All news is fake news

I’m not talking about the objectively false narratives pumped into the word by bad actors to manipulate public opinion.

I’m talking about the fake news of our own devising. The cause of which is twofold.

Firstly, the way we choose to consume media is inherently creating a bias narrative.

• The limited perspectives we choose to pay attention to.
• The filter bubbles we choose to exist in.
• The confirmation bias we have in seeking out additional information.
• The likeminded people we converse with.

Secondly, acknowledging that any events in the external world pass through our unique perceptual filters. The movie we play in our mind about any news event is created by distorting objective reality with our beliefs, values, language, what we choose to delete, the generalisations we make, etc. The result is a personalised version of events that differs considerably from any objective truth.

Knowing, factually, that our experience of world events is not cleanly objective. That our reality and the realities of everyone around us are heavily filtered, internally and externally, can help us to sympathise, but not necessarily agree with, the views of others.