Alternative facts

What happens when we can’t agree on reality?

Recent wildfires which ravaged the west coast of Oregon and California offer a glimpse not just into the upcoming dangers of climate change, but also the evolving risks of a society in which people increasingly disagree about what is true and what is not.

In one particular case, some residents surrounding Portland had refused to evacuate their homes despite the obvious advancement of life-threatening wildfires. At the outset of the fires, claims had circulated on social media that antifascist groups had purposely started fires. The claims were almost immediately discredited by government officials and credible news sources, but the message had already got through, and as result many people did not evacuate, putting themselves in heightened danger.

In a number of cases, as reported by the New York Times, the original messages about antifa groups and fire had become distorted vis-a-vis social networks. What was originally a plea from local government officials that peaceful demonstrators avoid the use of fire, due to unusually high fire risked, morphed into a message that antifa was purposefully creating forest fires.

This message was amplified by the local police deparment which posted on Facebook asking citizens to look out for suspicious activity, “to those of you still in and around town, please report any suspicious activity (strange people walking around/looking into cars and houses/vehicles driving through neighborhoods that don’t belong there) to 911 immediately.” 

There political chasm between left and right which has emerged in America in recent years has also made each side extremely suspicious of the other, and this is how facts become politicized. There has been a line a drawn in the sand, and most people have decided on which side they are standing. 

In normal times, the politics of public safety are generally more easily navigated. But in the past years, and especially since the election of Donald Trump, who has tried to convince his supporters that the government and the national media are no longer reliable sources of information, the very notion of authoritative sources of information has been upended. As a result, when basic factual information needs to be conveyed to, and understood by, the public, that information is often lost to the echo chambers of the various factions of society.

The specific case of the Oregon fires is only one of the more recent example of a situation where an obvious and unavoidable hazard is threatening the lives of citizens, while at the same time, the citizens do not trust the warnings of the government authorities which are telling them to leave their homes. 

As climate change continues to threaten human life via storms and other natural events, it will become increasingly difficult for authoritative bodies who manage public risk, to do their jobs in keeping people safe.

Wildfires are a very simple example of this. But more complex issues are at our door step, such as climate change, the management of COVID through vaccines, and other larger scale threats. Without a basic agreement between citizens on what is true and what is not, it will become increasingly difficult for the the body politic to agree on which direction to take. The ramifications of this chasm of facts will continue to manifest itself in everything from internation policy to local health initiatives, and everything in between.