Swords into Ploughshares

'Enrichment' vs Fact Checking

A new election season, a new slew of political memes and general nastiness online.

I fostered a little fact-checking project a few years ago called MemeWatch, which I abandoned after realizing it was having no effect, no opinions were changed and it only fed the craziness.

Recently, I almost got into another fact-checking argument with a friend of mine over something about mail-in voting. But in the middle of the exchange, I suddenly realized something. This whole process should be reframed and redefined.

Memes are supposed to be clever one-off visual jokes or statements that you either agree with and laugh at, or dismiss and go on to the next post. But when people comment on them, things can get ugly.

This particular meme listed a number of countries that don't allow mail-in voting. I wondered what countries DO allow it, and posted a comment listing those countries. My friend replied with further information about the requirements for voting in the countries I had listed. And the stage was set for another tedious back and forth, leading possibly to vitriol if we ran out of facts to sling.

But it occurred to me - we had just "enriched" the meme by adding more value to it with the information we both had supplied.

In typical fact-checking posts, I or other pseudo-fact checkers drop a load of evidence they find online to counter, contradict, or correct the initial meme, opinion, or re-tweeted article, with the idea that it will be the last word on the subject. Case closed. I win.

However, I realized that both my comment and my friend's information were valuable in understanding the issue addressed so crudely in the meme. In fact, our brief thread of comments added value to the original meme, and had the potential to turn our "swords into ploughshares," so to speak, if we kept going in the same vein.

Instead of seeing the meme as stupid or wrongheaded, I could view it as simply incomplete, and my friend could view my comment in the same way.

Instead of taking a stand as opponents, we had the opportunity to dig, plough and then plant some more seeds to expand the meme into a thread that might eventually generate good fruit, rather than bitterness.

We could become collaborators if we continued on this same line. And that would be something sorely needed in the current online atmosphere of partisan mistrust.

Obviously, expressing only raw opinions like "This is crap!" don't get us any further down the road toward truth. Neither do slurs like "libtards" or MAGAtts. Invective is a dialogue killer.

But it's fun to bust things up.

When we renovated our original old house years ago, I helped out with the initial "demolition" - knocking down some walls. I liked swinging a sledgehammer because I'm not skilled enough to do any other carpentry or handyman projects. But I inevitably hurt myself every time I picked up the sledgehammer.

I have great respect for the contractors, carpenters, the electricians, the woodworkers who design, construct, build and create.

Anybody can do demolition.

I hope this "enrichment" idea catches on. Maybe we can all build something together, instead of just tearing things down.

And feel free to enrich my idea with your comments. No doubt the facts are incomplete.