Some of you may have seen Elon Musk's endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s crazy antivax conspiracy theories today.
Over at post.news, I just posted a long-form piece about this, and about how science education needs to adapt to online disinformation.
Please a look. If you like it, boost it there or here or — if you dare — over on the birdsite.
Alternatively, if you prefer to read it here, I'm posting here as well by request. I have mixed feelings about cross-posting like this, but people have asked — and I sure understand the rationale for not wanting to use post.news. I've written about it myself.
So, anyway, here you go.
Science education in an age of twitter disinformation
tl;dr — Science education needs to adapt to a world of misinformation on social media and beyond. Today, prominent antivaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tweeted the ridiculous claim that as director of the NIAID, Dr. Fauci bought the silence of the entire worldwide virology community by handing out research grants. Elon Musk then affirmed and amplified his claim.
There's lots to unpack here, but:
Question authority --> Critical thinking.
Teach people to question authority and they'll start learning critical thinking and stop believing everything they read on the internet.
