📑 The Problem with Facts

Tim Harford explains that the solution for fake news is not simply facts, rather we need to foster an attitude of curiousity. For as he demonstrates through a number of examples, even when armed with the supposed truth, we cannot escape the engaging influence of the lie:

Facts, it seems, are toothless. Trying to refute a bold, memorable lie with a fiddly set of facts can often serve to reinforce the myth. Important truths are often stale and dull, and it is easy to manufacture new, more engaging claims.

This comes back to a point that Barthes’ made in regards to mythologies and advertising. The strength lies in the power of first impressions, to manipulate individual preconceptions of a sign. It does not matter than after the initial contact a more rational meaning be found, a myths power to distort still remains and does not diminish. For

Myth is imperfectible and unquestionable, time or knowledge will not make it better or worse.