LETTER | Fake news and falsehoods peddled as facts are nothing new.

They have existed ever since our body of knowledge outgrew our ability to verify information for ourselves i.e. practically ever since the first truth was told.

We are unable to prove independently the most commonly-accepted everyday facts we take for granted:

• the moon is spherical like a ball
   
• Trump is Potus
   
• I am my father’s son...
   
• Is the moon a ball and not a disc?

(We are told that Trump is Potus from news reports. Do I know how to perform a DNA test?)

1MDB was robbed? Many of us believe this because people who fit our political bias tell us so and are able to rattle off facts and figures to back up their contentions.

Many others don’t believe it because their leaders deny it and the alternative can’t bear thinking.

So, we all have to use our own good judgement to decide what is true or not based on circumstantial evidence and arguments presented to us; this takes some critical thinking effort.

Unfortunately, social media has made us mentally lazy, or maybe we are just overloaded.

Rather than act as filters, we often become purveyors of whatever comes into our phones and end up helping to spread the lies we so despise.

Coming back to GE14 and the steady stream of messages offering advice on voting procedures and events - some containing half-truths, some falsehoods, some a mix of both, many sounding knowledgeable, it is not too far-fetched to think that the creators are not idle folks with misguided good intentions but operatives paid by men with dishonest motives.

• Is the voting procedure really so complicated?
   
• Who stands to gain from voter confusion? From voter fear?
   
• Whose purpose do I serve when I unknowingly spread fake advice?

I need to ask these questions. I don’t want to be manipulated. I want to maintain control.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.