In A Shiny Progressive Hat - Tumblr Posts

Nope, I have to add further commentary on this poll. The fact that, "Sometimes, if the post or a particular claim in it sounds dodgy," won this poll should worry everyone.

Because another way to put that is: "No, as long as the post sounds true to me."

And that? That is the most propaganda-susceptible answer available.

More respondents chose the answer that amounts to, "I am susceptible to propaganda so long as it sounds true to me," than any other answer.

Out of 3,901 respondents: 36.7% (amounting to 1,432 people) proudly announced themselves as extremely susceptible to propaganda that feels true to them.

That's... kind of horrifying.

If you want to genuinely support meaningful progressive causes, then you cannot do that by failing to fact check anything that just "seems true" to you with zero sources or evidence of a claim provided.

Please, tumblr, I am begging you to learn how to fact check before you share a total stranger's totally unverified claims about real people in the world just because it felt like it could be true when you read it.

There are a lot of consistently repeated "facts" around tumblr that fall somewhere in this gradient—some of which are only corrected by actually crunching numbers, reading scientific papers, etc. Falling for misrepresented data isn't anyone’s fault, but it does mean that some things that "everyone knows" are straight up incorrect, because the source was written by someone who didn't understand what they were reporting on, or the subject was twisted to suit a narrative (for personal reasons, monetary gain, etc).

Meanwhile, SOME claims just don't have a real source at all.

Do you check sources before you repeat a factoid or spread a post?

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