Does the media really not want you to see this?

Today I want to talk about the irony and deceit of a social media post that proclaims "the media doesn't want you to see this." This assertion serves to provoke an emotional response -- both in supporters and opponents. That emotional response drives page views and makes money for the media. The media very much wants you to see it. It is a self-falsifying claim.

The media's interest in such claims lies not in the truth or falsehood of their payload. It lies only in the cycle of emotion that provokes addictive engagement with social media and drives people to outrage-fueling news sources. The actual message matters little, and the truth of the message has little to do with the passions that drive its propagation.

Like viruses, these memetic packets of communication exploit the replication power of their hosts to make more copies of themselves. It does not matter whether we survive the encounter as long as we launch more copies into the world. If our mental machinery is rendered inoperable, we have still served the function of disease vector. Even worse, when we surrender to uncritical propagation of other these viral ideas we typically leave our minds perfectly capable of transmitting more dangerous mental infections, but less capable of evaluating or blocking them. Replication remains intact, but our immune system becomes more and more suppressed. And we create an ecosystem where other related mental parasites thrive.

Like viruses, spread of these metal pathogens depends on exposure, immune response, and replication rate. We should seek to bolster our immune response by practicing critical thinking and rational skepticism whenever we can. We should strive consciously to avoid spreading infectious ideas, like those that rely on tribalism for their power and appeal. Some people chose to limit their exposure by remaining silent or avoiding social media altogether. While effective, to me that seems akin to saying "that city is suffering from the plague; I have a vaccine but I would prefer to withhold it and watch to see if anyone survives."

The vaccine is rational, compassionate conversation. I am making as many doses as I can. I invite you to join me.