Another day that is Every Day for me and others in my profession. But this day is taking on more significance in the modern era, where people post things like that meme of the Abraham Lincoln quote about how you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the Internet.

It’s extremely frustrating when people read an article, misunderstand it and spread that misinformation.

It is irritating when actual news outlets post stories based on single sources and good faith (or lack of time). A reporter sees a press release from a legitimate organization and runs it as a fact-based article. Technically, there is nothing wrong with this: The news story is that “organization X said Y.” But I have noticed a significant downtick in stories where someone has taken that press release and dug into whether Organization X is justified in saying Y—and whether Y is actually correct.

It is even harder when the people making the news don’t know what they’re talking about, or say things they don’t actually mean, or play to an audience and say one thing to Audience A and something entirely different to Audience B.

Maybe it’s my inherent inferiority complex, or maybe it’s the nature of my job, but I find myself increasingly irritated by the social media arbiters of truth. I spend my days looking at things other people have written and wondering what on earth they are trying to say and then taking even more time figuring out how to phrase my question so that they understand why I am confused. So when I then go on Threads and read posts from people who are arrogant enough to tell me they have the inside track on EXACTLY what any public figure thinks and EXACTLY what they meant by what they said, it takes a lot of effort not to engage. I know it is pointless. I know these outlets are filling some need these people have for approbation from like-minded thinkers, or control of their environment, or simple accumulation of clicks. I suppose it can be construed as resistance, although I don’t see how this is a particularly effective method.

When my kid was in school, he would routinely come home infuriated by the kids in his class who just parroted some nonsense they had picked up somewhere that he knew was incorrect, but he got in trouble because he would tell them they were wrong. We explained to him that there are ways to do that and then there are WAYS to do that. Here is the advice we gave him: When someone says something that sounds like garbage, instead of calling them stupid, you can engage them in other ways, generally starting with two questions:

1: How do you know that? You can ask them to explain how they know this alleged fact. (Who told you? How many sources verified it?)

2: Can you please explain that to me? You can ask them questions about their assertion that will be enough to confirm that you do, in fact, have more information and thus can stop paying attention to them—or you will find out something you didn’t know. “Oh. you say X is the worst thing on earth? What makes it worse than Y? OK, what makes it worse than Z?” At the very least, you will have a little window into their logic processes, and that can also be valuable.

The problem with social media is when you ask someone, “how do you know that,” half of them snot back with, “I don’t need to do your research for you.” And when you say “Please explain that to me,” you’re likely to hear “It’s not that complicated.” Here’s the thing. I have read rough drafts of material for all kinds of material, from sandwich shop ads to politicians’ speeches, and honestly, a lot of the time I wondered if the writers themselves even knew what they thought or understood what they were saying. I know from experience that it is really hard to parse the thoughts of a disordered mind and try to make them make sense. I have spent hours of my life trying (and sometimes failing) to do this. So it chaps my hide when people spend 30 seconds and assume they have it all down pat and spew it for others to see. I wish they would try harder or stop trying—or, short of that, add a caveat that they don’t actually know anything more than the average bear. I’m trying to keep that in mind when I feel my blood pressure rise. It’s only helping a little.

I’ve made a game of blocking people on Threads who act like jerks when engaged. At this rate, I’ll have blocked all but maybe 10 people by Christmas. It’s depressing.

This is why I’m generally trying to keep it light here in my corner of the world. Today was not that day, though—obviously!