Current events II

The present day is not the only period subject to the influx of Fake News. Unfortunately, the events of history are in frequent dispute. Facts that have stood the test of time for many years, even centuries, are being re-established and written about. These aren’t reminders of what happened, they are unprovoked updates on stories that have been laid to rest for a long time.

A more classical example of “Fake News” making circulations are the supernatural stories of ghosts, aliens and cryptid sightings. They use the presence of factual evidence and twist it into something fantastical to serve a different narrative. Most people don’t believe in those things, but with enough evidence piled up and forced onto someone’s feed they can start to question their own reality.

Flat Earthers, conspiracists who believe the Earth is flat for a variety of oddly convenient reasons, utilize Fake News to keep their beliefs strong. They willfully ignore evidence disproving them as part of a plot or larger conspiracy to hide “the truth”. Sadly, there are some people that are just lost in the weeds and can’t find their way out.

There are holes in history that we can’t figure out. Personal accounts of records in the past have inaccuracies that we can’t prove were right or disprove as false. Wars in mainland China were said to have millions of soldiers die in single days, despite no evidence to prove that many people existed in those lands at the time the battles happened.

All it takes is one convincing enough piece of evidence to make someone question what they know. Lies are easy enough to detect, but subjective truths are not. Some people will only see that a term is a “fact” and not consider who said it, or when, to form their own beliefs.

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