Saturday, November 21, 2020

True or False - Cindy L. Otis

 My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Discovering the truth has never been easy...from ancient Egypt to the French Revolution to today, fake news has always been around. And in today's world, with our unprecedented access to information, the phenomenon is more powerful and present than ever. But finding the truth is still possible.

In True or False, former CIA analyst Cindy L. Otis guides readers through the impact of fake news over the centuries and empowers them to fight back by sharing lessons learned in over a decade working in intelligence. With this comprehensive guide, you too can learn to find the truth and fight back against fake news!"

I was going to put together a list of books, including this one, that will make you mad (in a good way!), but I decided on an individual review instead. So here goes! 

Part I of True or False reviews the long, illustrious history of fake news in fucking up the world (😐), which, although super interesting, may leave you feeling a little (a lot?) frustrated and hopeless. Fortunately, Part II gets into how to combat said fake news, which is super important, since as the Thucydides quote that kicks off Part II reminds us, "most people, in fact, will not take trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear." 

So...how do we combat fake news? The tl;dr version is by focusing on facts, recognizing biases in ourselves and others, and doing research before sharing things. But Otis includes not only more detail, but also exercises to practice doing those things, so don't rely on my tl;dr - read the book and learn more. And please, for the love of all that is holy, don't share obviously false shit on social media because you're "saving it to read later" or for friends to debunk for you.

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