The saying goes that if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth. When a satirical article goes viral, this is exactly what happens, even if that’s not what the author intended.
Have you ever read a headline in your Facebook feed that sounds ridiculous but believable only to find out that it’s from The Onion? That gotcha moment is the delightful reveal satire writers are going for, but sometimes the reader misses the punchline. This is what has happened in full force to liberal satire site America’s Last Line of Defense. Political satire blogger Christopher Blair started the site to mock those politically on the far right with taglines about California schools imposing Sharia law on students and Michelle Obama giving President Trump the finger during the national anthem. He found his articles going viral, not because those aligned with his politics were sharing them, but rather because his targets took them to be true, were outraged, and had to spread the word before it’s too late.
Despite the warning on his website that EVERYTHING on the page was a lie, his articles continue to go viral for this reason.
Headlines are written to be provocative, and even if the content fits with your worldview, you may end up the butt of the joke at best, and spreading false information as fact at worst.
Check in with yourself to see why what you’re reading feels true to you. Does it go just a step or two beyond what sounds reasonable? Farther? When asked about the viral phenomenon of his site he reports being amazed that there seems to be no point at which a title is so ridiculous people don’t believe it. Emotion takes hold and they spread the word. On these sites, the facts don’t check out on purpose. Did Barak Obama dodge the Vietnam draft at the age of nine? Of course not, but people believed it and it went viral anyway.
Don’t ever share a blog or article without viewing the original site and running a quick verification search to see what it’s all about. Often with satire sites, they are very up front about what they are, sometimes it takes a little deeper digging.