Opinion – Suzana Herculano-Houzel: Birds are fake

I think we’re doing it all wrong. We are trying to fight fake news with logic and reasoning, trying to reason with the victims of misinformation about the error of their beliefs against the veracity of our data. It’s like shouting at the deaf, or speaking in Greek in a tupiniquim public square. In fact, it’s much worse than that, because trying to fight fake news with data and logic doesn’t work even when speaking the same language, as recent years have shown.

I have a new hypothesis, perfectly testable and therefore scientifically valid. I propose that the problem with the tides of fake news is not a lack of correct information, but a problem of lack of critical thinking that gives rise to bizarre beliefs, such as gay kits, dick bottles and such.

The most important part of my hypothesis is the proposal that one doesn’t argue against outlandish beliefs: the way out is to bombard the uninformed enemy with… even more disinformation, always spectacularly and astonishingly freaky — or not?

My hypothesis is inspired by my new science popularization hero, a born disinformer who discovered his knack for fighting the absurd with even more absurdity when he suddenly found himself surrounded by a sea of ​​trumps storming a women’s rights march in 2017, here in Tennessee, where I live, in the US.

In the midst of the march, Peter McIndoe took out a cardboard and a marker and produced his own manifesto poster with the first slogans that came to mind: BIRDS ARE LIE (“birds aren’t real”, in the original), in big letters.

It started as a joke, with the aim of invalidating, by association, the sayings of the Trumpist posters around. But, in times of social media, “The Birds Are For Lies” soon became a movement. The website is there: birdsarentreal.com, where you can check out the conspiracy theory that McIndoe created as a satire-disinformation protest against disinformation.

According to him, all birds in the US would have been exterminated by the federal government during the 1960s, and replaced by drones that monitor and spy on citizens. The disinformation campaign has delightful details: that the drone birds recharge themselves when they land on electrical wires; that bird poop in cars is a covert system of following people; and that President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 for hesitating to kill all birds.

Obviously the hypothetical test of my hypothesis would not involve ending up with actual news. I am a scientist and I know firsthand the comfort that data offers: unless the method is questionable, data is data, and what is discussed is only its meaning and interpretation. Trustworthy media, with editorials and a research service, should be a guaranteed and protected public service, offered by institutions committed to facts.

But for the rest… Imagine a world where Brazilian creativity and irreverence were put at the service of so much, but so much, electoral nonsense that people would have no other way than, imagine, having to stop to think about what is in fact true ? Ah, Brazilians, don’t let me down…