Funny enough, I could reduce this entire article to just a few words: inform yourself better and do proper research.
But those words alone don’t tell a compelling enough story, and since we are storytellers, we love context. So, let me share a short story about how I tried to counter misinformation for a friend—and how my efforts were ultimately in vain.
A few weeks ago, while I was playing Elden Ring, I got a call from a friend. He asked if I had heard about the controversy regarding USAID and what it meant for our country. According to him, the organization had allegedly sent money to promote leftist views, particularly regarding sexuality.
My first response was, "I really don't care, I'm busy doing something." But he kept going, sharing all kinds of details I wasn't interested in at that moment. The call ended on that note—me, uninterested—and that was that.
A few days later, I came across a YouTube video discussing recent political issues, briefly mentioning USAID. This reminded me of my friend's call, so I messaged him on WhatsApp, explaining that the claims he had heard were false. Of course, he countered with his own arguments.
We ended up discussing misinformation—a term thrown around in our country so often that it has almost lost its meaning. Our conversation concluded with me pointing out that just because he, a staunch right-wing supporter, believes something and refuses to consider other perspectives, that doesn’t mean the information he consumes is reliable. Misinformation and manipulation don’t discriminate; they affect everyone, regardless of ideology. To prove my point, I asked him for the article that led to our conversation so I could analyze it myself.
I had two reasons for this. First, I don’t blindly trust the media in our country—either because of incompetence or because of proven manipulation. Second, I understand how easy it is to be misled by information about foreign affairs, especially when you don’t speak the language of the country where the situation is unfolding.
After a while, he sent me the article. As soon as I started reading it, I couldn’t help but laugh at how poorly written and one-sided it was. Determined to prove my point, I decided to do some research.
This was around 1 PM. For the next three hours, I gathered information, fact-checked claims, and compiled everything into a document. I translated sources, wrote everything in our language, and—unlike the article he shared—I provided numerous references and links so he could verify the information himself. From the start, my argument was simple: if you rely solely on others to give you a one-sided narrative without doing your own research, you have no way of knowing whether you’re being manipulated.
By the time I was done, it was 4 PM, and I had a 23-page document—something I was quite proud of. I wasn’t in the mood to edit it, so I sent it to him with a disclaimer: "I probably made a lot of grammatical mistakes, so just ignore those."
The conclusion of my research? The USAID situation was far more complex than the article suggested. The article had omitted crucial details, made unchecked claims, and was clearly pushing a far-right agenda. And that was fine—everyone has the right to their political views. But what frustrated me was the article’s complete disregard for the truth. It didn’t even attempt to explore the situation in its full complexity; instead, it cherry-picked information to fit a narrative.
If you only seek information that justifies your opinions, you're not informing yourself—you’re just feeding your own ego.
A few days later, I met up with my friend for coffee. Among other things, I asked if he had looked at the document I sent him. His response? "Nah, I don't really care about it. You can't change my opinion anyway."
And that was that. It didn’t matter what the truth was. What mattered was that he had an opinion and would defend it passionately, regardless of whether his arguments made sense.
I wasn’t upset or offended. Those three hours of research weren’t for him—they were for me. They proved to me just how easy it is to mislead people and how little effort it takes to uncover the full picture, provided you’re willing to look.
That experience solidified something I had long suspected: you cannot change someone’s mind if they aren’t willing to question what they think they know. I had understood this in theory for years, but I had still hoped that, when faced with factual information, someone might say, "Okay, I was wrong" or at least "I should do more research."
But that’s not how the world works. People believe what they want to believe, and very few are willing to challenge their own biases to reach the one conclusion that most accurately reflects reality: It’s complicated.
The window of persuasion is narrow. There is a limit to how far an opinion can be shifted within a given time frame and a given personality.
Most people are fundamentally ineffective at political persuasion because they consider their priorities or context rather than that of the person they are speaking with.
I recently watched a hearing by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, concerning USAID. There were some marginal programs there were some beneficial programs. When the U.S. Government is engaged in deficit spending, my priorities would be that any foreign aid meet rigorous tests for purpose and accountability and not be used as a form of social engineering.
With respect to media regardless of its source, I attempt to avoid forming an opinion stronger than the diligence I have performed.
Posted using Political Hive
Fair. I tried to reason with that friend because we've known each other for a long time and I expected him to be more logical and do more research for a problem rather than just jump to a conclusion just because he liked it, without any proof of the information he used being actually true.
I wasn't even trying to convince him specifically that his mentality or political view was wrong. I was just trying to point out to him that manipulated information can be used on both sides, not only for "the other side".
If more people would do this, more people would be better informed. Alas, emotions triumph over logic.