Oh no, you’re thinking, Not ANOTHER Covid, anti-vax, freedom convoy post. I promise, it isn’t. Well, not directly. This is about the broader spectrum of misinformation and how so many people, myself included, stay silent about it.
A few years ago, I joined a Mommy group on Facebook. I do not recommend them, unless your tolerance for posts that read “my toddler is covered in spots, vomiting and running a 40 degree fever; what should I do?” is high. Spoiler Alert: responding with “TAKE THEM TO THE FUCKING HOSPITAL AND GET A PROPER MEDICAL OPINION” is not a popular reply. To be fair, my response to virtually all questions regarding health of the child was to advise they consult someone other than Facebook, so I imagine I wasn’t very popular with the essential oils crowd to begin with.
One day a young mom was asking for advice on investing in an RESP for her child. She was contemplating going with one in particular, because they did all the investing for free. yes, for free. Eighteen years of handing the administration of investing your money, applying for provincial and federal grants on your behalf, followed by four more years of issuing tax slips and cheques to your child, for FREE. My advice to this young mom was to thoroughly research a few options. Check out rates of return and the potential for fees on withdrawals, commissions on buys and sells etc. Basically, I said that it is very unlikely anyone is going to invest your money for that length of time for free, so do some research.
I am sure it will be no surprise to hear I was instantly attacked by another mom. She told me in no uncertain terms that I was not qualified to give financial advice, I was wrong and banks absolutally invest your RESP for free and I should get some education before speaking about things I know nothing about. [It is fun to note here that this mom is a excellent professional photographer and does not work in any sort of financial field.]
I then made an even bigger mistake – I replied to this commenter. I explained that I didn’t say banks won’t invest for free; I said the OP should do some due diligence and make sure there isn’t hidden fees or other costs associated with the investment and that I was skeptical that anyone would manage an investment for free. I then mentioned I was a Chartered Professional Accountant with over 25 years experience giving people financial advice and, as such, felt I was qualified to tell someone to consider their options and do some research.
The other mom replied with “I don’t give a damn what you do for a living, you are wrong.”
At this point I realized I was wasting my time. This poster, despite attacking my credentials, was not interested in the fact that I had credentials; she just wanted to be right. I quit the Mommy group and have, for the most part, refused to respond to any comment or post on Facebook, even ones I am qualified to respond to. I scroll right past comments which contain blatant falsehoods and misinformation. I refuse to engage, although this sometimes requires a lot of deep breathing and chanting ‘rise above’.
Last week, I read a news article. The article was about a woman who is suing Isagenix. She alleges she received dangerous levels of vitamins and minerals from their weight loss shakes and has some serious health issues as a result. I do not know if her claim is true or false and for purposes of this story, it matters not. There was a comment on the article that read “LOL. You cannot overdose on vitamins. There are no dangerous levels of vitamins. This lawsuit is a joke.” The statement is false of course. Anyone who has taken even a basic nutrition course will tell you that fat soluble vitamins and minerals can build up in the body to dangerous, toxic levels.
I considered responding to the comment, but decided my mental health was more important to me than saving strangers from reading and believing that you cannot overdose on vitamins.
But was that the right decision? By not challenging false information, I allow it to grow. I allow it to obtain a legitimacy that it might not otherwise obtain. Is it not my moral responsibility to ensure that lies and misinformation do not take root and grow? I think it probably is, but civil discourse no longer exists. Challenging something on social media opens one to vicious, personal attacks. Doing so in person, can result in physical altercations and even death.
Make no mistake, I am not advocating for arguing with strangers on social media/in person for the sole purpose of arguing. I am not talking about arguing with people’s opinions and their right to express them (more on that in another blog post). I am talking about shutting down misinformation with scientific facts. Posting the facts may not change the original misinformed posters mind of course. Likely, you will be verbally, or physically attacked for your efforts. However, you may succeed in protecting someone who might otherwise fall victim to the misinformation. You will succeed in fighting back against the untruths that are spread by people who may not even know what they are saying isn’t true.
I have come to realize that by not standing up and calling out misinformation, I am allowing it to grow and spread. This will take a greater toll on my mental health in the long run than fighting back now.
Go forth keyboard warriors and fight the good fight!