{"id":48628,"date":"2026-03-27T01:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T08:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=48628"},"modified":"2026-05-04T14:35:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T21:35:57","slug":"teach-critical-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/teach-critical-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Teach critical thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are failing in a battle we cannot afford to lose. Canadians and the world are trying, unsuccessfully, to control the spread of misinformation and disinformation at the source, policing online platforms, flagging content and regulating perpetrators.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This \u201csupply-side\u201d approach is fundamentally flawed. Information today moves too fast, too freely and too globally to ever be contained. Controlling what is produced is a losing battle. Our main hope is to vaccinate consumers of information against the pandemic of lies.<\/p>\n

In recent issues, the Independent<\/i> has reported on steps being taken by the provincial and federal governments to police boundaries (for example, provincial legislation that would create \u201cbubble zones\u201d around religious institutions) and strengthening hate crime laws (the federal government\u2019s Bill C-9). These are deeply necessary and well-intentioned steps.<\/p>\n

They are also like plugging a collapsing dike.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the immediate term, we need to police speech that is hateful and potentially violent. In the longer term, we need to educate citizens to differentiate between truth and lies so they are less susceptible to bigoted ideas and misinformation. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

B\u2019nai Brith Canada has launched a national digital literacy campaign that is timely and necessary. (Click here for story<\/a>.) Even this initiative, though, should go further. Digital literacy alone is not enough. Canadians \u2013 and people everywhere \u2013 require a much broader foundation in critical thinking and media consumption. They need to know not just how to use digital tools, but how to question and critique all manner of information: how to evaluate sources, how to distinguish fact from fiction, commentary from reporting, propaganda from legitimate information.<\/p>\n

If individuals are equipped to interrogate what they see \u2013 if they instinctively ask, \u201cWho created this? Why? What evidence supports it? What motivations might the creator have beyond informing me?\u201d \u2013 then misinformation loses some of its power. It stops spreading, not because it has been removed, but because it has been assessed and rejected by its targets.<\/p>\n

Importantly, this is not just about young people, though teaching students these skills early is essential. Misinformation does not discriminate by age, and neither should our response. In many cases, older generations, who did not grow up in a digital environment, are even more susceptible.<\/p>\n

The world is experiencing a tsunami of information. Everything \u2013 everything<\/i> \u2013 depends on the ability of each of us to navigate these surging waters. If people cannot tell what is real, they cannot make informed decisions or vote responsibly. If they cannot distinguish truth from manipulation, democracy itself erodes.<\/p>\n

This is especially relevant right now to Jewish Canadians, who are deeply concerned by surging antisemitism and antizionism. We are wringing our hands over how to successfully confront this crisis. If we can train people to identify misinformation, propaganda and assorted falsehoods and conspiracies, the Jew-hatred problem may not entirely resolve itself. Those steps would, however, almost certainly be the most effective and enduring contemporary response to an ancient and enduring bigotry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A society that can think critically is a society that is less easily misled. And, in today\u2019s world, that may be the most important skill of all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are failing in a battle we cannot afford to lose. Canadians and the world are trying, unsuccessfully, to control the spread of misinformation and disinformation at the source, policing online platforms, flagging content and regulating perpetrators.\u00a0 This \u201csupply-side\u201d approach is fundamentally flawed. Information today moves too fast, too freely and too globally to ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[801,24645,755,24738,21543,3076,1887,8558,19919],"class_list":["post-48628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-ji","tag-antisemitism","tag-antizionism","tag-bnai-brith-canada","tag-digital-literacy","tag-disinformation","tag-education","tag-internet","tag-misinformation","tag-online-hate"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}