Don't Just Read

"A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read." That quotation is credited to my state's own Mark Twain. "Reading maketh a full man," said Francis Bacon. But unless we read with discrimination, we stand a good chance of being less informed rather than more.

























Information-wise, we live in the best of times and the worst of times—the best of times because the world of knowledge is at our fingertips via the Internet. It is the worst of times because any fool can use the world wide web to tell us anything that pops into his mind. The worst misinformation used to be limited to rags like The National Enquirer. Stuff that might as well have been taken from graffiti scrawled on public bathroom walls.

Years ago, at the dawn of the Internet, I taught a class called Methods of Research in which I sent students to various websites with the assignment of determining the reliability of articulate sources both well researched and totally pulled from the netherworld of what came to be QAnon and other specious websites.

When we read stuff that claims to be "things they don't want you to know," we should automatically be skeptical. Also beware of catchphrases and labels like "lame stream media,"

Conspiracy theories abound, but real conspiracies are extremely rare. As my father always told me. "Up to three people can keep a secret . . . as long as two of them are dead.

Whatever you do, weigh the consequences before you repeat or retweet outrageous accusations.