FAKE NEWS

We, as human beings are persuaded to believe plethora of things in our regular life, most of which are unknown to our conscious mind. We do consider false statements correct and vice-versa. My central point of this outline will be the politics and truth behind it. I wholeheartedly believe that politics and news are not be trusted blindly, and associated facts must be cross-checked before taking into consideration as most of us unknowingly consider false facts true just by watching them on-screen.

The major reason behind not agreeing with the continuous stream of the political information is the duty to object . If the statements made by political leaders are not questioned by any person, the duty to object is more pressing. We all have rights to meet our epistemic obligations. It simply means that the duty to object also relies on the action of others in the society. People do agree with every story they hear about any ongoing topic. As Lackey quotes an example of her husband giving her political suggestions. She adds that her belief of the correctness of her husband’s political knowledge do not mean the decline of epistemic agent in herself as she has all the rights of an epistemic agent.

Moving ahead, not only the news shared on-screen by reporters, but information shared by our peers also persuade us to believe instantly in the vague facts and figures. Regina Rini clearly elaborates this theory in “Fake news and Partisan Epistemology.” She says that news and information shared by our co-partisans is very easy to be believed. It is because normally the receiver is not aware about the ambiguous mindset of the sender. He usually asks himself why his friend would spread misleading information. Hence, one believes the stories transmitted by their known people. Thus, the epistemic aspect is not considered in that case, which results in the spread of rumors in public.

To encapsulate, there are many agents in our day-to-day life, which alter our thinking skills and portray misleading information as correct. However, in order to curb this phenomena we have to be aware about the reasons to question the information provided.

 

By:Harleen Kaur