Beware Facebook Experts

Rather than post this on my Facebook page, I thought a few moments writing out a set of interactions today I had with a FB friend would be helpful to me. First, the concept of a friend on FB is an interesting one. The woman in question, in my age group, I have never met or spoken to in person. She and I happened to post photos to a now defunct website in the past and by liking each other's work, became friends. Nothing unusual about that. What has been interesting over the past five years is how political differences play out on social media.

As far as I can tell from her profile, she is retired and has a degree in English from a Florida university and seems to have been a teacher, although I am unsure of that. In any event, it is clear she has right-wing politics and is a devout Trump supporter, based on her posts and responses she has given to me and others on FB. As any of you who know me will attest, my politics are liberal and progressive and I view Donald Trump as the worst disaster to befall American politics since 1787. So, little room for agreement and lots of room for dispute. That said, we keep the interchanges civil and frequently part on FB in the “agree to disagree” mode.

Two posts she made in the last several days I find irritating, because (IMHO) they help to convey misinformation on two things that both interest me and which I think I have a good grasp of. The first one is here. It is an NBC story about the issues from the California primaries earlier this year and how 102,000 ballots had to be discarded. The story plainly notes that the most either missed the deadline for postmark or receipt by the registrar or had missing signatures or nonmatching signatures (97.7% when you do the math); others included empty envelopes returned with no enclosed ballot. She has posted before about “fraud” when people vote by mail, a concept trumpeted by Trump but which has zero credibility based on multiple studies of voting over the past several decades. The only conclusion I have is that she is parroting the Trump line, therefore amplifying the lies being told about vote-by-mail. I did point out that the real threat comes from Trump and his lackey Postmaster General. Of course, she doesn't want to hear that. As she lives in Florida and I live in California, and have come to understand voting in California over the past 4 years through membership in the League of Women Voters, I will stand by my position; she is simply a shill for Trump.

The second post was even more interesting. From the New York Post, once a real newspaper but now just another of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids, it is the sunny story of how a Democratic councilman in New York City credits hydroxychloroquine with saving his life from COVID-19. In tear jerking style, the councilman relates how hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin pulled him back from the brink of death. The usual anecdotal stuff that Trump has doubled and triple downed on. When I pointed out that the data for hydroxychloroquine (from randomized controlled studies) has shown no benefit, I received the expected response. She believes in it because that is the line that Trump has fed her. On this one, I will stack my understanding of infectious diseases, epidemiology, and pharmacology of 50 years against her degree in English. As Andy Slavitt notes, we have nonexperts who now know everything, and the less they know, the more certain they are that they are correct. This FB friend of mine clearly falls in this category. It is one of the reasons that we are cautioned about interacting with this sort of person; they are always right and your expertise is meaningless.

Well, my FB friend, have at it. I hope you do not contract COVID-19. I really hope no one contracts COVID-19. If you do, I would hope you have reasonable medical help that does not buy into the nonsense you spew out on your FB page. And, BTW -- vote by mail. Even if you vote for Trump, you will be at less risk than standing in line at a polling place.