Sisyphus: misinformation after Paris As problematic articles spread online, empathy for refugees is disappearing
The world once again is reeling over incomprehensible violence in a city which, to many, stands for freedom, love, and fellowship - Paris.
The information is slowly coming out to answer the who, what, why, and most importantly how around the senseless violence. Families are likely still finding they've lost loved ones. Communities are dealing with the loss of neighbours. A country is coming to terms with - once again - an unforeseen attack.
In Canada, I was at the gym where every television was playing the Germany Vs France soccer game. I was watching CBC national news on my treadmill's TV when the breaking banner came on. I stopped, looked around at the other TVs, and saw that the game was continuing. So, I continued my run and CBC scrambled to find information.
By the time I got home, the incident clearly had expanded, the number of people injured or dead skyrocketed. The social media rumors became numerous and unsurprisingly disheartening.
Now, a few days later, the consequences of that mass spread of misinformation is coming to light. This morning Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall sent a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau, which he also shared on Twitter, asking the federal government to suspend its plan to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of the year.
In the letter Wall wrote that "the recent attacks in Paris are a grim reminder of the death and destruction even a small number of malevolent individuals can inflict upon a peaceful country and its citizens."
"Surely, we do not want to be date-driven or numbers-driven in an endeavour that may affect the safety of our citizens and the security of our country."
Wall is certainly not alone. The newly elected Polish government said on Saturday it will reject the quota imposed by the EU of sheltering 7,000 refugees. Although the United States has said it plans to continue moving ahead on bringing in 10,000 refugees, some governors, including Alabama’s Robert Bentley and Michigan’s Rick Snyder, said they will oppose attempts to relocate Syrian refugees to the states through the country’s refugee admissions program. Already a growing list of States are jumping on the negative rhetoric train.
The swell of public support that came about after a photo of the body of a three-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a beach in Greece is flowing away as quickly as the tide. Politicians and leaders are watching the change and acting in accordance.
Politicians should act on our behalf and for our well being, but in the age of social media where everyone thinks they are an expert after reading a headline, what we believe is the best for us and the world might not be true, or at least is grossly misinformed.
Through this experience I have learned (once again) that responding to emotion with logic, specifically online, is like the curse of Sisyphus.
An acquaintance, which I have on Facebook, posted support to bringing in refugees to Canada. This was the response:
Watching this acquaintance quickly cede his argument and change it to "legitimate" refugees was a breaking point. Since Friday, I had seen ridiculous and outrageous claims all over social media from people I respect as well as others who I maintain a social media relationship with to make sure I am not surrounding myself with mirrors.
And so I responded, likely the first folly for the well being of my mental health.
I proceeded to share a few articles and reports from legitimate sources to back up my claims. "There," I thought to myself "people will see that they need to have empathy and they will understand the difference between a refugee and a terrorist. Between fact and fiction."
Oh, how wrong I was.
One person responded "you got me there but what about our people!? Everyone has their own views on this topic and everyone's views and opinions will be different, I respect yours buddy!"
Another person commented "I have the same view, we need to help those who cannot help themselves, but then an Article like this comes along, more often then not.. And I can't shake it.. It scares me.. Canada and Canadians need to realize the Burden that These Refugees will be taking on our Welfare System and Medical System.. We also have to prepare and understand, that just by Accepting Refugees that we are Accepting the Risks.." The person linked an article from a white nationalist and far-right organization and website which you can find below. (After clicking it remember that it's a white nationalist site and then read the snopes article about it here http://www.snopes.com/female-physician-munich/)
Another person commented "aren't 80% of the ones trying to get here adult males? Where did they leave all the women and children?" (The United Nations’ figures show women outnumber men, and children 11 years old and younger, male and female, account for 38.5 percent of all refugees.)
Another said "not everyone agrees on all these one sided stories being told! Believe what you believe and respect others on their believes! Period!!!"
The issue here is that this is not about "beliefs".
This is about accurate statements in regards to a global crisis impacting millions of people, 25,000 of those people's futures rely on what our leaders in Canada choose to do.
You can't believe that it is mostly adult male refugees when the statistics prove that is wrong. You can't believe they are taking over hospitals in Munich when there is no actual proof that is happening. You can't believe they will sit around and eat up welfare when numerous global studies prove that assumption wrong.
In an age of social media, people read headlines from any website without any critical thought and assume it to be true. That's how they get "fact" and "belief" mixed up and unfortunately it has very real-world consequences for those fleeing war.
Right now the authorities, the media, and the politicians are still trying to make sense of what happened in Paris. We are seeing headlines about how the passport which authorities believed linked a suicide bomber to the refugee migration was fake and the Independent says "it raises already serious concerns that the passport used to identify one of the attackers as a 'refugee terrorist' was faked.
Whether the man who blew himself up outside the Stade de France did indeed travel through Greece and Macedonia, as the passport suggests, remains unclear."
Also by focusing on the "fear" of refugees, people aren't looking critically at what France, US, and Canada are doing in Syria and Iraq where reports have shown the allies bombed a Doctors Without Borders Hospital, weddings, and caused at least 600 civilian deaths in the past year alone. They aren't asking why Saudi Arabia has beheaded more people than ISIS, according to Newsweek in 2014. They aren't asking why millions of people are fleeing Syria in the first place or even trying to make sense of the historical background to the civil war (and the outside influences involved in it).
I get it. It's easier to fear and hate a group than find empathy and use critical thought. It's easier to read a headline than a whole article. But people's decisions have consequences. Ask the guy whose selfie was photo-shopped and then labelled as a Paris bomber - he's Sikh and lives in Canada but now fears his life. Did you look at where that photo came from before getting angry with his brown skin? Or ask the people who have no place to worship after the only mosque in Peterborough was set on fire. Did the person behind that hate crime have "belief" in some random headline and meme or did they look at facts?
Or what about the people hoping to find safety, peace, and if they are lucky some dignity. By the end of August 2014, the UN estimated 6.5 million people had been displaced within Syria, while more than 3 million refugees had fled to countries such as Lebanon (1.14 million), Jordan (608,000) and Turkey (815,000).
As Jesse Berney wrote for the Rolling Stone we should see the attack on Paris as a motivation to bring in even more refugees.
"We've been at war with terror for nearly a decade and a half now. We killed Osama bin Laden. We replaced hostile governments in Iraq and Afghanistan with client states. We defeated tyrants, yes, but we left chaos in their place.
And nothing we have done has stopped the tide of terrorist recruitment. One eyewitness account from Paris described a shooter in the Bataclan theater as 20 to 25 years old; that would have made him a child on 9/11.
How do we stop the next generation of terrorists from radicalizing? Bombing them sure doesn't seem to be doing the trick. Keeping open the prison at Guantanamo Bay isn't doing it either. Eliminationist rhetoric directed at Muslims isn't going to convince terrorists not to attack."
What would work is showing Muslims around the world that we stand with them in opposition to ISIS and extremist mentalities. We should show them that when they face terror at home (Paris-style attacks daily) that they are welcome and safe here.
Berney explains it spot on saying "our responsibility is to be better than the terrorists, and to show those who might be seduced by their hatred that the world isn't narrow and ugly. Closing off our borders to terrorized refugees sends exactly the wrong message."
Take that lesson not only into what you urge your politicians to do but what you do online. I wrote this post because it was becoming a chore to continue on in what seemed like an uphill battle when it came to sharing accurate statistics through social media. It shouldn't be a battle and it shouldn't feel hopeless.
The last point - in today's fast-paced online news climate it is very much the reader's responsibility to make sure they know what the purpose, ownership, and funding is behind the websites they share. It takes very little time, so just do it, look up the legitimacy of what you are reading, PLEASE.