This is the third and final article in a short series on cleaning up the information environment. Part one can be found here, How to Fight Information Pollution, and part two here, How to Identify Your Cognitive Biases & Allergies. This one focuses on identifying unwitting (or witting) culture warriors parroting tribal narratives in the wild and online:
This essay is the second in a short series about taking personal responsibility for improving the quality of the content circulating in the information environment. In essay one, ‘How to Fight Information Pollution’, we considered methods we can adopt to help ensure the information we share is integral and truthful. This second essay focuses on a process to help us gain greater awareness of our individual cognitive biases and allergies.
In this age of polarisation, disinformation and fake news, never before has it been so important that we carefully and thoughtfully evaluate the information we consume before we share it. I think of it as fighting “information pollution”.
As the digital age accelerates the spread of information, it also multiplies the misinformation circulating through society. At the heart of this issue are three key elements, collectively referred to by the present author as ‘The 3Cs of Misinformation Circulation: Conspiracists, Contrarians, and the Credulous’.
In the face of escalating cultural divisions and systemic crises, the urgency for us to learn how to effectively manage personal and societal transformation has never been greater. The life journey of Malcolm X, a prominent civil rights figure, offers a powerful prism through which we can examine this process. His personal evolution, closely mirroring the seismic societal shifts of his era, sheds light on the complex dynamics of transformative change, both on an individual and collective scale.
The Parrhesia Diaries 