8 big thinkers to follow on social media in 2021
Journalists, doctors, and others you should know.
- While social media is often a source of disinformation, some thought leaders are using their platforms as a force for good.
- Social networks offer an opportunity for readers to learn science-backed advice from top professionals in their fields.
- From journalists covering disinformation to a doctor giving the best physical therapy advice around, these influential voices deserve wide audiences.
Conspirituality 17: Interview with Jared Yates Sexton
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="15ef8bcd30b09c9541cc8d5d51d16893"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XpQJfxzLAik?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><h2>Jared Yates Sexton<br></h2><p>Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" offered an honest look at America's shameful historical record. It took 40 years for another book to penetrate a nation's conscience. When political analyst and associate professor <a href="https://twitter.com/JYSexton" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jared Yates Sexton</a> published "<a href="https://bookshop.org/books/american-rule-how-a-nation-conquered-the-world-but-failed-its-people/9781524745714" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the World but Failed Its People</a>," we finally had another opportunity to reflect—and, hopefully, progress. Sexton wants to dismantle the romanticized myth of American exceptionalism and replace it with something more valuable, as he <a href="https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/american-exceptionalism" target="_self">told Big Think</a> last year: "Once we disabuse ourselves of the myth of American exceptionalism, and we start looking at American history and say it's really problematic and inspirational at other times, it allows us to build something new."</p><h2>Dan Wilson</h2>Molecular biologist Dan Wilson makes visiting YouTube a necessity. His channel, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ2SN2gN1dmrFBEo6TWIzOw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Debunk the Funk with Dr. Wilson</a>, takes on quack medicine and conspiracy theorists, breaking down disinformation in digestible segments while providing you with plenty of ammunition to combat the COVID denialists in your life. While his area of expertise is how cells build ribosomes, Wilson recently offered a three-part takedown of hydroxychloroquine peddler <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_gZkk0DcLE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Simone Gold</a>, an insightful look into <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlPLtaKySqY" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Christiane Northrup's COVID vaccine misinformation</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JZ_9JBoUa8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Joe Rogan's failure to fact check Alex Jones</a>.<p>--</p><p><em>Stay in touch with Derek on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/derekberes" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DerekBeresdotcom" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a>. His most recent book is</em> "<em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KRVMP2M?pf_rd_r=MDJW43337675SZ0X00FH&pf_rd_p=edaba0ee-c2fe-4124-9f5d-b31d6b1bfbee" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy</a>."</em></p>Anti-vaxx groups spend nearly $1 billion on social media
Fear-mongering is now a billion-dollar industry.
- The Center for Countering Digital Hate found that anti-vaxx groups reach 58 million users on social media, earning the platforms roughly $1B in revenue.
- The Center's founder, Imran Ahmed, says giving anti-vaxxers attention feeds the algorithms, further perpetuating the noise.
- In this interview with Big Think, Ahmed says the best thing we can do is offer credible information to change the algorithms.
Anti-vaxx organizations earn social media platforms $1B
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="61816eeb31c7cbe27d877e128bfe0f9d"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RLh_sYoQcOo?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>When I ask Ahmed why these groups spend so much money promoting anti-vaxx disinformation, he laughs while claiming he's not a psychologist. Though he attended medical school, he focuses on the dangers that platforms pose to society. Right now, Big Tech has found a strange bedfellow in the anti-vaxx movement. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"These platforms were not designed for free speech. The timeline is not about reading the most recent thing. It's an algorithmic list of content which prioritizes that information which is most engaging."</p><p>The report does reveal interesting clues on the men behind these efforts. The most influential anti-vaxx organizations are funded by osteopath Joseph Mercola, who runs a dietary supplement and medical device company and gives financial support to the National Vaccine Information Center and the Organic Consumers Association, as well as by fund manager Bernard Selz, who ponies up <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/meet-the-new-york-couple-donating-millions-to-the-anti-vax-movement/2019/06/18/9d791bcc-8e28-11e9-b08e-cfd89bd36d4e_story.html" target="_blank">three-fourths</a> of the money that supports the Informed Action Consent Network. </p><p>Mercola is easy: he uses fear-mongering to sell supplements, which has put <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2019/10/15/fdc01078-c29c-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html" target="_blank">over $100 million</a> into his bank account. Since the start of the pandemic, Mercola has <a href="https://cspinet.org/news/fda-and-ftc-urged-bring-enforcement-proceedings-against-joseph-mercola-false-covid-19-health" target="_blank">claimed</a> at least 22 vitamins and supplements prevent or cure COVID-19. Vaccines misinformation is just one of his techniques. Previously, he's stated that microwaves <a href="https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/February-2012/Dr-Joseph-Mercola-Visionary-or-Quack/" target="_blank">alters the chemistry</a> of food, mobile phones <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/style/could-wearable-computers-be-as-harmful-as-cigarettes.html?_r=0" target="_blank">cause cancer</a>, and pasteurized milk <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dairy-free-avoid-this-pop_b_558447?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAKYhB9iAA7Z_l2vMSqfdiwu42fiyF6r9asuq5lPTmvIbKgFYfC2NRCEip0JkogItFeBfX24HT5qV-BehIpkIwSrHVLzAlSBUtKnyUeW_MXJSTQDk_hMU1xtt8aexggDmH7gFnMa-ItiTD35ndBo1EVU1GIeuZgD5cOWfZlPRkWr" target="_blank">causes negative health effects</a>.</p><p>Selz is harder to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/meet-the-new-york-couple-donating-millions-to-the-anti-vax-movement/2019/06/18/9d791bcc-8e28-11e9-b08e-cfd89bd36d4e_story.html" target="_blank">figure out</a>. His philanthropic work is extensive thanks to his management of a $500 million fund. His anti-vaxx efforts, including $1.6 million given to discredited physician Andrew Wakefield, which he used to fund the movement's opus, "Vaxxed," appear to be a passion project. Since the Selz family avoids media contact, other reasons may be obscured. </p><p>Anti-vaxx sentiment is not new, but social media has given it steroids. As Ahmed notes, anti-vaxxers use the same tactics as other hate groups: don't trust authorities; disseminate conspiracy theories to create confusion; claim to be the sole authority on a topic. </p><p>Shortly after quarantine began, health misinformation actors merged with a hardcore group of committed anti-vaxxers to create what Ahmed calls "a coalition of chaos." Over the preceding months, this coalition has tested out a number of ideas: 5G causes COVID-19, which had a moment and then faded; track and trace is part of a global effort to microchip you, which never really caught on; and coronavirus vaccines are part of an elite capitalist conspiracy. The latter is persistent and having real-world consequences.</p>Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), holds up a model of COVID-19, known as coronavirus, during a US Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the plan to research, manufacture and distribute a coronavirus vaccine, known as Operation Warp Speed, July 2, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Photo by Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images
<p>Vaccine hesitancy in the UK is around 30 percent, according to Ahmed. In the U.S., he pegs it at 40 percent, though <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/just-50-americans-plan-get-covid-19-vaccine-here-s-how-win-over-rest" target="_blank">one poll</a> found that only half of Americans are confident that they'll get a vaccine (if one is created). Enter the danger: herd immunity is different for every virus, though certainly over 50 percent. Ahmed says that confusion over a COVID-19 vaccine could result in the loss of tens of thousands of lives.<br></p><p>As more people turn to social media for medical advice, Ahmed reminds us that platforms are part of the problem. You might think you're doing a public service by debating your anti-vaxxer friend. In reality, you're confirming algorithmic bias.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"The biggest mistake we've made is thinking that public opinion will change their views. Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Google don't care about your opinion, because you're not their customer. You're their product." </p><p>Change agents target weak points, such as advertisers. Ahmed suggests a ruthless, sustained push, similar to the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/01/tech/facebook-top-advertisers/index.html" target="_blank">orchestrated effort</a> that resulted in hundreds of brands pulling advertising from Facebook and Instagram. This month-long boycott is over unenforced hate speech policies. </p><p>Far from bucking the system, anti-vaxxers are fueling the capitalist greed they claim to decry. Discussing anti-vaxx sentiments, Eula Biss writes in "On Immunity" that, "wealthier nations have the luxury of entertaining fears the rest of the world cannot afford." She compares vaccine refusal as a form of civil disobedience to the trappings of capitalism: anti-vaxxers are more like the 1 percent than the 99 percent. They're looking out for their own self-interest instead of the good of the herd, relying on propaganda promoted by wealthy donors with vested interests as their "research." </p><p>This coalition of chaos, in cahoots with the platforms they fund, is capitalizing on vaccine disinformation. The farther from science they lead us, the better. The more enraged we become, the more attention they capture, which is where this new economy thrives.</p><p>--</p><p><em>Stay in touch with Derek on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/derekberes" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DerekBeresdotcom" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://derekberes.substack.com/" target="_blank">Substack</a>. His next book is</em> "<em>Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy."</em></p>Pope: 'Fake news started in the Garden of Eden'
Pope Francis’ 2018 World Communications Day message explains the dangers of fake news and what journalists and the public must do to combat it.
In his message for 2018 World Communications Day, Pope Francis rallied to the defense of journalism—if not the news media—comparing fake news to the snake in the Garden of Eden for its misleading, destructive power. This is a valuable, clear-eyed message for anyone, regardless of belief system. And to be clear, the pope’s not talking about fake news as defined in White House press briefings or presidential tweets. He has something very different—nearly the opposite—in mind:
