If you think what happened the riot at the U.S. Capitol building is something that could never happen here, think again.
A recent report from a UK-based think tank has highlighted that right-wing extremism is becoming alarmingly more common, even up here.
鈥淲e were really struck by the high level of engagement by Canadians,鈥� said Jacob Davey, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) senior research manager and co-author of the report, told VICE News.
鈥淚t鈥檚 clear that Canada has a well-established system of right-wing extremists very much comparable to that of the U.S. and U.K., and it鈥檚 part of a global pattern.鈥�
About 6,600 right-wing extremist social media pages in Canada have reached 11 million online users worldwide.
That鈥檚 a scary thought.
According to Davey in the VICE story, this activity has increased during COVID and anti-racism protests, with the latter attracting people who feel racism isn鈥檛 an issue in Canada.
One doesn鈥檛 have to look far in 麻豆社国产to see that people are becoming bitterly divided over certain issues. One of the major ones is whether or not COVID-19 vaccines are effective.
You don鈥檛 need to look far to find a comment thread filled with people making absolutely false claims about vaccines causing autism, or even the virtues of the widely-discredited hydroxychloroquine 鈥榗ure鈥� to the pandemic.
While we aren鈥檛 in the middle of an election where Donald Trump is straight-up lying about 鈥榯heft鈥� that never occurred, we are facing a similar problem.
We are in a society where, increasingly, people are detaching themselves from reality.
Previously, it was possible to talk to people and hopefully have an informed, reasoned debate. But nowadays, that鈥檚 becoming increasingly rare.
You can鈥檛 reason with people who are determined to make up their own set of facts.
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have finally started to take steps to curb misinformation, but it, unfortunately, is too little, too late.
Many people have had enough time 鈥� especially from a year where staying at home was the primary activity 鈥� to become self-radicalized online.
So what鈥檚 the solution?
I don鈥檛 know. But one thing that we can do is avoid being complacent, recognize the damage that misinformation can do, and do everything you can to combat it.
We should all be finding our own little ways to stifle or stop the flow of misinformation.
Here are some easy examples. Learn and teach others how to properly fact check information. Tell people 鈥� respectfully 鈥� when they are spreading falsehoods. Support accredited journalistic outlets.
The list goes on.
Whatever you do, no matter how big or small, be proactive in contributing to facts that ground us in reality.
