I’m shaken. It seems like it’s getting harder and harder to know what and who we can trust. What can the average thinking person do about this? I don’t think it’s realistic for readers to have to check the sources of nonfiction books that we read. Or is it? Shouldn’t that be the publisher’s task? I’m thinking about a fascinating and eye-opening book I recently read, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, by Caroline Criado-Perez. Now I wonder how much of what I read in that book is true. As previously stated, I’m shaken.
You ask some good questions. For a book like Invisible Women, I think you can be reasonably reassured as a failure to be as accurate as possible is likely to backfire on the author in that kind of book. It's tricky, though, and ultimately it requires us to put a lot of trust that the writers are acting as transparently and ethically as possible. It shouldn't stop us from reading books to inform ourselves, but some healthy skepticism is warranted.
I've always been somewhat skeptical of what I read but am even more so now. Shame on authors whom fail to fact check. I understand authors have a bias but this was too much. And shame on the editors and publishers who don't force authors to retract incorrect data.
Whomever controls the narratives controls the public at large. Mis-representations, mis-information, and downright lies are all interspersed with some actual facts to form narratives to form consensual public opinion. One must beware of this when coming to any conclusion on public affairs. I hardly trust anything these days without proper vetting. It saves me much distress.
Well, John, I WAS going to reference the famous Mark Twain quotation about how "the truth will always prevail...........except that it won't," and similar things, and then I came across this: How fitting that the man often credited with saying “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes” most likely did not invent the phrase. Sigh.
I’m shaken. It seems like it’s getting harder and harder to know what and who we can trust. What can the average thinking person do about this? I don’t think it’s realistic for readers to have to check the sources of nonfiction books that we read. Or is it? Shouldn’t that be the publisher’s task? I’m thinking about a fascinating and eye-opening book I recently read, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, by Caroline Criado-Perez. Now I wonder how much of what I read in that book is true. As previously stated, I’m shaken.
You ask some good questions. For a book like Invisible Women, I think you can be reasonably reassured as a failure to be as accurate as possible is likely to backfire on the author in that kind of book. It's tricky, though, and ultimately it requires us to put a lot of trust that the writers are acting as transparently and ethically as possible. It shouldn't stop us from reading books to inform ourselves, but some healthy skepticism is warranted.
I've always been somewhat skeptical of what I read but am even more so now. Shame on authors whom fail to fact check. I understand authors have a bias but this was too much. And shame on the editors and publishers who don't force authors to retract incorrect data.
Whomever controls the narratives controls the public at large. Mis-representations, mis-information, and downright lies are all interspersed with some actual facts to form narratives to form consensual public opinion. One must beware of this when coming to any conclusion on public affairs. I hardly trust anything these days without proper vetting. It saves me much distress.
Well, John, I WAS going to reference the famous Mark Twain quotation about how "the truth will always prevail...........except that it won't," and similar things, and then I came across this: How fitting that the man often credited with saying “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes” most likely did not invent the phrase. Sigh.