Emotional exhaustion of Fake News

I see that child being beaten up. I am shocked, choked, sad, weary. The video is grainy. The race, look, age of the child being beaten and the person who was beating them is unclear. The script on the video says its Israeli soldiers beating up Palestinian boys. Is it? Do I really know that it is? Do I need to direct my fear and hate against Israeli soldiers when I don’t know who it is? I am sad about the child, where ever and whoever they are.

I see that man being beaten up. The men beating him wear a T-shirt saying ‘army’. The script is that it is the Indian army beating up someone. I send the video to Army PR. They tell me it is not true. It is staged. I’d like to believe them.

I receive these videos on Whatsapp and Facebook all the time. I am exhausted by the negativity. By the fear, sadness, weariness they bring on in me. And then I think. Will I really care when something like this REALLY happens? I have EXHAUSTED my emotions on fake-ness, on the untrue. Do I have any tears, any emotions left? This fear and hatred that fake news engenders, is it toughening us, weakening us, darkening us, hardening us, numbing us, blunting us? Whose agenda is it serving? All these questions exhaust me further.

To help each other and the world be a better place we need to stop believing it, talking about it, spreading it….even if it serves our own beliefs and agendas. If you are not sure of the source and veracity, STOP the news at your computer, phone, laptop, living room. You have the power to do at least that…… Unless you want to live in a world full of hate and fear and your children to grow up in a world full of hate and fear with no empathy for the different, the other. PLEASE…….. THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK.