There is someone who I am Facebook friends with and I want to keep this person’s identity hidden for the purposes of this post. Here’s some background for this person. I have met this person before in real life but I haven’t seen this person in many years. Said person has all the hallmarks of an intelligent person. They have a PhD, Master, and Bachelor degrees in a field that requires critical thinking, pursuit of truth, logic, and an understanding of what is fact and what is fiction.
Now, knowing all that, said person frequently shares things on Facebook that are patently false. Things that instantly should set off your BS meter if you read it and would at least cause you to Google it or do more research. For example, this person shared a photo on Facebook that was easily debunked by just going to Snopes. Hell, the photo didn’t even seem plausible to begin with but she posted it as fact.
Before this, they shared another post in which a foreign politician supposedly repealed some act or law. I’m not even an expert in this foreign country but it didn’t seem like this actually happened. Sure enough, after just five minutes of Googling, I discovered no such thing repeal occurred.
It’s shocking to me that this person just randomly shares falsehoods like this. This person’s job requires them to know what is true and what is not. Research is something they should be an expert on. Without giving away their profession or education, smelling BS should be their core ability they can rely on. Yet, this person’s Facebook timeline looks like someone who didn’t finish high school.
On several occasions, I’ve been really tempted to comment on the post and set them straight, providing links to show them what they shared did not happen or was not true. The problem is I don’t consider this person a real-life friend and just more of an acquaintance. Also, do I really want to call out this person on Facebook in this manner, given her career?
I know this person has the capacity to be intelligent, so I’m wondering if they just choose to shut off their brain on Facebook? I really wish I could understand this more.
If you think the people reading her posts could be swayed by your responses, then go ahead and comment. Trying to convince her will be like talking to a donkey–it’s a waste of your time and it annoys the donkey.
I’m almost embarrassed to be correcting her. It’d be like if I wanted to correct you on speaking Japanese!