The real question is how do repair communication in our society. The author thought it was a hoax because they didn't trust anyone saying it was real.
Part of this is lack of exposure to other cultures, to people who travel. But a gigantic part is that the people we once turned to for learning what was going on in the world, sold their trust for political advantage. Now we have a collection of echo-chambers, each one every bit as partisan as the other, making each one useless for the social grounding function they used to serve.
So we tell the author, "Do better." But blaming someone who's been misled because "the other side" is usually untrustworthy (from their perspective) doesn't solve the larger societal problem. People like the author aren't "keen to drag us down". They're doing it because the source of information they had was poisoned.
I was able to get a crystal clear picture of what was going on and how we needed respond to it because I have family in China. Worse, I had people in my household visiting China when the lock-downs began. They spent the entire trip scared and apartment-bound. When they came home in early Feb. we all self-quarantined, thinking maybe it wouldn't come here if they could just shut the flights down.
But that is because we got the knowledge directly. News media was completely unreliable.
The real question is how do repair communication in our society. The author thought it was a hoax because they didn't trust anyone saying it was real.
Part of this is lack of exposure to other cultures, to people who travel. But a gigantic part is that the people we once turned to for learning what was going on in the world, sold their trust for political advantage. Now we have a collection of echo-chambers, each one every bit as partisan as the other, making each one useless for the social grounding function they used to serve.
So we tell the author, "Do better." But blaming someone who's been misled because "the other side" is usually untrustworthy (from their perspective) doesn't solve the larger societal problem. People like the author aren't "keen to drag us down". They're doing it because the source of information they had was poisoned.
I was able to get a crystal clear picture of what was going on and how we needed respond to it because I have family in China. Worse, I had people in my household visiting China when the lock-downs began. They spent the entire trip scared and apartment-bound. When they came home in early Feb. we all self-quarantined, thinking maybe it wouldn't come here if they could just shut the flights down.
But that is because we got the knowledge directly. News media was completely unreliable.