Misinformation, the stories we choose to tell

We are the stories we tell.

Did George Washington chop down a cherry tree and then confess by proclaiming, “I cannot tell a lie”?

Perhaps Washington couldn’t lie, but his supporters could. One of Washington’s first biographers invented the story when, soon after Washington’s death, citizens of the new country hungered for more information about their first president — information that met their expectations.

Misinformation, it seems, is at least as old as America. So is the need to filter out what is credible and what is not.

The act of selecting which story to tell, which narrative to listen to, is what can help us cut through the clutter, explained Ryan Winn, a member of the liberal studies faculty at the College of Menominee Nation.

Whether we call them news stories, tweets or postings, the stories we share define us as a culture and as a country.

“All we are is stories,” he said. “They shape how we view our world.”

The first step in sorting out information is making choices about these stories, he said.

One tool we have is the awareness that the stories that make it to public consciousness have been selected — some by us, some by others. Winn called this “privileging” of stories.

“The question is,” he said, “whose story gets privileged?”

“Consider the pandemic, arguably the most pressing issue of our time,” Winn said. “We should be privileging the stories of health care workers and scientists, because they have the credentials and data to support their claims. We should not give equal weight to objectively false proclamations from anyone, despite their position of power.”

Which narrative has the privilege of being listened to, believed and repeated?

“It comes back entirely to shared values,” Winn said. “COVID-19 is a threat to common values, because it threatens human lives and livelihoods. Right now, stories that protect life in particular should be what we choose to privilege.”

Another tool is listening to a diverse group of storytellers.

It is privileging that keeps the fake cherry tree story alive but neglects so many other stories.

For example, Winn said, this is the centennial year of the 19th Amendment. Native women were involved in the women’s suffrage movement which culminated with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, but Native people are often excluded from that story. Still, they, too, were vocal champions of gender equality.

Once we are aware of the many narratives out there, changing the way the we listen to stories is not too difficult, he said.

The good news, Winn said, is that we have the listening skills we need.

“If a leader is leading based upon flawed logic that threatens our shared values, and the virtue of their platform privileges their falsehoods in the news cycle, then we need to exercise our First Amendment rights as Americans and speak up, petition and peaceably assemble.”

We also need to filter out whether the way in which a message is delivered affects how we hear it. In the presidential debate, President Donald Trump interrupted challenger Joe Biden 93 times. Biden interrupted 22 times. The message from the president, Winn said, is that his story is privileged and his opponent’s is not.

While the privileged cherry tree story may be harmless, Winn noted that some fake stories aren’t.

“The truth is that the best way to get a story privileged, is to vote for candidates who value what you value — which is hopefully an American future that’s protective of the lives, liberties and stories of all of its citizens,” Winn said.

cryczek@newmedia-wi.com