The irrational American electorate

Democracy, at least in theory, relies on a rational electorate acting in response to credible information. Since the dawn of mass media, elections have been shaped by voters’ reactions to the news. But as I drove through the three states that decided the 2016 election by a little less than 80,000 votes, I sensed a glitch in the information loop, like a scratch on an old-fashioned record. People kept repeating things that were false, and dismissing things that were true.

Charlotte Alter

The most rabid Trump fans have really gone off the deep end. Those who believe conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and support crazy groups such as QAnon, have completely lost touch with reality. Notably, however, they don’t think they are wrong. They believe they are BETTER informed than the rest of us. They will tell you that you would agree with them if you would just “read more” and “do the research.”

As a former high school debate coach I believe I know something about reason, logic, and logical argument. As a former English teacher and teacher librarian, I believe I know something about information, information sources, and research. The fact that large numbers of Americans are currently willing to blindly ignore clear evidence, deny obvious facts, and believe complete nonsense is concerning to me.

Are they just stupid?

It would be easy for me to assume that these people are either not thinking (ie. lazy) or cannot think (ie. stupid). While these easy assumptions may describe some people, the full truth is probably more complicated.

In between not thinking at all and solid, rational, thinking is a vast range of poor thinking — thinking that is distorted by false information, weak logic, emotion, and confirmation bias. Journalist Charlotte Alter calls this “unlogic.”

Unlogic is not ignorance or stupidity; it is reason distorted by suspicion and misinformation, an Orwellian state of mind that arranges itself around convenient fictions rather than established facts.

Charlotte Alter

Clear thinking does not come easily

The human capacity for self-deception is very high. As a teacher, I was quite aware of which students were actively interested and curious about learning the subject at hand and those who were distracted, paid minimal attention in class, and did as little work as possible. Yet, nearly every student seemed to believe they, personally, were doing well in class and acted surprised when they received a low grade on a paper or test.

Occasionally, a student would work fairly hard on an assignment and still fail utterly. My favorite example of this is a seventh grade research paper I once received on the topic of Cancer. The paper began with the sentence, “Cancer is Y shaped.” As I read, it became clear that the student had looked up the word “Cancer” (we used encyclopedias in those days), but had no idea that Cancer the disease was different from Cancer the constellation.

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This student had diligently done her research, but she was still completely ignorant of the truth.

Two tools for critical thinking

Everyone is subject to poor thinking. It is said that humans make 90 percent of our decisions emotionally and only use logic when it is necessary later to justify those decisions to ourselves and others. Also, we all tend to favor sources of information that support our existing worldview — thus limiting our ability to think outside of our preferred silos.

But many people have been led down the rabbit hole of craziness by evil, politically motivated, disinformation. This is why we all need to relearn, and use, the clear thinking skills we were taught in school.

I recommend two useful techniques for evaluating information. One is called the CRAAP test. The other technique is called Lateral Reading. The CRAAP test is a checklist one can use to critically evaluate a source of information. CRAAP is an acronym for:

• Currency: The timeliness of the information.
• Relevance: The importance of the information for your needs.
• Authority: The source of the information. (Author, publisher, source, sponsor).
• Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content.
• Purpose: The reason the information exists. (Inform, teach, sell, entertain, or persuade).

The CRAAP test will help you deeply analyze a piece of information. It will help you identify “crap” before you accept it as truth.

Lateral Reading will help you look at an information source in a wider context. It is the technique used by fact checkers and is very easy to do in a web browser. One simply opens multiple tabs and searches for independent information on the organization providing the information in your first tab. Lateral Reading can also help you find additional information that may confirm or contradict your initial finding.

It’s everyone’s responsibility

The goal with both of these techniques is to help us think rationally and critically about information that is presented to us. They are tools to help us logically “consider the source.” They remind us to never simply believe the first thing we hear.

The Founders of the United States gave great responsibilities to its future citizens. We are failing to meet the challenge. Our intellectual laziness in a modern world of rapid information exchange has made us vulnerable to the lies and manipulations of dangerous charlatans and demagogues. If our democracy is to survive, Americans must make a greater effort to see through the lies and propaganda of QAnon, FoxNews, and the Republican party that supports them.

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Source: Charlotte Alter, “How a Road Trip Through America’s Battlegrounds Revealed a Nation Plagued by Misinformation,” Time, October 8, 2020.
Andrew Romano and Caitlin Dickson, “YouGov poll: Half of Trump supporters believe QAnon’s imaginary claims,” Yahoo! News, October 20, 2020.
“Evaluating Information –Applying the CRAAP Test“, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico. (A one-page pdf handout)
Jennifer A. Fielding, “Rethinking CRAAP: Getting students thinking like fact-checkers in evaluating web sources,” College and Research Libraries News, December 2019.