Probably long overdue for this soak to be fair. It had to take drastic action.

I've already had one instance of 'de-influencing' myself like this, and it's kind of satisfying. But it worries me how little we are talking about this, and how little I trust others to have the time, skills or inclination to police their belief formation like this.

But I do intent to make an effort to pay more attention to when I feel my baseline shifting, my mind changing about something based on things I see on social media. I might even note it down and, once it reaches a certain level of confidence, actually look into it with skepticism.

So what now? What can we even do? When you read about addressing social media (mis/dis)information, the advice always rings a little unrealistic to me. As if you have endless time to devote to researching every slowly accumulating belief building up in the back of your head through osmosis.

I was actually moved to leave a comment along these lines, and his response was, I think, as concerning as it was defensive. 'No. Be quiet. Don't make me self-reflect. Don't hold me to a standard higher than those I oppose. I am entitled to make irresponsibly confident statements about the future.'

Tommy, for example, is already back at it. After two minutes of spot-on analysis and context about Trump’s planned mass deportations, he blithely asserts that ‘most of America is not going to react well to this … People are not gonna like it.’ Says who? How can he know? vt.tiktok.com/ZSjCqFeaD/