Storms Helene and Milton have triggered rise of misinformation stoked by Trump and fellow Republicans
Meteorologists tracking the advance of Hurricane Milton have been targeted by a deluge of conspiracy theories that they were controlling the weather, abuse and even death threats, amid what they say is an unprecedented surge in misinformation as two major hurricanes have hit the US.
A series of falsehoods and threats have swirled in the two weeks since Hurricane Helene tore through six states causing several hundred deaths, followed by Milton crashing into Florida on Wednesday.
The extent of the misinformation, which has been stoked by Donald Trump and his followers, has been such that it has stymied the ability to help hurricane-hit communities, according to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).
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The system, no matter how good its education, will never be able to turn everybody into “decent philosophers”. Some people just aren’t smart, no matter how good education might get. Some just are gullible. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be as well-educated as they can possibly be, but people and their capabilities just are a spectrum and always will be. And even if today’s dumbest people will be as smart as today’s “decent philosophers” by tomorrow, today’s “decent philosophers” will still outsmart them, which is an issue if there are manipulative people with hidden agendas among them. Which they will be.
This isn’t an education issue, it’s an information and misinformation issue. Giving anybody, including malicious actors, their own, personal channel to spread whatever information they want, regardless of its quality or truth, has turned out to be a terrible idea. The Internet kind of comes with the idea to give everyone access to all of humanity’s information without taking into account that there should be a certain responsibility attached to the question of the creation of that information or that there should be a separation of concerns between people who spread information and people who have other interests than just informing people in the best way possible.
Fortunately I completely disagree.
“Imagine going back to the year 1600. Even then, Western Europe was one of the more educated parts of the planet, but back then about 20% of the population could read and write. And I suspect if you went back there and you asked someone who was capable of reading and writing—say a member of the clergy—and you said: “What percentage of the population is even capable of it?” They might have said: “If you have an incredible education system, maybe 50%.” You fast-forward 400 years to today, and we know that that prediction would have been wildly pessimistic; that nearly 100% of the population can be literate. But what similar blinders we have on today? If I were to ask you: “What percentage of the population is capable of understanding quantum physics? Or what percentage of the population is capable of contributing to medical research?” You might say maybe 5 or 10%, or with a really good education system maybe 15 or 20%. But what if the answer is a 100%? What could that mean for the rate at which human society could progress? What would that mean for the human condition? But that is just one aspect of the types of blinders we have on today, that in 400 years will hopefully seem silly.” —Salman Khan, Harvard Class Day 2014