, and towards the end, tells us as citizens what we can do to inoculate ourselves and others from the InfeKtion, also know as information warfare.”
“Sounds cool,” she nearly smiled.
“It is also your homework this week.”
She didn’t even groan about homework. She just clicked on the first link. She did groan about the ad, but was quickly involved. “Where does this reporting come from?” she asked early on.
“The New York Times Opinion Division. It is also an explanation of what Fake News really is.”
“Oh,” she mumbled and kept watching.
I heard her mom honking outside. Our tutoring time was over, but she was still listening. I went outside to tell her mom what was happening and tell her that I would drive her home when we where done. By the time I got back, she was already listening to the next documentary.
“So hang on,” she asked after watching. “What were the seven steps of that play book again?”
“Number one,” I said. “Find a crack. Find something that makes people afraid, and feeds that fear to make them more afraid. Create a story that makes us lose trust in our news sources, our governments sources, our scientific experts, and each other in order to sow social discord. Number Two: Create a lie that seem so outrageous that no one can believe it. Number Three: Wrap that lie in as much truth as you can, so fact checkers become uncertain and exhausted. Number Four: Conceal your hand buy getting someone else to publish your lie.”
“Someone like Wikileaks,” she interrupted again.
“Yep,” I nodded and continued. “Number Five: Find a useful idiot that will reinforce your lie. Someone with a few credentials that will give credit to your lie. Number Six: If you get caught in the lie, deny, deflect, deny and destroy. Number Seven: Remember you are playing a long game. You are attempting to sow discord in an entire nation. Your attempts will plants seed that may take years to grow.”
“Wow,” she managed.
“Do you want me to drive you home now, or do you want to watch the last one?”
She didn’t answer, she just started watching the last video.
“So, this is why you have become obsessed with inaccurate memes,” she said after watching the last episode. “You have been playing whack-a-mole with the wrong moles.”
“Clarify?”
“You have been trying to fight information warfare alone. No wonder you are no longer fun.”
“But I am not alone,” I insisted. “I know there are millions who feel the same way, I just don’t know how to bring us all together. The fact that this documentary even exists proves that I am not alone.”
“Are you forgetting Guidepost Seven,” she asked unexpectedly. “Rivers carve canyons one rock at a time.”
I believe that I started to cry. “Yeah, I know.”
“This post whack-a-moles the moles you should be whacking.”
“What?”
“The people who made these videos are helping to spread a truth. The only thing you can do is spread that truth along.”
“One rock at a time,” I finally smiled.
“So are you ready to post it?”
“Yeah, I think I am.”