On Tyranny - Lesson 11: Investigate

 Lesson 11 of 20 from the 20th Century On Tyranny: Investigate

Snyder issues two main calls to action here: invest in good journalism, and take responsibility for the information you spread.

Good journalists do a lot of work for relatively little pay. They dive into written records for research, maintain relationships with sources, interview others, write, and revise all on a very tight schedule. Finding good journalists and following their work is a good way to stay informed about the topics on which those journalists focus. Snyder argues that we pay for our utilities and auto repairs, but expect our news for free, and I do see his point. Written news is not a lucrative industry. It is an industry which is far from perfect, both on a macro scale as the media companies and the micro scale as individual journalists. But it has vast value in society to keep us informed. We shouldn't give journalists blind trust, but we should investigate them to pick and choose who is worthy of our trust. We should also remain vigilant in verifying information through multiple channels; don't stop when you find a single journalist you like. Find several, and hold them accountable to evidence and truth.

Snyder quotes Hannah Arendt, a political analyst from the 70's, as she addressed the lies spread in America about the Vietnam War: "Under normal circumstances, the liar is defeated by reality, for which there is no substitute; no matter how large the tissue of falsehood that an experienced liar has to offer, it will never be large enough, even if he enlists the help of computers, to cover the immensity of factuality." Except, in 2024, computers can cover the immensity of factuality with relative ease, especially if we're not intent on maintaining reality otherwise.

I've always been very frustrated with pay walls on news articles. It's information the public must have, and much of the public can't afford to prioritize it. I think free news is crucial. But if you can afford it, and you find a journalist or media company you trust (especially independent journalists and media), you should invest in them to a degree within reason. It is not a government-subsidized industry, and I don't think we want it to be. But it's also not immune to forced obsolescence. If we don't fight to maintain a news ecosystem that prioritizes the things we need to know, we simply won't have one. It could easily be argued that this is already happening. It may be more important now than ever to support independent journalists and media.

In terms of taking responsibility for what we share, I'll be much more concise, as Snyder's point is very straightforward. Don't spread bad information. Don't pretend it doesn't matter when bad information is spread. Make sure you know and understand what you're sharing, and call out falsehoods shared by others. If you don't like someone's opinion about a benign topic, keep scrolling. But if you know with certainty that something is verifiably false, call it out and cite your sources. Be that person. Our future may depend on it.