What Are the Goals of #Truth2020?
Recently, I announced the kickoff of the so-called hashtag movement, #Truth2020. While the name is to some degree self-explanatory (hint: it's about focusing on truth in the U.S. 2020 elections), it only scratches the surface, and leaves more questions than answers.
What Is The Truth?
If the goal is to focus on, or get at "the truth", then what is it, and how will we know when we've found it? #Truth2020 is a decentralized movement, and will never take a position on what is or isn't "the truth". Rather, the goal is to make discussing the truth a priority as part of American politics, and let the participants of our great democracy figure it out.
Instead, #Truth2020 is about doing everything possible to encourage truthful discussions. As a starting point, this includes asking people to sign the Pro-Truth Pledge (have you?? We have!). The PTP is not a complicated pledge by any means, and requires very little of each of us: just a promise to be truthful and constructive in our online discussions. It very elegantly captures some simple, but powerful concepts.
We (and by "we", I mean you, too!) will also help by encouraging people to retweet / repost fact-checking sites and support their efforts. Besides using the #Truth2020 tag, we suggest using #FactCheck, #FactChecking, #FactsMatter and #TruthMatters wherever appropriate.
We will also provide and promote guides for how to do your own fact-checking. In the end, it will require all of us to hold each other accountable for being truthful in our discussions and reports. Fact-checking services are nice, but they are overwhelmed with the amount of information that requires fact-checking online. There are many people out there that doubt the honesty of the fact-checkers themselves. Who fact-checks the fact-checkers?
Focus on Policy
We have been feeling it for a while now. Something is not right with the system. Politics has become a popularity contest, a reality show, a superficial game of personalities. Obstructionism for the sake of winning political points is more important that doing what's best for the country. Policies that were acceptable under Obama are out of the question under Trump, and vice-versa.
It will be a lot harder to change our politicians than to change ourselves, but politicians do want to get (re-)elected. If we can teach ourselves and our politicians that we care more about policy than posture, and that we will not penalize them from working together, more will get done. The current measure of this is the debate on infrastructure: both parties know investing in our infrastructure is important, and both are promoting infrastructure as an important part of their platforms. And yet, Democrats are reticent, since passing a bill on infrastructure would be seen as a "victory" for President Trump. They still made a show of trying, but talks fell apart over questions of appearance and personality, rather than over issues of substance.
For this effort, we are using the hashtag #Policy or #PolicyFirst, and have created a "tag" to point out when people are focusing on the wrong things:
If you have more suggestions, let us know! That's what it's all about.
Stop Online Toxicity and Political Bickering
It can be nasty out there. Because of that, people aren't really talking. It's easier to make broad, sweeping condemnations about "those people" than it is to calm down and have a civilized conversation.
This must change. Although it's third on the list here, this is actually the number one objective of #Truth2020: to change the norms of online conversation. We will be putting out guides and insights into how to "make nice" online. This is not just wishful thinking: we have done it, and can show how to put it into practice. And it doesn't require giving up on fighting for your beliefs — it just requires changing your approach.
Defend Our Democracy
Democracy is under attack today in a way that was unimaginable just a few years ago. More specifically, our liberal style of democracy, which provides inalienable rights, and protections against the tyranny of the majority, is being challenged. China is rising as a power, and it's hard to deny that its one-party, tightly-controlled system seems to be more agile than our current state of obstructionist politics. Now more than ever, we need to remind ourselves of our founding principles and focus on those core elements that hold us together.
Meanwhile, we are acting as our own worst enemy. We may have the most powerful armed forces in the world, but this is meaningless if we sow our own division within.
Antagonistic postures online are their own self-fulfilling prophesy. By treating the "other" as one uniform stereotype, you actually alienate anyone you have categorized, and strengthen their unity. Hillary Clinton's famous declaration that "you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what [she calls] the basket of deplorables" prompted many of his supporters to co-opt the term and use it as a badge of pride. This posture not only worsens our internal divides; it strengthens the opposition.
It is also a sign of laziness. Stereotyping is a mechanism for simplification that is useful as a shorthand when we need to make quick decisions. Political debate should be the complete opposite of this. If you find that your are pigeonholing people online and making assumptions about who they are, take a step back and realize that you are being too hasty. You may be doing more harm than good.
It may seem like an exaggeration, but if we don't take the time to treat one another as individuals, we can make this division real, maybe dangerously so. Consider the following exchange:
Of course, the big specter presented is the danger of our division spiraling downward into a civil war. But if you take the time to listen to the exchange, you'll see that it is also a case of a well-respected news journalist misunderstanding and mischaracterizing what appears to be a very nice, well-meaning lady. How does this help our democracy?
Can It Possibly Work?
The TL;DR version of this article is that the goal of #Truth2020 is to change the norms of how we discuss politics online.
Can norms be changed? If you have ever argued that President Trump has changed the way politics works, then you must believe they can. If you have every accused him of "normalizing" something undesirable, then you have argued that they can be changed. If you have ever complained that the wave of "political correctness" has made it impossible to have an honest conversation without getting labeled a racist, a misogynist, or worse, then you are witnessing the change of norms in real time.
Can they be changed for the better? If you have ever believed that our nation was founded on principles to establish a new form of government, and that those principles echo to this day as a guiding force, then you understand that they can.
Join the #Truth2020 movement!
- Check out TheTruth2020.org
- Follow us on Twitter
- Join our Slack team
- Or just do your best to have constructive discussions online. Don't forget to use the #Truth2020 hashtag!
