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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about our current age of disinformation. I’ve read many papers about it.
It’s no longer possible to convince someone of a scientific fact with data; especially when that scientific fact doesn’t fit into one’s ideology. So, do we just let this all happen? What do we do? Here’s a story.
My wonderful mother-in-law passed away suddenly recently. She was 86, so suddenly doesn’t seem like the right word, but it really is the right word to anyone who knew her. She had many years of life left in her.
She was a staunch conservative which created some tension with her daughter who is a staunch progressive. But in the past few years, they grew very close and would never talk politics.
She would stay with us for weeks at a time and saw how much effort I put into researching and acting on how to address climate change. Occasionally she would ask me about some detail about carbon or global warming and I would answer as best I could.
She asked why I spent so much time on this in my retirement years and my answer lately was that it was for my grandson, her great-grandson.
She and I have always had a great relationship; I have always respected her, and she has always respected me. She eventually changed her mind on climate change and told me to keep on keeping on with my work in this area.
When I called her after the Marshall fire to let her know that my son’s family had to evacuate, her first response was, “That darned climate change!” It made my day, my week, my year!
This is how we address the disparity of information. We keep close relationships with those we love and respect, especially when our political differences are large. We keep the dialogue open, and we tell stories to each other. We act locally when we can because the national dialogue is too toxic and potentially unchangeable with biased media and social media.
So, give a hug to someone you love whose political affiliation is opposite yours. It may eventually invite a conversation that bridges the disinformation ravine.
Michael Clinton
Longmont
